Jesse Thomas Stilwell
Jesse Stilwell is an emerging painter, installation artist, and arts educator. His work focuses on optical art, perception, and illusion through the use of pattern, math, and colour theory. Stilwell’s concentration on neurology and its connection to vision have led to a desire to produce psychophysical experiences using art as a vehicle for communication of visual phenomena. He is particularly interested in electromagnetic events that evoke powerful sensations in viewers, such as hallucination, dizziness, and even vertigo. This interrogation (at times, even agitation) of the eye/brain system is an attempt to break down some of the sociological borders that exist between viewer and artwork.
Born in Montreal, Stilwell currently resides and operates his studio practice in Calgary as a member of the Bakery Studio Collective. He received a BFA with distinction from the Alberta College of Art + Design in 2012 and is currently an arts educator at the University of Calgary, specializing in colour theory and abstraction. His work and practice have been documented in a series of published articles, both web-based and in print, and has been exhibited across Canada and the United States. In 2012 Stilwell was a nominee for the BMO Emerging Artist Award.