Corrupted Landscapes: Works by Jess Hess

Artist Reception Saturday December 2nd 5pm – 8pm

Jessica Hess is a hyperreal painter who travels often to explore the urban landscape and seek out new subject matter. She received a BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003 and has been pursuing a fine art career ever since. Hess has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work can be found at many galleries including Bernay Fine Art in MA, Arch Enemy Arts in PA, and Mothbelly in SanFrancisco CA. Hess grew up in North Carolina, and also lived for years in Massachusetts and Rhode Island before heading west to California in 2009. She and her better half now own a creative commercial space in Oakland that houses her art studio in a former barber shop.

Exhibit Statement:

Utilizing classical painting techniques, Jessica Hess interrupts her hyperrealist landscapes with digital aesthetics. The alternative reality created in the works examines censorship, free speech and the pervasiveness of technology in everyday life. The tightly rendered paintings offer a hyperbolic and perfected version of the scene that extends beyond its reality – flora springs from barren land, idyllic clouds sway across blue skies, the environment takes on a deeper saturation and pixels obscure graffiti. The inclusion of pixelization within the work emphasizes the artist’s intervention within the scene while also asking the viewer to question “What is reality?”