Jessica Puma
2026 MSAA Art Showcase Entrants
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Jessica Puma – Merchantville, NJ
Jessica Puma is an oil painter whose work explores memory, architecture, and the symbolic language of flowers. From 2020 through 2024, four consecutive family losses reshaped her practice, moving her from large-scale architectural abstractions into intimate observational paintings of funeral flowers. Through sustained looking and layered surface, her work considers grief, presence, and transformation.
Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2009, Puma has continued to evolve her artistic voice while navigating periodic vision-related flares. Painting remains her primary way of seeing and interpreting the world. While MS is part of her lived experience, it does not define her practice. Instead, it has deepened her commitment to attentive looking, material exploration, and growth. Her recent work reflects a shift toward smaller scale, rich impasto surfaces, and a renewed engagement with representation grounded in personal narrative.
Bad Birthday
Ceremony
BaGbily
