Jessica is a London based visual artist and lecturer of Caribbean heritage, who was born and raised in New York.
For Jessica, her images exists as a continuous examination of how personal history, memory, surroundings, and experience come together to inform identity, and specifically, the experience of embodiment. Drawn to the stories of women, and the 'unseen,' within us, she attempts to observe the ways in which stifled identities have evolved as a result of their surroundings, exploring how the photographic process might foster empathy, reclamation, and freedom for the subject, the viewer, and the self.
With an emphasis on connection, her practice seeks to investigate the body – from both an interior and exterior perspective – in relation to its natural environment, as well as those and that which seeks to look, touch, engage, or connect with it. She endeavours to explore the question: when we reaffirm our power, and step into an authentic 'self-hood,' can we in turn manipulate the way in which the external world engages with our image, our bodies, and our stories?
The research that initiates each of her projects generally stems from spiritual, psychological, sociological or philosophical exploration, and is usually synthesised towards a variety of visual outcomes dependent on the natural course of the creative cycle, including photography, moving image, and the printed object. Through these mediums, she hopes to highlight a range of identities, offering perspective into the kaleidoscopic nature of human experience.
Her practice, which engages an amalgam of analogue and digital techniques, extends this obsessive desire towards a spiritual observance of the human condition in an effort to both capture the nuance of identity and foster said connection through the experience of creating imagery.Experimenting with colour, texture, and context, Jessica’s intimate images exist as a vessel for both the introduction and exploration of personal truths.
To date, she has won the British Journal of Photography’s International Photography Award, has been shortlisted for the 2021 Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award, and has had her work featured internationally, by Fisheye Magazine, The British Journal of Photography, Der Greif, The Guardian, It’s Nice That, and The Creative Review, among others.
Group Exhibitions
2024 Art of Color Dior: Photography and Visual Arts Award Retrospective - Kyotographie Festival, Kyoto, Japan 13.04.2024 - 12.05.2024
2023 Open Walls Arles - Galerie Huit Arles, Arles, France 05.07.2023 - 26.09.2023
2022 British Journal of Photography International Photography Award Single Image Show - Seen Fifteen Gallery, London, United Kingdom 18.11.2022 - 27.11.2022
2021 Art of Color Dior: Photography and Visual Arts Award Retrospective - Shenzen Museum of Contemporary Arts, Shenzen 26.09.2021 - 26.10.2021
2021 Commodities - The Molasses Gallery, London 22.07.2021 - 23.09.2021
2021 Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award - LUMA Foundaition, Arles, France 04.07.2021 - 26.09.2021
2021 Palm* Photo Prize - 10 14 Gallery, London, 20.05.2021 - 30.08.2021
2021 Der Greif Guest Room: Gem Fletcher ‘optimism and revolution-making’ (online)
2021 Der Greif Guest Room: Anna-Alix Koffi ‘Pleasing doesn't interest me...’ (online)
Awards
2023 Open Walls Arles Single Image - Arles, France
2022 British Journal of Photography International Photography Award Single Image - London, United Kingdom
2021 Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award (shortlist) - Arles, France
2021 Palm* Photo Prize (shortlist) - London, United Kingdom
Press
Fisheye #66
British Journal of Photography
Der Greif
It’s Nice That
British Journal of Photography
Der Greif
Vogue Poland
The Face
Creative Review
I-D Magazine
1 Granary
Clients
The Wire Magazine
Better World Fragrance House
OTTI World
Monologue London
Vogue International
jessica@jessicagianelli.com
+44 746 0743 127 (UK)
@femireal_