“Hailing from Toronto, avant-garde venue regular Jess Dobkin performs, curates, awes, and sparkles. Her explicit humor-infused art uses the body as a medium and takes plenty liberty with it… Unclench your inhibitions.” – 10 Contemporary Performance Artists You Should Know

Trickier, perhaps is to ponder one’s own prejudices after a chat with the artist, whose friendly, thoughtful manner belies the stereotype of the shrill shockaholic. It’s exactly that sense of the unexpected, and the disquiet that can accompany it, that drives Ms. Dobkin’s work.”

  • Anthony Reinhart The Globe and Mail

“Her Attending bathroom performance during the last Toronto International Art Fair vexed security officers, The Lactation Station Breast Milk Bar stirred media frenzy, and the Vagina Dentata during Nuit Blanche was nothing short of amazing. It is not shock art, it’s an intelligent discourse on women’s bodies and public space.”

  • Best of Toronto – Best Performance Artist, Jess Dobkin NOW Toronto

“But the performance that stood out was Jess Dobkin’s… It was so unexpected and so brilliant yet done with such pathos, a finely tuned combination of the comic and the tragic that tickled the audience to tears.”

  • Leila Peacock Dfdanse

“Enchantment of a curious sort is almost guaranteed…the intriguing Toronto performance artist uses the themes and devices of abracadabra and ritual to explore the transformative power of art on trauma.”

“If performance art is what you’re after, don’t miss Jess Dobkin’s performance piece about performance art at The Images Festival. Before you turn up your nose – the press release contains art jokes. (“Q: How Many Performance Artists Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb? A: I don’t know. I left after 4 hours.”) – The Top 10 art shows in Toronto for Spring 2015,

  • Aubrey Jax, blogTO

“Jess Dobkin is famous for putting things in her vagina. The performance maker’s unique brand of comedic body art has been enamouring Toronto audiences since she arrived here more than a decade ago by way of New York. While her pussy-oriented projects tend to get the most attention, it’s probably her work as a community organizer that’s had the greatest impact. Dobkin is endlessly dedicated to creating spaces for other cultural workers to present, exchange and commune.”

  • Chris Dupuis, Daily Xtra

“Jess Dobkin has earned acclaim for her boundary-pushing performance work, drawing from queer identity, personal narrative, and the female body.”

“Jess Dobkin is infinitely watchable. Some of [The Magic Hour] is beautiful and all of it expertly presented by Dobkin, whose body work is superb and who goes from deadpan to animated, sometimes in disturbing ways.”

  • Susan G. Cole, NOW Magazine

“The Magic Hour, created and performed by Jess Dobkin, is nothing less than pure delight from beginning to end…each moment is engaging, and beautiful… Dobkin creates a space in which we can marvel at things without needing to explain them, creating a world in which we are allowed to simply experience that wonder and delight.”

“Jess Dobkin truly delights her audiences while simultaneously challenging them…using her body as the primary foundation from which to investigate very difficult and yet still universal themes. Part of the magic of her works lies in her ability to explore difficult themes through this very personal lens. Using giddy imagery and her profound sense of humour as the platform from which to investigate demanding subject matter, makes her work accessible yet still extremely challenging.”

“Once you become open to the messages in her work, you feel the pleasure and privilege of someone’s commitment to sharing vulnerability and to the healing power of silliness.”

  • Sasha, NOW Magazine

“In truth, you have no choice but to love Jess Dobkin. A Toronto-based performance artist with a wicked sense of humour, strong social conscience, and what must be a left brain the size of Manitoba, Dobkin has dazzled audiences across North America.”

  • Mariko Tamaki, Kiss Machine