Jessica Keiser currently resides in New Haven, Connecticut. Keiser's style is Naturalistic, concerned with the intimacy of the creation of the portrait. Flying in the face of art Modernists, her work is immersed in the traditional and devoid of irony or commentary. Keiser's expertly rendered portraits highlight the axiomatic truth that much of the interior lives of the people we encounter in our daily lives are inaccessible and fundamentally enigmatic. Therefore, the viewer is driven to assign a particular narrative or an assumed persona to the subject, facilitating an alluring and vivid illusion. The result is decidedly emotionally evocative, an homage to the hours of observation and methodical recording that Keiser undertakes in her creative process.
Jessica Keiser studied drawing and painting at the Florence Academy of Art, and then briefly at the University of Missouri, Columbia. After two years in the MFA program at MU, she decided to switch paths and pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Yale University, where she is writing a dissertation the philosophy of language. She periodically gives lectures on the philosophy of art at the US branch of the Florence Academy, and continues to make portraits during stolen time.
