“Jessica Caldas envelops viewers in love and care, empathy and understanding, creating spaces that bear witness to and honor the lived experiences of women who labor, who give birth, who struggle, who survive, and who triumph.”- Rory Padeken, Vicki and Kent Logan Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Denver Art Museum.
Jessica Caldas is a Puerto Rican American artist, based in Georgia and Florida. Her work connects personal and community narratives to larger themes and social issues. She has recently completed the Working Artist Prize Fellowship at MOCA GA in 2022-2023. Her work has been shown at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA as well as the Art & History Museums of Maitland, Fl and is included in the collections of Kilpatrick Townsend, The City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs, MOCA GA, and the Kyoto International Community House. She looks forward to her first international solo exhibition at CICA Museum in Korea in 2024.
Caldas received her Masters of Fine Arts degree at Georgia State University in 2019 and received her BFA in printmaking from the University of Georgia in 2012. She is a part of Living Melody Collective and currently runs Good News Arts, a small community arts space and gallery in rural North Central Florida and holds a part time position as the Program Manager at Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta.
Caldas’ work is driven by personal experience and its connection to contemporary and historical issues. Overall, her work addresses the complexities and intricacies of care and identity in our current culture. She seeks to make challenging experiences accessible to those without the same somatic knowledge while still engaging in conversation and confrontation. In her practice, she incorporates layered, labor intensive drawings, collage, sculpture, performance, et al, into fully realized mixed media works and immersive installations. Within her work, the viewer is met with bodily experiences that mirror the complexities of the stories she shares, with a focus on shared knowledge, awareness, empathy, and change.
