Jessica Brilli
JessICA Brilli
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"By painting the past,
I stay rooted in the present."
- Jessica Brilli
Biography
Photo by Peter Gumaska
ABOUT THE ARTIST
American artist Jessica Brilli earned her BFA in painting from the University of Rhode Island and a certificate in graphic design from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. While building a successful career as a graphic designer at Harvard University for nearly 20 years, she remained dedicated to her painting practice. In 2021, she shifted her focus entirely to painting full-time and has since garnered significant recognition for her work.
Her style is reminiscent of 20th century American Realism and graphic design, depicting modernist lines and American iconography from the 50s, 60s and 70s. Revealing beauty in the everyday, her subjects tend to be buildings, objects, cars, pools and sometimes people, nondescript characters who populate the scenes like part of the landscape. Brilli’s work is about suburban life, echoing her childhood in the North East of the US, in Long Island. Ambiguous in location, the paintings allow the viewer to insert themselves in the narrative, permuting these memories to their own. Having resonated with Edward Hopper’s work from a young age, her work is heavily influenced by his solitary urban landscapes, permeating both artists’ work with a feeling of introspective romance.
Brilli’s practice is based on photographic slides the artist finds in antique shops, yard sales and thrift stores, skimming through thousands until one speaks to her own story. Her color palette mimics the natural degradation of film, masking the original colours in yellow and brown overtones. The artist aims to explore the effects of colour on our collective memory.
Jessica Brilli’s work has been included in various publications and showcased in both physical and online venues, across the US and internationally. In 2021, the artist was awarded a renowned Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and shown for the first time with the gallery in 2023.
Selected Works
My most recent body of work was inspired by 35mm Kodachrome slides and generations-old photographs that were gathered from locations across the United States. Through my experience of painting and sharing these photos, I have found that there is something inherent in them that speaks to many Americans, whether it be a photo taken at a pool party in 1965 or of someone’s mother standing in front of the family car—we insert our own lives into these scenes from the past.
I view thousands of slides and photos to find the ones that move me emotionally. I’m constantly on the hunt for photos that mirror scenes from my childhood, or that I feel a connection to through personal or familial experience.
The suburban scenes I paint reflect my own childhood in New York on Long Island. The cars proudly displayed on driveways, the meticulously manicured lawns, inviting neighbor’s pools, and 1960’s architecture were the backdrop of my youth. Though I don’t live in this setting anymore, I still feel a significant connection to it.
This process of photographic research, and painting the essential scenic components, is very personal. I’ve realized, however, that my experiences are part of a common thread that many Americans share regardless of age, race and gender. The images that produce a flood of involuntary memories for me often evoke similar cascades of feelings and thoughts in others. Why is this?
Another angle I’m interested in exploring is the effect of color on memory. When looking at vintage photography, I see the color as a built-in time stamp. Different types of film age in various ways because of unstable color dyes—the faded color scheme adds a Gestalt effect that evokes these nostalgic feelings. The photographs that inspire me act as my window to the past, and in my own case these photos color my impression of the past. Through these paintings I’m engaging with the past, and bringing along the viewer for the ride.
