Born in Amsterdam, Holland, Jessie Mooy
moved to Pretoria, South Africa and later to Port Elizabeth in the Eastern
Cape province. She studied at the University of Pretoria where she was awarded
a BA Fine Art degree and a Higher Education Diploma. She worked as an artist
for the South African Bureau of Heraldry for a period of five years. Since
then she has taught at various schools and also privately.
For a number of years Jessie concentrated on landscape painting, but
since 1991 has been working increasingly and successfully in ceramics.
Since 1995 she has worked and exhibited yearly in Belgium, Holland and
South Africa. Her earlier work is characterised by the vibrant use of
colour and especially her later paintings by the unique portrayal of the
Port Elizabeth land- and cityscape. She is excited by the sculptural quality
of the landscape filled with plants - the landscape, which dwarfs buildings,
ruins and human figures. In Jessie's vision the temporary edifices built
by human hands always seem to crumble into ruins or are represented in
such a way that they become insignificant or fragile in the presence of
an overpowering nature. Jessie's paintings often depict the landscape
as being violated or wrecked by man, e.g. The Quarry where the mountain
becomes a symbol of an open wound, a mutilated body without a heart. Her
paintings also reflect an awareness of the tremendous growing force of
plants which, shooting up irresistibly from the earth, in some of her
works become such monstrous and menacing shapes that they threaten to
devour the tiny human dwellings. The sense of alienation from nature that
pervades these landscape paintings may be seen as establishing a link
with Jessie's earlier work, especially with her 'ecological' paintings.
The image of woman functions as a counterforce to all forms of alienation
in her art, by virtue of the fact that woman is depicted as life-giving
earth mother or as custodian of all life in nature. In her more recent
ceramic work her continued interest in the creative aspect of the earth,
plants and all its creatures is evident, not only in the medium, but also
in the formal variety and strength of her works. Jessie has for the past
years concentrated on raku sculptural work, but still works in stoneware
and earthenware as well.
She has participated in numerous group exhibitions since 1980, including
the Cape Town Triennial, a landscape exhibition at the Everard Read Gallery,
an International Ceramics exhibition in Hong Kong, the International Johannesburg
Biennale and the Feminine Aspect of God exhibition in Grahamstown in 1993.
Jessie has had 10 solo exhibitions, 2 of which were in Belgium and Holland.
She is an invited member of the GAP group. Permanent collections in which
her work is represented include the Rhodes University Gallery, the Rhodes
Ichthyology Department, the Durban Art Gallery, the Northern Transvaal
Regional Art Museum at Pietersburg, King George VI Art Gallery, Port Elizabeth
as well as the Cuyler Clinic Collection inn Uitenhage. Jessie has received
no less than five awards for her work in ceramics, including the Corobrik
Regional Award (Eastern Cape) for best entry in 1991.
Jessie has completed several public commissions including work for Telkom
Head Offices, Port Elizabeth and huge applique designs for the Catholic
Church, Walmer, Port Elizabeth. She has also exhibited her ceramic work
regularly in The Netherlands and Belgium where she has been working for
the past 5 years. Her work has been taken up in private collections world-wide:
Amsterdam, London, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Marbella, Spain, as well
as various cities and towns in Portugal, Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands.
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Artist: JESSIE MOOY
Title: Teatime
Size: 44 x 34 cm
Media: Monotype
Price on request |