Baker Artist Portfolios

Jessica Damen first came to Baltimore in 1996 to pursue art studies at MICA’s post baccalaureate program. Shortly afterwards she returned to complete a MFA (‘01) from MICA’s LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting, remaining in Baltimore because of its vibrant artist community. Early in her career Damen’s artworks were selected to be included in Maryland Art Place’s, “(Grace) Hartigan’s Choice: Athena’s Daughters” (‘04-’05). 

Damen’s decades long career has been influenced by her earlier life changing experiences in NYC as a pediatric nurse and educator, her deep dive into psychology as a student of psychoanalysis and her later encounter with poet, Maj Ragain, who introduced Damen to the ancient “Leda and the Swan” myth. With Damen’s feminist focus her portfolios address underlying cultural lies we still live with everyday.  Her paintings are inspired by poems, news stories, rumors and events from her and other’s lives. Damen’s authenticity begins with unwavering empathy for the people who populate her stories.

In 2001 Damen was awarded MICA’s resident fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center (FAWC) in Provincetown, MA. She has been awarded Juror Choice awards, exhibited regularly in commercial and academic galleries for solo, invitational and nationally juried shows. In 2004 Damen and Ragain had a collaborative show at Verde Gallery in Champaign, IL and their nearly two-decade collaboration culminated in 2018 with "Home To Sargasso Sea - A long journey of loving collaboration: Paintings by Jessica Damen and Poems by Maj Ragain” at the Kent State University Downtown Gallery and the Wick Poetry Center.

Recent solo exhibitions include:  in December 2023, Resilience and Reimagining: The Feminine Narratives of Jessica Damen, curated by Liz Faust, was an invitation to embark on a journey of raw psychological revelations, of healing and redemption. Damen’s December 2019, Visions-Verses-Voices: Paintings + audio installation at the Delaplaine Art Center, Frederick, MD was an immersive exhibition encouraging the viewer to listen to verse, see Damen’s vision and hear the varying voices of readers who read verses that spoke to their hearts.

       Damen’s artworks can be found in noteworthy private in public collections:

·       Jane Brown and Neil Didriksen, Lutherville, MD

·       Kelliher & Salzer, LLC, Severna Park, MD

·       Kearney Co., Alexandria, VA

·       George Floyd Social Conscience Art Movement Collection, JW Jones, Charlotte, NC

·       Ginsberg, Feldman & Bress, Attorneys, Washington, DC

·       GRE Insurance, Inc., New York, NY

·       IIT Research Institute, Chicago, IL and Fairfax, VA

·       Wick Library Corner, University of Ohio at Kent State, OH

·       The Polinger Company, Chevy Chase, MD

·       Rust Insurance Company, Washington, DC

·       Peter J. Sharp Foundation, New York, NY

·       Jeanne Turner, Baltimore, MD

·       United States Department of State, Art in Embassies Program, 1990-1994

·       Sidwell Friends School, Washington DC

·       Sunwest Communications Inc., Dallas, Texas

·       Zuckerman, Spaeder, Goldstein, Taylor & Kolker, Vienna, VA