Jessica DuPreez


Master of Fine Arts in Studio, Painting and Drawing

Jessica DuPreez was born in New Jersey, and raised in Orlando, Florida from the age of 7. She received her BFA in 2013 with dual degrees in Fine Art and Art History from Florida Southern College and is currently an MFA candidate in the Painting and Drawing Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her practice explores themes such as healing from body shame, performing beauty as a survival mechanism, and gender based sexual violence in both the public and private spheres. In her most recent work, DuPreez is investigating the semiotics of lips and butterflies as a way to subvert gendered clichés and critically examine performative gender. She has been included in group exhibitions at the Melvin Art Gallery in Lakeland, FL; the Elmhurst Art Museum in Elmhurst, IL; and shown with Terrain Exhibitions, the MacLean Center, and the Hairpin Arts Center in Chicago, IL.