Jessica Cannon was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1979. She studied Psychology and English at Tufts University and received her MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons The New School for Design. Her work has been exhibited at The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Tinlark Gallery, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Jessica currently teaches drawing and visual studies at Parsons The New School for Design.
Jessica Cannon’s paintings explore a psychological landscape that contains personal and cultural experiences. She is interested in the conflict between ‘fight or flight’ as competing impulses in response to chaotic events: do we engage with the issues that overwhelm us or seek escape through physical or fantastical experience? Many of the paintings are set in a moment of suspension where the viewer is simultaneously apart from but witness to an event. Something is happening in the distance and turning away may no longer be an option.
Jessica’s process involves collecting source materials and piecing elements together to create a study. This collaged study acts as a rough outline for the painting, which is then rendered through thin layers of acrylic paint on paper. While the paintings are informed by studies the finished work is a product of translation, an idea re-envisioned through material and imagination.
