Hello, my name is Jessie Burton and I’m excited to join Carnelian Art Gallery as the new Gallery and Marketing Assistant. My desire as an artist to take part in the inner workings of curation and gallery design led me to Carnelian, and I’m looking forward to applying my creative passion and design knowledge here.
As of this spring, I completed my Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from University of Wisconsin-Madison, with Certificates in Art History and Environmental Studies, so experiencing the gallery side of my artistic endeavors is a thrill. Participating in seven exhibitions throughout 2025, I have grown an increasing interest in curation to both enhance the shows I participate in and better understand the art scenes I interact with so frequently.
Exhibiting my art has intersected directly with growing my graphic design skills as well. For three of the shows I participated in this year, I designed the branding and posters, and doing so has allowed me to understand other artists and the curation of our work to a stronger degree. Artistic branding is a large portion of my design experience, as I worked with the fashion magazine The Issue for two years during my undergraduate degree, engaging in both design and fashion illustration. Creating a logo for their inaugural annual fashion show, PULSE, and posters for both years reflecting various designer’s collections, I realized that my interest in creation goes beyond just my own art, that supporting artists through striking design is another engaging and rewarding art form of its own.
Of course, when I’m not at Carnelian, I am working on my own art. Depicting the confrontational female body is something I’ve been consistently drawn to, and I feel most able to express the strong stares and abstracted anatomy I desire through contoured self portraiture. The irregularity of my mediums of choice, charcoal and chalk pastel, are conducive to the spontaneous nature of my creative process, and add an ephemerality to the figure that is integral to my pieces. I am currently working towards my first solo show, Encounter, which will be exhibited at Art Lofts from July 21 - 27, and is an examination of the lightness of line juxtaposed with its ability to deeply express body language. I’m extremely excited to share this new body of work, and I hope to see you at the reception on Thursday, July 24th from 5 - 8pm! If you’re interested in my studio process, I encourage you to visit The Bounty, where I am a Bounty Collective Studio Intern, or COPA in August, where I am looking forward to being a ConneXart Artist in Residence.
This summer has been one of artistic growth, challenge, and innovation for me, and I can’t wait to continue these discoveries through the gallery perspective at Carnelian. I hope to meet you at Carnelian soon, and feel free to contact me through my website, jessieburtonart.com. Thank you!