Portrait of Jessica, photo by Shark Senesac

Jessica Westhafer (b. 1990, Denver, CO) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA from the University of Arkansas in 2014 and her MFA in Painting from Indiana University in 2020. Using a deceptively playful form of figuration, Westhafer explores psychosocial experiences. Westhafer’s imagery taps into memory and sentiment in order “to invent, reimagine, immortalize and even create” idealized or fictitious narratives. These “surrogate scenes of time and place” arouse feelings of vulnerability through which she invites viewers to revisit their own histories. While very specific in its choice of subject matter and detail, her art captures ineffable aspects of early formative experiences that are universal.

JESSICA WESTHAFER Partial Installation. SOMEWHERE THAT’S GREEN NOVEMBER 9, 2022 - JANUARY 7, 2023. Photo: Shark Senesac.

Jessica Westhafer Always & Forever, 2022 Oil and watercolor on canvas 44 x 108 inches (111.8 x 274.3 cm) © Jessica Westhafer; Photo by Shark Senesac; Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Gallery

Jessica Westhafer Bubble Wand, 2022 Oil, watercolor, and glass on canvas 80 x 90 inches (203.2 x 228.6 cm) © Jessica Westhafer; Photo by Shark Senesac; Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Gallery

Jessica Westhafer 7th Period Science Class, 2022 Oil on canvas 84 x 72 inches (213.4 x 182.9 cm) © Jessica Westhafer; Photo by Shark Senesac; Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Gallery