Jessica Watts

Once an advertising art director, Jessica has amassed a collection of vintage printed ephemera which she revives in her artwork. She paints predominantly in oils but her art is rooted in collage.
Her collection of 1940’s and 1950’s wallpaper is the inspiration for her series of work “Wallflower”. The series is an exploration into feminine identity: in particular, how appearances relate to the inner self.
It started with a question: What happens to a woman’s identity when you strip away the male gaze? Is a wall flower the one who shrinks into the background and becomes invisible...Or is she something that emerges from the wall, opening, blossoming, divulging her secrets?
"Like meditative chanting, Watts’ paintings evoke mindfulness. Each artwork has a harmonic and sensory value that parallels the stillness of a garden. The artist’s repetitive working and re-working of her themes of wallpaper, the female body, flowers, and birds is like a personal mantra.
I have found an awakening in these paintings that I think others will recognise".
Richard Blundell October 2015
Richard Blundell FDIA Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University

Bachelor of Design, First Class Hons + University Medal,
University of Technology Sydney

St Martins School of Art,
Scholarship exchange program

I exhibit extensively across Australia and internationally.
Recent select shows as follows:

March 2017
"First Impressions" Solo Show
Bunkamura Gallery Tokyo Japan

SOLO SHOWS
2016 | Happy Place, Colour Trap Gallery, Sydney NSW
2016 | June Solo, Art Obsession, Tokyo JAPAN
2016 | Spring Fancy, Shibuya Seibu Art Gallery, Tokyo JAPAN
2015 | Debutante, 19 Karen Contemporary Artspace, QLD
2015 | The Nature Of It, Artspot, Sydney, NSW
2013 | Spring Thing, Manly Art Festival, Sydney NSW
2012 | When Pluto Was A Planet, Artspot, Sydney, NSW
2012 | The Boys and The Birds, Sydney Art Expo, Sydney, NSW
2011 | Long Days, Balmy Nights, ArtZpace, Sydney, NSW

SELECT GROUP SHOWS
2016 | Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Retrospect Galleries, NSW
2016 | AAF Hong Kong, Lans Gallery, HONG KONG
2016 | Flowers, Art Obsession Inc, Fukuoka JAPAN
2015 | Saltwater, Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Sydney NSW
2015 | AAF Hamburg, Retrospect Planet, HAMBURG
2015 | AAF Stockholm, Retrospect Planet, SWEDEN
2015 | Red, An Expressionism Group Show, 19 Karen Contemporary Artspace, QLD
2015 | AAF London, Retrospect Planet, LONDON
2014 | AAF Singapore, Retrospect Planet, SINGAPORE
2014 | Small Works, Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy Melbou...