Jessica Wee

My work explores the experience of navigating life between cultures, crafting alternate worlds that connect the multifaceted layers of my identity. I weave together personal experiences, art historical references and fantasy, with an underlying sense of mystery and playful disruption. 

Born in the U.S. to Korean parents and raised in France and Canada, I portray domestic scenes and quotidian moments featuring characters who appear to transform, multiply, or divide. These alter-egos exude a sense of mischief, independence and freedom, soaring through space or peering through windows as if slipping in from another dimension. Inside these surreal worlds, glowing fruits and vegetables, flowers and folkloric creatures converge with personal objects from family heirlooms to picnic lunch boxes, each imbued with their own enigmatic potential. 

Jessica Wee received a BFA from Concordia University, Montreal, in 2011. In 2017 Wee completed a Diploma in Classical Realist oil painting at the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. 

Wee presented a solo exhibition curated by Lingfei Ren at Spring Break Art Show in New York in 2022 which received acclaim from press including Hyperallergic and Artnet news. Most recently, her work was exhibited at KIAF art fair in Seoul, Korea. She has held solo exhibitions at the Maison de la Culture NDG, Montreal (2024), Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles (2023); Latitude Gallery, New York (2022); Spring Break, New York (2022). Wee previously worked with acclaimed contemporary artist Angel Otero in New York. Her work has been featured in the Comedy Central TV show Nora from Queens. In 2023, Artsy selected her work Déjeuner sur l'herbe to be exhibited on screens throughout the New York City subway system as an initiative to highlight artists that reflect the cultural zeitgeist and community sentiments. Wee designed the illustrations for the 2023 Thom Browne collection. In 2023, she was an artist in residence at the prestigious Vermont Studio Center. Wee lives and works in Montreal, Canada.

Instagram @yessica_oui

Jessica Wee. Déjeuner sur l’herbe, 2023. Oil on linen. 30 x 30 inches.

Jessica Wee. Gardienne. Oil on canvas. 16 x 20 x 1.625 in

Jessica Wee. Kaleidoscope portal. Oil on canvas. 48 x 51 x 1.625 in