Established 2017, Bay Area, CA
Located on the outskirts of Santa Fe in the Eldorado-Lamy area, we offer rotating exhibitions, artist residencies and an annual invitation-only artist collective.
Our exhibition program focuses on contemporary works and includes rotating curated group and solo exhibitions from emerging and mid-career artists, resident artist exhibitions and art fairs.
The gallery focuses first and foremost on our past resident artists and artists often overlooked due to age or gender.
Our Story
Jen Tough Gallery began in the Bay Area of California in 2017, and after three exciting years we made the leap to Santa Fe, NM. Our plans to open a gallery on Old Santa Fe Trail in April 2020 were derailed just weeks before opening, when COVID shutdowns forced us—and so many others—to close before we ever opened our doors. Overnight, our savings were gone, our space lost, and our dreams put on hold.
It would take three years of reinvention and resilience before we could bring that dream back to life. While our brick and mortar was closed, we focused on The Artist Alliance, an online artist community with exhibitions, challenges and online (“stay-in-place“) residencies, designed for the COVID era.
In May 2023, we quietly opened the doors to a new kind of gallery—an unexpected transformation of an office building on the edge of Santa Fe, reimagined as exhibition space and intimate artist studios. This unique setting is not just a gallery; it is a carefully curated experience for artists and collectors who value authenticity and connection.
The centerpiece of our new space is our residency program, where each artist is hand-selected and welcomed into an environment designed for deep focus and visibility. Artists from around the world travel here to work in solitude, connect with a small cohort of peers, and share their vision in one of our Resident Artist Exhibitions.
Our gallery has always been about more than walls and artwork—it’s about creating a rare space where artists are truly seen and supported. After years of perseverance, we’ve built something intentionally small, deliberately personal, and quietly extraordinary. We hope you join us.
About Jen Tough
Jen Tough is the founder and director of Jen Tough Gallery in Santa Fe, recognized for her discerning eye and ability to identify emerging artists before they gain wider recognition. With a BFA in Fine Arts and a creative career spanning both the studio and commercial worlds, she brings a rare combination of creative vision and industry expertise to her curatorial and artist advisement work.
Before establishing the gallery, Jen built a notable career starting in Los Angeles as the Art Director for Warner Bros. Records (Warner Music), Urban Outfitters (corporate, Philadelphia), Hollywood Records (Disney Music), and several influential ’90s magazines (Raygun Publishing, Bleach, Lava). As a sought-after creative, she also designed and art directed numerous retail campaigns for Nike (Image Design) as well as various creative collaborations with comedian Drew Carey spanning 25+ years.
Today, she curates exhibitions with conceptual rigor and originality while directing the gallery’s highly selective artist residency program and artist collective. Her philosophy is simple yet uncompromising: to create an exclusive space where artists are truly seen, and where collectors encounter work that challenges, inspires, and endures.
Press & Media
TedX Marin 2020 Featured Innovator for the Artist Alliance online community
Eric Trules’: Santa Fe substack
Greet Magazine
Stroll Magazine
Interview on KKOB Radio (Interspecies exhibit)
Exhibitions
Jen Tough Gallery, Santa Fe, NM (partial list)
Collect Them All: Small Works & Prints October 2025
Wild August 2025
Resident Artist Exhibition 2025 June 2025
Jill Haas Nov 2024
Alissa Van Atta Oct 2024
Hilary Sheehan Oct 2024
Beverly Todd Sept - Oct 2024
Liz Steketee, Sept - Nov 2024
Claudia Hollister, August 2024
Interspecies, a Save the Chimps Benefit Exhibition, July 2024
Graceann Warn, June 2024
Danielle Krysa / The Jealous Curator: Witch, Please, May 2024
Pavel Acevedo, May 2024
Alexis Mixter, solo exhibition, May 2024
Laura Balombini: Spring Cleaning, March 2024
William Pura, Night Roads & Other Landscapes, March 2024
Laura Klopfenstein: Dissecting, Feb 2024
Super Fresh: New Work Right off the Studio Wall (Lower Gallery, Feb 2024)
High & Dry: New Mexico Artists (Lower Gallery, Nov & Dec 2023)
Rhenda Sapporito, solo exhibition (Nov & Dec 2023)
Gina Tuzzi: Wild Seed (Lower Gallery, October 2023)
Pam Sullivan, solo exhibition (Sept 2023)
Sarah Boyts Yoder: Realm (Lower Gallery, September 2023)
Sharon Brush, solo exhibition (August 2023)
Spring 2023 Collective Exhibition (Upper Gallery, June + July 2023)
DeAnne Olguin Williamson, solo exhibition, July 2023
Autumn 2023 Collective Exhibition (Upper Gallery, July - December 2023)
The Bright Side, group exhibition (Lower Gallery, August 2023)
Kathleen Mooney, solo exhibition (May-June 2023)
Fable: Art with Narrative (Lower Gallery, June + July 2023)
Jen Tough Gallery, Bay Area, CA (partial list)
Wax: Artists working in Encaustic, group exhibition, March 2017
California, group exhibition, 2017
Lisa Kairos solo exhibition, 2017
California Printmakers Society Show, 2017
Earthly Evidence: Carol Dalton, Mark Eanes, Michael Shemchuk, 2017
Guilty Pleasures, group exhibition, 2017
Gina Tuzzi, solo exhibition 1, 2017
Strange Nature, group exhibition, 2017
Stacks of Facts, Jeff Snell solo exhibition, 2017
Something Catches, Erin Wheeler solo exhibition, 2018
Lisa Pressman, solo exhibition, 2018
Tangential, Ridj Johnson, Jenny Phillips, Mark Ashworth, 2018
Susan Stover, solo exhibition, 2018
You and Your Big Ideas: Suzanne Long solo exhibition 2018
Ancestral Convergence, Diane Williams & Chuck Potter, 2018
Hell’s Valley, Tamera Avery solo exhibition, 2018
Mark Ashworth solo exhibition, 2019
Learning Curve, students of Michael Shemchuk, 2019
Flora & Fauna, call for entry exhibition, 2019
Sara Post, solo exhibition, 2019
Sugar High, group exhibition, 2019
John Yoyogi Fortes, solo exhibition, 2019
Pulp: Works on Paper, group exhibition, 2019
Gina Tuzzi, second solo exhibition 2019
Michael Shemchuk, solo exhibition, 2019
Carol Dalton, solo exhibition, 2019
Extra Crispy, group exhibition, 2019
Kate Kretz, solo exhibition, pop up 2018
Women in the Abstract, I, II (2017-2019)
Art Fairs
Art Market San Francisco 2019
Artexpo NY 2023
Red Dot Miami (Art Basel Week) 2022, 2023
Art Expo Dallas, 2022
Art Santa Fe 2018, 2019, 2023
Art Expo Las Vegas 2018
Art San Diego, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023
LA Art Show, Jan 2026
PopUp Exhibitions: Dogpatch, San Francisco
New Lands, group exhibition (2018)
Wild Things, group exhibition (2019)
Kate Kretz solo exhibition (2019)
The Ladies Room
Produced and created by Jen Tough. Juror: Danielle Krysa (The Jealous Curator), San Francisco 2018
Juror, Curator
Nominator: Heinz Foundation Award, a $250K annual award for visual artists
Juror, national exhibitions: Marin MOCA, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Marin Society of Artists, Arc Gallery and more
Curator: Jamie Madison at the Pence | Rebecca Katz solo exhibition | Arts Benicia, After Dark
Awards
Bay Area "Art Star" Issued by NCWCA (Northern California Women's Caucus for Art), Sept 2019
AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Justified competition for book design and art direction, 2014
Named "Designer to Watch for the 2000's” / Issued by David Carson in Metropolis Magazine, 1999
Best of Editorial Design, Communication Arts Design Annual, design and art direction of Bleach Magazine, 1997
Jen Tough Gallery Books & Contemporary Artist Magazine
Identity (catalog, cancelled COVID exhibition), 2020
Wild Lands, 2021
Fun Size, 2021
Artists of the Bay Area, Vols 1 and 2, 2021
Contemporary Artist magazine, 3 issues to date, created and published by Jen Tough Gallery, LLC