Jena Argenta is a visual artist, writer, and cultural entrepreneur whose interdisciplinary practice brings calligraphy into dialogue with social sculpture. Her work examines communication, identity, and the collective formation of relationships, connecting social justice, community-centered enterprise, multisensory semiotics, healing practices, and global calligraphic traditions. She holds a BA in (Post)colonial Studies from Sarah Lawrence College and apprenticed in Thuluth-style Arabic calligraphy with Elinor Aishah Holland in New York and Ahmet Bursali in Istanbul.

Jena’s work has been commissioned nationally and internationally, and her kimono design was presented at the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music in Morocco. Her solo exhibitions include presentations at the Wallkill River Center for the Arts and the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice. She has authored and illustrated six commissioned art instruction books, including Chinese Brush Techniques, Contemporary Calligraphy, and The Art of the Scribble. Jena was a 2020 writer-in-residence at The Poetry Barn, and her project How Do You Write a Love Letter in American Ink? received a 2024 Arts Mid-Hudson regrant. Her direction of the Orange County Arts Council’s 2025 Sustainable Arts Program contributed to a $35,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant. A graduate of Leadership Orange, she is currently Artist-in-Residence at Goshen Green Farm. Her current project, Invisible Manuscripts, is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, the Office of the Governor, and the New York State Legislature.