Drawing Truth in the Theater of Power

 

In her ongoing series of courtroom sketches, multidisciplinary artist Jarva Land confronts the spectacle of political trials not as mere documentation, but as a visceral inquiry into image, influence, and the shifting architecture of truth. Her practice began during the 2021 Ghislaine Maxwell trial and has since expanded into a determined pursuit through the trials of Donald Trump, Kevin Spacey, and others who personify celebrity justice.

 

Jarva Land occupies the periphery of the media circus, working not for broadcast but for the integrity of her own gaze. From a wooden pew or an overnight vigil on the sidewalk, she renders faces in black ink and annotates them with fragments of trial transcripts—each drawing a fragment of a larger, murkier truth. Her portraits are often unflattering, even surreal: Trump appears not as an icon of dominance but as a deflated figure, slumped and diminished, his persona as outsized as his physical presence is evasive.

 

Eschewing both caricature and journalistic neutrality, Jarva Land’s work is grounded in skepticism—particularly of media narratives shaped by power. “Strategy and manipulation” are the threads she follows, reading faces and courtroom performances for betrayals of intent. What emerges is a kind of nonfiction graphic novel, sketched live beneath fluorescent lights and surveillance.

 

In Jarva Land’s world, the courtroom is not a place where truth is revealed, but where it is fought for—one sketch, one brow, one penstroke at a time.