Jessica Webster
Biography, Philosophy, and Artistic Independence
Jessica Webster (b.1981) is an established artist in the South African art scene. Over the past 15 years, she has held seven solo exhibitions, including three critically acclaimed shows with the Goodman Gallery. Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, reviewed in prominent publications like Artthrob and the Sunday Times (SA), and is held in private and public collections in South Africa and the United States, including the Johannesburg Art Gallery, The Scheryn Collection, and The Jorge M. and Darlene Pérez Collection.
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Crystal Chambers no. 12 (Waterloo Croc) 2020
Artistic Focus and Vision
Jessica Webster is an established South African artist dedicated to exploring the depths of human experience through the intimate medium of painting and the visceral power of expressive mark-making. Her journey is marked by academic rigour (including a PhD in Aesthetic Philosophy and Psychoanalysis) and strong personal resilience, leading her to forge a path as an independent artist. Webster moves beyond the confines of the traditional art world to build direct connections, offering art that is both sensually charged and psychologically rich.
Life Story
A Journey of Resilience and Transformation
Webster’s artistic intentions are rooted in a lifetime of exploration, academic inquiry, and deeply personal lived experiences. Her journey began with an early immersion in Fine Arts in Cape Town, where her award-winning undergraduate work signalled a foundational interest in sensual, visceral depictions of the corporeal body.
This path was irrevocably altered by a violent, life-changing event in 2006—an armed robbery that left Webster permanently paralysed. This trauma became a powerful catalyst, propelling her into an MFA and then a PhD in aesthetic philosophy and psychoanalysis. This period of intense focus provided Webster with an unparalleled depth of understanding into the human psyche, the nuances of embodied experience, and the profound capacity of art to articulate what often lies beyond words.
Firm Light III 2025
Current Practice
Reclaiming the Body: Miniature Format and Expressive Mark-Making
Webster’s new paintings, rendered with expressive mark-making and vivid colour washes, represent a conscious and powerful evolution. It is an act of reclaiming agency and sensuality on personal terms, transforming the narrative of bodily trauma into one of pleasure, intimacy, and potent life force.
The miniature format she paints in is intentional: it demands close, intimate engagement, bypassing the detached intellectualism of larger public art spaces. Webster’s expressive mark-making is the unfiltered conduit for this intimacy, conveying the raw, profound, and even humorous aspects of emotional and sensual experience. This current body of work is its healing made manifest, an embrace of the erotic as an integral, vibrant aspect of the complete human experience, especially in a South African context.
The Rigour of Colour and Form
In Webster’s artistic practice, the square format serves as a foundational element, intentionally challenging conventional notions of time and viewing. Unlike formats that encourage depth or linear narrative, the square demands an instantaneous engagement, yet pulls the eye across and into the surface by a unique logic. This approach creates a charged tension between structure and organic forms, exploring the balance between actively "looking at" and passively "reading" artistic form.
A potent lineage deeply informs Jessica’s use of colour and form in art history, yet she allows the spontaneous act of painting to guide her. She attributes finding this tension to the close mentorship she received from acclaimed South African painter Penny Siopis, whose strong focus on the psychologies of materiality has been a springboard and a continued inspiration.
Ultimately, the interplay of bold colour assertions, soft washes, and texture creates charged tensions, inviting viewers into an immediate and deeply felt experience of sensual and psychological narratives.
Reclaiming the Body: Miniature Format and Expressive Mark-Making
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Candycrush no. 81 (Cluster) 2020
Artistic Lineage and Influences
Certain historical painters remain significant influences for Webster’s practice. Influenced by Modernist Colour Field painters (Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis) and Gerhard Richter, Webster employs pure, unmixed colours in a "soak-stain" technique. This allows colour to breathe and become brilliantly integral to the surface, translating into a sensuous ambiguity in depicting flesh, suggesting movement and the ephemeral nature of sensation
The Figural Lineage
The rendering of the nude form is profoundly shaped by artists who explore its psychological and structural dimensions. Webster draws from the emotionally charged lines of Marlene Dumas and Penny Siopis, the volume and intimacy of Rembrandt's light, and Cézanne's use of colourful gestures to construct figures within ethereal atmospheres.
Dynamic Form
William Kentridge's figures, often in states of flux, inspire a dynamic approach to form where the body is not fixed but a site of continuous becoming, mirroring the fluidity of human experience.
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Candycrush no. 102 (Torso as Stamen, Jellied) 2020
Firm Light III 2025
Identity & Philosophy
Radical Independence and Universal Lure
Webster’s work is deeply intertwined with a rebellious spirit and a commitment to radical independence. Having navigated both academia and the established art industry, she prioritises genuine human connection over conformity. Her 'empire' is built on the conviction that erotic art by a woman living with a disability is inherently liberating in South Africa, challenging norms and asserting the universality of desire.
The transformation of her miniature paintings into acrylic and aluminium prints anchors the original intimate qualities of her small-scale work, ensuring that the command for close engagement and sensual allure is conveyed across all contemporary media.
2024
‘n Perd Sonder ‘n Naam, Momentum Beleggings Aardklop, Potchefstoom, South Africa
2024
Safe Words, Mulberry Gallery, Greyton, Western Cape, South Africa
2020
A Horse with No Name, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2017
Wisteria, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2015
“Murderer”, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2012
Mainly Benoni, Nirox Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2010
Original Skin, David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa
2009
I knew you in this dark, David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa
Past Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
Blink, Mezzanine
2024
Googly Eyes, Gallery 2, Johannesburg, South Africa
2020
The Highway Notice Project, Center for the Less Good Idea, Johannesburg, South Africa
2017
Curator of Emerging Artists, Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg
2016
Summer Show, Goodman Gallery Cape Town, South Africa
2016
New Revolutions, Goodman Gallery Cape Town, South Africa
2016
Curiositas, AGOG Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2016
Inch x Inch, David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa
2015
Office Party, Twilsharp Studios, Johannesburg, South Africa
2014
Fortunes Remixed, Bag Factory Touring Exhibition, South Africa
2014
The Painter’s Show, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013
[WORKING TITLE] Catalogue Launch, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013
ZOO, Nirox Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa
2012
Our House: Satellite Spaces/Untitled, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg
2010
DKW Monotype Project, DKW gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2010
JAG Contemporary Collection, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
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Candycrush no. 7 (Pink Lumo Vines) 2020
Reviews
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Candycrush no. 7 (Pink Lumo Vines) 2020
