Jessica Damen's narrative magical realist artworks have been seen throughout the United States. Dubbed the “Lewis Carroll of Baltimore” by renowned artist, Grace Hartigan, Damen graduated from the Hoffberger School of Painting, MICA in 2001. Upon receiving her MFA, she was awarded a full resident fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, by Elizabeth Turner, then Chief Curator at the Phillips Collection, Washington DC. She has won awards from Jay Fisher, Senior Curator of the Baltimore Museum of Art and Joann Moser, Senior Curator of Graphic Arts, National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC, among other respected curators. Damen’s paintings have been selected for invitational shows at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art and the Maryland Art Place. Since 1999 she has had regular solo exhibitions at commercial and alternative galleries throughout the Washington DC – Baltimore Metropolitan region.
Damen’s work is found in private and public collections including:
• IIT Research Institute of Fairfax, VA
• Sunwest Communications, Inc., Dallas TX
• Peter J. Sharp Foundation, NY, NY
• United States Department of State, Art in Embassies Program, 1990-1994
• Zuckerman, Spaeder, Goldstein, Taylor & Kolker, Vienna, VA