Artists

Jessica Ritchie, a Dunedin based artist, has a Master of Fine Arts (Distinction) from the Dunedin School of Art. Her practise is concerned with process, the explorations of the formal qualities of painting, and the expressive forces of colour, light, and materiality. She is a qualified Art and Music teacher.

Statement:

My paintings are a reflection upon the art of painting itself: abstract drawing from colour, light, and music. My work is concerned with process, with the exploration of the formal qualities of painting, and of the infinite possibilities of touch with paint. Located within the context of the field of abstract painting, the term abstraction is used in a questioning and provisional sense rather than as a categorising or labelling term; considering complexity rather than reduction. The paintings show the potential of abstract painting to communicate light and space. I am particularly interested in the discordant notion that a painting or thing might be two (or more) things at once, beautiful and grotesque, for example, or exuberant and abject.

Drawn to anything reflective, lustrous, iridescent, and saturated, my recent paintings have focussed on intensity and exuberance. On closer inspection many reveal themselves as accumulations of debris, from building up of surfaces, scraped and gathered paint, and other materials. The expressive force resides in the materiality of colour, texture, and excess.

Recent Exhibitions

Forrester Gallery, Our Oceans, group exhibition, Oamaru, 13 June-19 July 2020.
Antoinette Godkin Art House, Shimmer, solo exhibition, Auckland, 7 September-5 October 2019.
Otago Museum HD Skinner Annex, Art and Water: Mountains to the Sea, group exhibition (artist and scientist collaborations), Dunedin, 9-21 September 2019.
Kereru Gallery, Illuminate, group exhibition, Mapua, 6 February-10 March 2019.
Gallery Thirty-Three, Orbit, Group exhibition, Wanaka, 8 December-January 2019.
Antoinette Godkin, Summer Show, Group exhibition, Auckland, November- February 2019.
Refinery ArtSpace, Chromatic Surfaces, Solo exhibition, Nelson, 19 November- 8 December 2018.
Otago Museum HD Skinner Annex, Art + Oceans, group exhibition (artist and scientist collaborations), Dunedin, 23 June-August 6, 2018.
Rippon Hall Art Space, COLOUR. SURFACE. TOUCH, Solo exhibition. Wanaka, 29 June – 3 August 2018.
Antoinette Godkin, In the Mix, group exhibition, Auckland, May-June 2018.
Owaka Museum, Mingle, group exhibition, Owaka, April 2018.
DSA Gallery, COLOUR. SURFACE. SPACE – Master of Fine Arts solo exhibition, Dunedin School of Art, September 11-15, 2017.
AS Gallery, SURFACE DEEP, Solo exhibition, Webb Farry lawyers, Dunedin. 15 June-8 September, 2017.
Otago Art Society, Cleveland National Art Awards, 29 April-28 May (Honourable Mention), 2017.
OUSA Student Art Exhibition, University of Otago, 2016.

Publications

Jessica Ritchie, Surface. Space. Colour – Scope: Art & Design No.16 (2018). https://www.thescopes.org/art-and-design-2/

Candida Savage, et al., Tipping Points in Coastal Ecosystems. Junctures: The Journal for Thematic Dialogue, No. 19: Oceans (2018). http://junctures.org/index.php/junctures/issue/view/23/showToc

Art+Oceans Catalogue text (2018) ttps://issuu.com/dunedinschoolofart/docs/art_oceans_catalogue

Education

Master of Fine Arts (Distinction), Dunedin School of Art, December 2017.
Postgraduate Certificate in Visual Arts (Distinction), Dunedin School of Art 2015.
Graduate Diploma of Teaching (secondary), University of Otago College of Education, 2008.
BA (Art History and Theory), Bachelor of Music (Composition), University of Otago, 2007.
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Dunedin School of Art, 2003.