Jess Schwartz (b. 1986) is a West Coast-based artist. Her multimedia practice focuses on the relationship between humans and systems, specifically our roles in creating, perpetuating, and destroying systems. Humans create systems to organize the world, and Schwartz makes art to make sense of that world.
Although the word “system” evokes impersonality, Schwartz’s art asserts that systems are intimate reflections of the people who design and interact with them. She is interested in a wide range of systems, including language, social dynamics, spirituality, capitalism, feminism, and self-oriented systems (our physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual selves). Schwartz selects materials to express the essence of each project and often employs unconventional media and methods: drawing with ink-dipped twigs, painting on Tyvek, and gilding tampons with 24K gold leaf.
No matter the project, Schwartz's work prioritizes engaging with a deep curiosity about the intersection of humans and systems. For her, marinating in fascination and wonder over her questions is more important than declaring definitive answers.
How do we relate to our bodies, hearts, brains, and spirits? And how do those internal relationships inform our participation in outside systems?
How do people think and feel about their roles within external systems as creators consumers, perpetrators, victims, and bystanders?
How do people perceive their ability to exert control over systems, and what are the individual and collective implications of those beliefs?
Ultimately, Schwartz’s artistic explorations of these ideas seek to provoke new ways of seeing and experiencing ourselves, each other, and the universe.
Education
2009 | A.B. in Growth and Structure of Cities, Bryn Mawr College
2019 | Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Visual Arts, U.C. Berkeley Extension