JESSIE KANJI
ABOUT JESSIE
Born in 1997, Wellington, New Zealand
Lives and works in Auckland, Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa
Jessie Kanji is a multi-disciplinary artist, researcher and educator based in Aotearoa. Following the migration of her grandparents from Gujarat, India, in the 1940s, she grew up in Wellington. Informed by her background in medical science, specialisation in print, and her experiences with the cultures of Warli, Huichol, and Latin-American people, her art searches for the balance between order and chaos.
Patterns in her inner world form the lens by which she sees the world. Jessie uses print as a methodology of accessing colour, pattern, culture, memory and meaning. In the amber-like qualities of ink, her work seeks to evoke the concept of rasa - a state of total absorption and emotional resonance.
CONTACT
i: @jessiekanji // f: Jessie Kanji Artist
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science in Physiology, University of Auckland, NZ, 2019
Postgraduate Diploma of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, NZ, 2023
AWARDS
National Youth Art Award - WSA, Merit Award, 2023
Printopia Print Prize First Award, Tertiary Category, 2022
He Kakano Seed Funding - The Prince's Trust, 2022
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2024
Future Call: VCA, The University of Melbourne
'Ū mai ko te Taniwha', Research Assistant to Professor Dr. Joyce Campbell
NZ Painting and Printmaking Award WSA Finalist Exhibition
2023
Printopia Festival of Original Print Awards Finalist Exhibition
National Youth Art Awards WSA Finalist Exhibition
Cleveland Art Awards Finalist Exhibition, Dunedin, Otago
2022
'Rasa', Bledisloe Lane Light Boxes, Artist & Curator, Art in the City, Auckland
Synonyms of Something: Oddly Projects, Auckland