Jessica Caldas - New Tapestries
My work is driven by personal experiences and their connections to contemporary and historical issues. The complexities and intricacies of labor, care, and identity in our current and past culture are consistent undercurrents in all aspects of the work which include layered, labor-intensive drawings, collage, sculpture, performance, et al, and often transform into fully realized mixed media works and immersive installations. I seek to make challenging experiences accessible to those without the same somatic knowledge while still engaging in conversation and confrontation. The viewer is met with bodily experiences that mirror the complexities of the stories I share, with a focus on shared knowledge, awareness, empathy, and change.
Jessica Caldas is a Puerto Rican American, Florida-based artist. Her work connects personal and community narratives, usually centered on the experiences of women and women-identifying folks, to larger themes and social issues through bodily, multidisciplinary works. Caldas has participated in many artist residencies, including the Atlanta Printmakers Studio in 2011, MINT Gallery's Leap Year Program from 2012-2013, The Creatives Project from 2018-2019, Vermont Studio Center in 2020, and was the Art on the Atlanta Beltline AIR in 2020-2021. She recently completed the Working Artist Prize Fellowship at MOCA GA in 2022-2023. Caldas was awarded The Center for Civic Innovations 2016 Creative Impact award, named Creative Loafing's Best of ATL Artist for 2016 and 2015, received the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs Emerging Artist Award in Visual Arts for 2014, and was a finalist for the Forward Arts Foundation's Emerging Artist Award in 2014. Her work has been shown at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA. It is included in the collections of Kilpatrick Townsend, The City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs, MOCA GA, and the Kyoto International Community House.
In her advocacy work, Caldas has spent time lobbying for policy at the local level in Georgia and spent time with the YWCA Georgia Women's Policy Institute at the 2016 general assembly to assure the passage of the Rape Kit Bill and in 2016 to stop HB 51 in 2017, a bill that would have harmed the safety of sexual assault survivors on college campuses.
Caldas received her MFA at Georgia State University in 2019 and received her BFA in printmaking from the University of Georgia in 2012. She is currently the Director of the Institute of Fine Arts at the Professional Academie Magnet at Loften in Gainesville, FL.