Jessica K Ballantyne

Born in sunny South Africa, Jessica Ballantyne moved to London in 2009 after graduating with a BA in Fine art from the University of Pretoria. Specialising in oil painting, Ballantyne creates art in a variety of mediums (such as collage, spray-paint and graphite) which all revolve around the main subject matter and passion of her work: The female body. Jessica Ballantyne has, from an early age, been fascinated by the portrayal of subjective feeling and experience, especially in regards to the body. Her work is thus almost always figurative with a focus on the female body and transcendent experience. Influenced by Surrealism and photography, Ballantyne creates bodies that are naked, unusual and autonomous. She combines her experience with philosophical, psychological and academic ideas about subjectivity and sexuality, with spiritual concepts like mindfulness, meditation and self-observation. “As a culture we have become accustomed to looking at the female body in a particular way- that of the sexual object. I try to show a subjectivity, a presence, beneath the skin”