artist statement

Jess de Zilva takes our confusion and doubts, then mirrors them back at us as painted stories. In her oil paintings she combines figures’ poses and expressions, backdrops and symbolic objects, creating psychological allegories that have the viewer wondering what is going on.

De Zilva describes her paintings as psychological realism: “I’m interested in what underpins our actions and thoughts, how context influence us. My paintings thus can be visually dreamlike, but the feelings they express are dead real. I paint in a realist manner to bring a sense of reality and seriousness to a subject that cannot be seen nor touched and is difficult to describe.”

The painted figures are portraits of real people, yet the stories are not about specific people; the artist hopes that everyone recognises a little of themself in the work.