Jessica Watts
Jessica received a Bachelor of Design with Hons & the University Medal from the University of Technology Sydney before a long career working as a multi-award winning advertising art director, including working for a decade in New York. She has been a full time artist since 2010. In 2017 she co-founded Sydney Road Gallery. That same year she teamed up with Japanese art dealer Rocky Degawa and together they have staged many successful solo shows at the prestigious Bunkamura Gallery in Tokyo. Watts has exhibited extensively in Australia and abroad. She currently works from her loft studio in Dee Why with the assistance of Kevin, her wonky blue-eyed dog.
Artist Statement
Jessica Watts’ work explores modern femininity, merging nostalgia and empowerment through an inventive palette of artist oil, house paint and domestic materials. “Meet Me Poolside” is from her 2025 “Pool Party” Series. These paintings are underpinned by wallpaper and tiles—materials traditionally tied to notions of home. She transports her figurative subjects beyond the confines of traditional domesticity and into the outdoors. By situating her figures in open, natural settings, she breaks the boundaries of interior spaces, symbolically freeing her subjects to inhabit a world of possibility, self-discovery and joy.
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