Jessica Taylor Bellamy (b. 1992, Whittier, US) is, first and foremost, a Southern Californian artist. The imagery and themes of apocalypse present in her canvases stem from a childhood in Los Angeles County, surrounded by freeways, copies of the LA Times, and wildfires in the hills. Bellamy’s canvases speak to these conflagrations, both literal and personal: her palettes suggest an eternal sunset, bright burning reds, pale fiery oranges and pink; Local newspapers are pulped and turned into shapes that suggest a rising point of flame; Palm trees spontaneously combust in front of your eyes. Despite this apocalyptic imagery, Bellamy’s playfulness, her dreamlike and poetic scenes, posit a way around California’s seemingly predestined fate. Her work uses a visual language that is deeply familiar, but, in finding beauty, heroism, and survival amidst a landscape we have been told since birth was doomed to burn away or fall into the sea.
Bellamy received a B.A. in Political Science from USC in 2014 and is an MFA candidate at USC Roski School of Fine Arts. Her work has been shown at Make Room Los Angeles, Superimposition Gallery, and Miami Art Week. She lives and works in Los Angeles.