Jessica (Yesica) Gispert is a visual artist from Miami, FL. Her work interconnects themes of identity, spirituality and corporeality, speaking a language of personal and cross-cultural symbols conveyed through various mediums. Gispert uses transformative materials and processes to confront the instability and complexity of contemporary life, forming narratives that interrogate existence, loss and ritual. Her exploration of Caribbean and Latin American mythology, science and literature shape her artworks’ engagement with what we consider reality and the unseen. Contemplating life’s fleeting connections through material experimentations with wax, metallurgy and photochemistry, Gispert uses such substance as conduits to unknowable realms.
Jessica Gispert was born in Miami, Florida where she also lives and works. Gispert received her Bachelors of Fine Art in 2007 at Florida International University, Masters in Fine Art in 2012 from New York University Steinhardt. She received a Post-graduate degree in Media Art in 2020 from the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Jessica Gispert is a visual artist interconnecting themes of identity, spirituality and corporeality in her work. She uses transformative materials in her sculptural practice to investigate subcultural rituals in the digital era. Selected Solo exhibitions include”Espina” at Under the Bridge in North Miami, “UNSEEN” (2021) at Mélange in Cologne, “Sense of Selfed” (2015) at the Dortmunder Kunstverein in Germany and “10,000 Island Spiral” (2016) at Noguchi Breton in Miami, FL, and “Limpiezas” at Carol Jazzar Gallery in Miami (2008). Selected group exhibition include “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration”(2020), curated by Dr. Nicole Fleetwood at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City and the “AIM Biennial” (2020) in in Miami, Florida curated by William Cordova, Gene Moreno, Marie Vickles and Mikhaile Solomon. Gispert received an “Ellies Creator Award” (2021), Art in Public Places Commission (2022), “Outstanding Artist Award” (2019) from the Ministry of German Culture. Gispert’s work is in the collection of Museum Abteiberg in Germany and various private collections in Miami, FL.
EDUCATION
2021 Post-graduate degree, Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, Germany
2012 MFA, Sculpture, New York University Steinhardt School, New York, NY
2007 BFA, Photography & Art History, Florida International University, Miami, FL
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Desvelo, Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami, FL (Forthcoming)
2022
Espina, Under the bridge art space, North Miami, FL
2021
Unseen, Mélange, Cologne, DE
2016
10,000 Island Spiral, Noguchi Breton, Miami, FL
2015
Sense of Selfed, Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund, DE The Big Ass Affair, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, DE
Heartspace (sitting still within, sitting still without), Melange, Cologne, DE
2014
Stone Is Not Stone, Between Arrival & Departure, Düsseldorf, DE
2012
NO LOVE, Goldrush Fine Arts, Skowhegan Residency, Skowhegan, Maine
2008
Limpiezas (GisMo Girls collective), Carol Jazzar Gallery, Miami, FL
SELECTED GROUP & TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2022
The BluPrnt, curated by Robert Chambers, Bridge Red Studios, North Miami, FL
Chambers, curated by Lukas Schmenger & Alfons Knogl, FLATS, Brussels
This is the Time and a Record of the Time, curated by Carlos Rigau, Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami, FL
2021
Unique New Work, curated by Alan Gutierrez, Miami Beach Open House Project during Art Week Miami, Miami, FL
Unseen, performance & book launch, Paradis Books, North Miami, FL
Cabinet of Kaput, Galerie Mieke van Schaijk, Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
2020
Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, curated by Dr. Nicole Fleetwood, MoMA PS1, New York, NYConstellation, David Lewis Gallery, New York, NY
AIM Biennial, curated by William Cordova, Gene Moreno, Mikhaile Solomon and Marie Vickles, Miami, FL
2019
Everything Ordinary, PiK Deutz in Kunstwerk Köln, DE LOFT, Studio 2.63 in Quartier am Hafen, curated by Jan-Ole Schiemann, Köln, DE
2018
I caught a rat, we caught some air, curated by Mélange + Markus Lutgen at Art Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, DE
2016
No Soy Sincero, curated by Patricia Hernandez, Orgy Park, Brooklyn, NY
Surface Imagery, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL Honey: Bread & Butter, Jessica Gispert & Melike Kara, Komplot, Brussels
2015
New Positions, Melange Cologne, Cologne Fine Art Contemporaries Fair Jahresgabe, Dortumnder Kunstverein, DE
NNN NNN, curated by Sonja Engelhardt, Kreuzberg Pavillion, Berlin, DE
BAD DATA, curated by Alice Wang, Wolfart, Rotterdam, NL
Translating Transformers, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, DE
Object Manipulating Economy / Economy Manipulating Object, curated by Aman Sandhu & Swapnaa Tamhane, Kultubüro Mönchengladbach, Mönchengladbach, DE
2014
Jahresgabe-Ausstellung, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, DE
Another Place / Another Space, Quadriennale Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, DE
The Last Brucennial, Bruce High Quality Foundation, New York, NY
2013
Ein ahnungsloser Traum vom Park, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, DE Exchange: DSNY in Stamsund, Norway, Galleri 2, Stamsund, Norway Lonelyfingers KONVERSATIONSSTÜCKE, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, DE
2012
O Fortuna, curated in collaboration with Laurent Pellissier Paris, FR, Düsseldorf, DE, New York, NY, Berlin, DE
#D, curated by Giselle Zatonyl, Bronx Art Space, Bronx, NY
2011
Re-Framing the Feminine, Girls Club Foundation, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Apogee, ISCP Salon, curated by Elmar Hermann, Brooklyn, NY
MFA Thesis Exhibition, 80WSE Gallery, New York University, New York, NY
2009
Memoria percibida, Museo de Arte Moderno, Guatemala City, Guatemala LANDMARKS: Works by Ali Prosch and the GisMo Collective, curated by Jillian Hernandez, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ
HONORS, AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2022
Miami Individual Artists (MIA) Stipend Program
2021
Oolite Art’s Ellies Creator Award
2020
Artist Talk for MFA candidates at Carnegie Melon University, Pittsburgh, PA
2019
Auslandsstipendium Nordrhein-Westfalen, Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
2016
Vergabe eines Ateliers durch die Stadt Köln im Atelierhaus “Quartier am Hafen”
2015
Kunststiftung NRW Individuelle Förderung “Junge Szene”/Young Artists Prize, Düsseldorf, Germany
2013
Group panel discussion mediated by Susanne Titz and Diango Hernandez for the exhibition Lonelyfingers: KONVERSATIONSSTÜCKE, Museum Abteiburg, Mönchengladbach, Germany
Visiting Artist Lecture for course with Elmar Hermann, Kunsthochschule Mainz
2010
NYU Steinhardt Honorarium for selected feminist artist colloquium Panelist at Helene Cixous’ Laugh of the Medusa Colloquium with Kathe Burkhardt, Nancy Barton, Marlene McCarty, Avital Ronell, and Andy Slemenda
2009
New Jersey City University Exhibition/Visting Artist Grant
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2021
UNSEEN, artist book funded in part by the Künsthochschule für Medien Köln, Edition 150
2020
Brett Sokol, “Art Basel Miami Beach Was Canceled, but the Show Goes On, New York Times, Nov 27
Zion Sealy, “Alumnae use art to empower incarcerated teenage girls,” FIU News, Nov 16
2018
I caught a rat, we caught some air, publication by Mélange + Markus Lutgen
2016
Katherine Sperber, “Q&A: Jessica Gispert”, Strange Fire Collective, January
2014
Elodie Evers, “Alle Türen stehen offen,” Monopol Magazin, September
Christina Irrang, “über Stephanie Seidels “BETWEEN ARRIVAL & DEPARTURE,” Kuba Paris, July 2013, Monica Uszerowicz, “Art: The Female Form”, BRACEDigital, August 28
2011
nüans (Anna Heidnhaim, Elmar Hermann, and Maki Umehara), APOGEE – a compilation of solitude, ecology, and recreation.
2008
Jillian Hernandez, Performing Identity in Miami: A Case Study of Women Artists, Florida without Borders: Women at the Intersections of the Local and Global
PUBLIC ART COMMISSIONS
2022 La Vaina, Miami-Dade County Art in Public Places, exterior sculpture and installation in lobby at Brisas del Este II, Allapattah, FL
