Jessica Hargreaves
Jessica’s work represents the figure and its environment often employing animal imagery and allegory in counterpoint to depictions of quotidian, intimate, and fraught human experiences. Her work walks a tightrope between taste and kitsch, pathos and bathos, tragedy and comedy. Frequent themes explored in her work are the interplay of innocence, vulnerability, playfulness, and aggression, our search for connection, and our struggle with alienation.
Human instincts and desires fascinate her, particularly the way the human animal tends to distort the perception and projection of desire through layers of social and personal constraint and inhibition. The directness and honesty of animals’ behaviors in her work—sometimes sexual, brutal and violent, sometimes innocent, loving, and playful—brings into relief our convoluted and self-conscious psychological and emotional landscape. Her work is designed to evoke an initial response that is visceral and immediate—attraction, repulsion, recognition.
Jessica Hargreaves grew up in London, England. She has a BA in French language and literature from Liverpool University as well as a BA in Fashion and Textile Design from Central Saint Martins School of Art in London. In 2006 Hargreaves graduated from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago with an MFA in fine art. She now lives and …
Jessica’s work represents the figure and its environment often employing animal imagery and allegory in counterpoint to depictions of quotidian, intimate, and fraught human experiences. Her work walks a tightrope between taste and kitsch, pathos and bathos, tragedy and comedy. Frequent themes explored in her work are the interplay of innocence, vulnerability, playfulness, and aggression, our search for connection, and our struggle with alienation.
Human instincts and desires fascinate her, particularly the way the human animal tends to distort the perception and projection of desire through layers of social and personal constraint and inhibition. The directness and honesty of animals’ behaviors in her work—sometimes sexual, brutal and violent, sometimes innocent, loving, and playful—brings into relief our convoluted and self-conscious psychological and emotional landscape. Her work is designed to evoke an initial response that is visceral and immediate—attraction, repulsion, recognition.
Jessica Hargreaves grew up in London, England. She has a BA in French language and literature from Liverpool University as well as a BA in Fashion and Textile Design from Central Saint Martins School of Art in London. In 2006 Hargreaves graduated from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago with an MFA in fine art. She now lives and works in New York City.
Courtesy of Auxiliary Projects
