Baker Artist Portfolios

Jessica Childress is a painter and printmaker currently living in Baltimore, Maryland. She grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. In New Orleans she attended New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). As a graduate of NOCCA she exhibited her work in group shows at the Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Her experience in the city of New Orleans has had a profound impression on her work. The subject matter of natural disaster and the force of nature, as well as searching for home and displacement are ideas she commonly uses in her work, that are drawn from her experience living in the city pre and post Hurricane Katrina. She moved to Baltimore in 2009 to pursue a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). While living in Baltimore she realized that she had found a city in equal turmoil and neglect. The plight she witnessed in Baltimore became a secondary fuel for her work. While living in Baltimore she has exhibited her work in group shows at galleries on the MICA campus and at Gallery Veriditas in New Orleans.