Jessica Gandolf was born in New York and currently lives in Portland, Maine. She is an oil painter whose work focuses on the way geometric abstraction interacts with the human torso. She is interested in how both a painting, and a body can function as a container for energy, emotion, and spirit. She has exhibited across the country and at several venues internationally.
She received her B.A. from Oberlin College and her M.F.A from Brooklyn College. She has received a National Endowment of the Arts Regional Fellowship in painting and has had residencies at The Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, Hewnoaks, Cummington, and MacDowell. Gandolf has taught in the art departments at Bates and Bowdoin colleges.
While at MacDowell in 2022, she completed 12 oil paintings. Starting with free form geometric color blocks, she became interested in the spontaneous interplay of the three-dimensional corporeality of a torso with the flat shapes and nonrepresentational color on the surface. The figures functioned as sentinels - guardians of the heart, home, and spirit.
