Jessica Moritz
Jessica Moritz is a color field painter and installation artist who has exhibited extensively internationally in Tel Aviv, Rome, Venice, Berlin, New York, and São Paulo. Recent exhibitions include quintuple showings at Wertheimer Gallery in Tel Aviv, Bi-Box Artspace in Biella, Italy, and The Wall Space in Scotland. Jessica’s most notable publicized features include Writ House, New Voices, Elements of Art, and Artist Spotlight collections in the Saatchi Art catalogue, as well as a publication in Artfinder.
Typically executed on shaped canvases with salvaged wood, Jessica explores and expands color theory by creating optical illusions based in the manipulation of variations of color in geometric form. The paintings contain bright and neon colors carefully quieted down sometimes by the integration of muted neutral tones. Like relief sculptures or installations, the paintings are executed in protruding or flat shapes, creating a fusion and contrast between illusionary spaces against the physical reality of sculptural form.
Executed with intense precision, Jessica releases videos of her painting which shows a carefully marked grid indicating the separations of colors as she carefully glides the paint in patterned glazes, in order to create her signature subtle variations in tone. Much like a kaleidoscope, without the dizzying effects, Jessica’s paintings express lined forms of color being guided by the shape of the canvas or her personal desires. Her work can best be described as a manipulation of optics and reinterpretation of nature by using tropical tones laid out in a careful structure as opposed to displayed in the chaos of the natural world. The key concept within the works would be the construction of controlled environments, eliciting pleasure, as opposed to the chaos of natural physics.
Pattern as Figure (pictured above) is an installation of monochromatic orange being strategically and carefully outlined by neutral grays. Unlike many of her other works, Pattern as Figure contains flat depictions of color as opposed to her typical subtle variations. Despite depicting flat colors, the form remains her most sculptural work as various circles pop out from the wall in almost human-like behavior such as forming a book or creating a vehicle-like structure. Pattern as Figure remains a fascinating three-dimensional composition which derives strategic placement of flat paint protruding from the wall which integrates with the interior as opposed to hanging in a space.
Jessica Moritz can be described as an exciting artist who delves into the mysteries of color formations. As if she creates her own mythology around color theory, she forms internal structures which integrate and break from within. Through careful composure of profound colors, Jessica reignites passion for image-making and reveals how an artist such as herself can easily control color to bend upon the whims of her will.
