About Jess

Jess Bentley, an artist not restricted to one medium, currently resides in the Old Town district of Edinburgh, amongst an abundance of similarly creative minds. Yet from this incredible yield of artisans, Jess manages to stand out.

Currently specialising in painting at Edinburgh College of Art on their highly regarded Fine Arts course, Jess is in a time in her life where she can constantly challenge herself and push her boundaries. This results in many of her projects exploring new mediums, new concepts, and furthering herself as an artist. Jess’ portfolio shows a myriad of different projects that all carry a common sense that makes her work complete – they all imbibe the viewer.

Two of her most recent exhibitions have received this reaction from the public, and other artists that attended these exhibitions. One of these was ‘Third Try-Mester’, a collaborative exhibition held at St Margaret’s House. Her exhibited work here was given a presiding position in the gallery, and held this space incredibly well, with crowds of people inspecting every aspect. This piece explored the relationship between herself and her mother and involved painting, elements of sculpture, and needlework as well as written pieces.

Her previous exhibition, a solo exhibition, explored her relationship with her father, through recreation of passport photos from different times, and amongst other things, an archive of original correspondence of her father’s from before her birth up until recent times. Attendants of the exhibition came away discussing how totally immersed they felt in a life that they knew precious little about just hours earlier. This was heightened by the risky decision to hold the exhibition in Jess’ own flat.

If you ever get the chance to meet Jess make sure to ask her about her journey to this point; to go into it in this short bio would result in a winding tale of caravans, cults, and curiosity that is much better to take from her work, or hear from the talent herself.