Spotlight Artist

Jessica Halonen

Artist profile photo

Weather (Kanazawa Window 1)

Abstract painting with gray tones and streaks, resembling rain on a window.

oil on linen

Specimen 41 & 42 (bouquets and marble)

Blue patterned paper over striped floral wallpaper background

acrylic on panel

Wallpaper 69 (landscape

Abstract green shape over a striped purple and gray background with green vertical lines.

acrylic on panel

Featured in New American Paintings1 / 3

Artist Statement

 Jessica Halonen conducts extensive research for her works, delving into the intersections between art, science, and history. She has engaged with topics that include genetic engineering in the pharmaceutical industry and the historical and metaphorical implications of the color blue. Her new paintings, which fuse abstraction and trompe l’oeil, are informed by a collection of toxic wallpaper samples published by the Michigan State Board of Health in 1874. The book warns of the hazardous particulate matter shed by these decorative papers that were printed with lead- and arsenic-based pigments typical of the time.

Jessica Halonen was featured in these issues

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