SACRED, SENSUAL, AND SOLO: JESSICA ILLSLEY AT ZARI GALLERY

 WORDS MAISIE JANE DANIELS

There’s a kind of hush that falls over you when you step into Jessica Illsley’s world - one that’s rich with intuition, unapologetically feminine, and just the right amount of feral. Her latest body of work, Humbled by the Void, isn’t just a solo show - it’s a deep dive into the wild tangle of spirit, body, and emotion that makes up the human (and especially the female) experience.

Ahead of her two-night takeover at Zari Gallery this 19–20 June, I sat down with Jessica to talk about where this deeply personal, powerfully primal series came from. We got into all of it - her creative upbringing, her work as a psychic medium, and why peeling back the layers of control, repression, and expectation is central to her creative process.

Jessica paints like she’s channeling something bigger - and maybe she is. Her canvases hum with contradiction: softness meets defiance, death meets transcendence, the sacred meets the sensual. What results is an invitation -not just to look, but to feel, to remember, and maybe even to reconnect with the parts of ourselves we’ve tucked away to survive in a culture that still doesn’t know what to do with feminine power.

This show is going to be more than just a feast for the eyes. With live music from SOL Collective and drinks that taste like summer in a glass, it’s set to be a celebration of art, spirit, and expression. But beyond the buzz and the tequila (don’t worry, there’s Botivo too), there’s real heart here. Jessica is donating a portion of sales to Gurls Talk, the mental health platform founded by Adwoa Aboah - a gesture that perfectly mirrors her work: soulful, empowering, and rooted in care.

See you at the gallery - I'll be the one nursing a cocktail and getting gently possessed by a painting.

Maisie Daniels: Welcome to F Word! I always like to start every interview by taking it back to the beginning. When did creativity first show up in your life? 

Jessica Illsley: My dad is a painter, so I've always been really exposed to art, and he has loads of friends that are artists as well. My uncle's also a potter, so it was very much part of my life from the beginning. My dad would always take me to galleries when I was little, and I used to sleep in his art studio when I was staying with him in London, which just smelled of Turps and oil paint. The smell is very nostalgic for me. When I was little I was really drawn to the old masters, like Botticelli and Caravaggio, which weirdly, my dad wasn't at all. He tried to show me Picasso and things like that and I just really wasn't interested. My mum tells quite a funny story about when I was five, she took me to get a leg wax, and I apparently went into all the other cubicles, with all the other women, and I was talking to them about Botticelli, and I don't know if everybody thought I was super precocious [laughs] but I was just obsessed at a very early age. 

MD: You explore themes of female empowerment and spirituality in your work. Why are these particular themes so important to your practice?

JI: I've always been interested in exploring the idea of the divine feminine as it’s a layered concept and a lot of the time it's been shaped by male dominated views and defined in quite an idealised, narrow, controlled way. I just really wanted to show women as they are: complex and layered and sexy, strong, fragile, vulnerable and wild, and I feel like all of that can exist at the same time and I just wanted to embrace these contradictions. There’s that tension between strength and being fragile, and I think that's kind of a beautiful thing. I was trying to get that through to everybody and create a bit more of a fuller, holistic picture of women. With the spiritual side of things. It's sort of similar. It's just inviting the viewers to become a bit more aware of the fragility of existence and be open minded about slightly taboo subjects like death and the soul and all that stuff. It's just about stirring someone’s subconscious a little bit. Even if they’re not aware of what they're looking at, it’s somewhere back in there. 

MD: We should talk about the solo exhibition: Humbled By The Void at Zari gallery. How did it all come about, and what inspired the body of work that you're going to be showing?

JI: Humbled By The Void, a lot of it is about that fight that we have between our raw, animalistic desires and what's expected of us as civilised humans. It’s about the struggle between what we want and what we must do to fit in. I do think our desires and instincts are suppressed by society and its pressures. Everything’s kind of put into a box, and stepping out of that box is alienating and can come with some quite heavy consequences. When I think about the box, it's all very surface level. It's like an illusion, sort of placed there to control us and to give this illusion of safety.

I guess for me, really, the Humbled By The Void is about going through dark moments and emerging from them and becoming a bit more aligned with a more authentic expression of self and leaning into the unknown and feeling comforted that there is a larger and more complex force at work. With my work as a psychic medium, this already filters into my paintings. I used to be really scared of the unknown, because I used to have quite intense, scary interactions with spirits and stuff like that when I was little but through my work, as a psychic medium, I've reframed it all, and I've got a really good relationship with it now, and it's been humbling and comforting. 

MD: Yeah, that's really nice to hear. Have you found it quite freeing?

JI: Yeah. I feel like I'm learning a lot through it, I'm really leaning into my intuition now when I paint. I almost feel like I'm being guided and nudged to put paint in places, and it's sort of all coming out without a plan, which is really nice. Before that I was quite ridged in my approach because when I was younger, I trained in the technique Chiaroscuro, which is an Italian technique, that uses light and dark. I really wanted to learn how to paint and draw technically first before delving into any abstraction,  so in this series I've been freeing myself away from that. The journey's still going with that because it's really difficult once you've been doing a technique to not do one at all. I've been pushing myself out of my comfort zone with that, definitely, and just approaching everything in a more intuitive way. 

MD: It sounds like creativity runs through your veins. You've got a joint father-daughter exhibition coming up, and I'm going to pronounce this wrong but it’s at Palais du Vash?

JI: Yes! I think it's called, in English, Palace Of The Cows.  It's a big old farm building which always has loads of art and it's amazing.

MD: Wow, that sounds great. And you are showcasing this before your solo show? 

JI: Yeah, it's actually opening night tonight. 

MD: Oh, how exciting!

JI: Yeah! I mean, it's been quite crazy, doing two exhibitions in one month, but I actually had so much work. I’ve never put my work next to my dad’s before, so it was really nice to do that. And it was lovely because it bounced off really well and complemented each other. 

MD: Yeah, I bet. How has it been collaborating together?

JI: He's so chilled, and he's very supportive, so it's been a really nice experience collaborating with him. We've been talking about doing a show together for ages and then suddenly, I guess we manifested it by talking about it aloud, and it just kind of happened.

MD: Oh, that's really nice. Yeah, I was looking at your father's art as well, and it's really beautiful. I can see the differences in your styles but I can see how they will compliment each other and show your different personalities. 

MD: How are you feeling in the lead up to your show? I know you've had a solo show before, but does this feel different?

JI: Yeah, this is definitely a much larger scale. My paintings are much larger now as well, but I'm loving it. I love planning stuff, and I'm mixing it up with music and nice drinks and things like that, so yeah, I'm feeling good! I mean, my studio is complete chaos, and I'm really excited to see them all side by side - because my studio is small and hectic, I don't get a chance to do that. This series has been a real emotional and spiritual journey for me. So it's going to be amazing for me to see them all together in a room because I've been living and hanging out with them for a year. It's like all the characters and the figures will be like part of the celebration. 

MD: Totally, yeah - it’ll be nice to see it in a new home and to see how other people interpret it. It must feel quite isolating as an artist, but also kind of freeing to put something so personal out there for others to experience and take away in their own way.

JI: Yeah, definitely. It's like you don't have any idea if what you're doing is going to appeal to anyone but I think it's best to not think that way. It is a lonely pursuit sometimes - I’ve always got my dogs in the studio with me. 

MD: I’ve seen your pooches! They're so sweet - what breed are they? 

JI: Every single small breed

MD: [Laughs] what are their names?

JI: Peach and Doris 

MD: Oh, so cute! Out of the 16 paintings in the show, is there one that feels especially personal or pivotal to you? If so, could you share the story behind it?

JI: Yeah, they all have quite personal elements. So there is one. It’s called Treaty, and I painted it during a time where I lost somebody. The painting is really about having trust in that person's soul being cared for by other souls, and just having comfort and trust in that. A lot of people deal with loss, and I think they do have to comfort themselves with that idea. That was very much a personal painting. A few of them are in there that are very personal but a bit too private.

MD: I’m really sorry to hear about your loss, and thank you for sharing that with me. I’m sure that openness will help others find comfort in their own way, too. I think it’s so important that you’re working to crack open these stigmas - especially around something as universal, and often taboo, as death.

MD: When you reflect on putting this show together, what has been the overriding feeling or challenge?

JI: I’ve just been really excited to be honest! I've been painting like mad so it's been interesting looking back at all the paintings. I put them all together on my site, and then just reflect how they've come into creation, and how I've also developed emotionally and creativity. I haven't really had any obstacles, and if I have, I just sort of go, okay, well, it's not meant to be. I’m just excited! It’s going to be a bit of a party as well…

MD: How long has this exhibition been in the making?

JI: Quite a while. I basically kept saying I'm going to do an exhibition but maybe about six months ago I was like I'm going to do it in June and I just kept painting - and I wasn't even that worried if it wasn't gonna happen in June - I just had to trust it was going to happen. It all just worked perfectly from there. 

MD: That's great. I think it's good to push yourself out of your comfort zone sometimes, isn't it?

JI: Totally! I think you can put it off and off and off, but, you know, it's not worth it. I basically just ran out of room [laughs]. But, yeah, it’s also scary, because you're like, oh my god, what if no one buys anything? But I've been lucky. I've had a few sales before the show. 

MD: Congratulations!

JI: It’s been really helpful for my confidence.  

MD: You’re supporting Gurls Talk by donating a percentage of sales. Why did you choose to support this particular charity?

JI: Mental health of young girls is so crucial because it lays the foundations for the rest of their lives. When you're an adolescent, that’s when you start to form your sense of self, and that journey is very complex, very emotional, and there's a lot of external pressures and expectations. That all has such a long term effect on someone. So early intervention and support are just so important. I use my art as a means to process difficult emotions and I've got that outlet, but not everyone has that so I think it’s really important.

MD: Absolutely - it’s important to help and shine a light on those topics. I was going to ask about your studio and how you work, but I'm gathering already that it's quite chaotic [laughs].

JI: [Laughs]. I love it like that! It's a feast for the eyes. I’ve got piles of paper everywhere. It is really chaotic, but things pop-up when I need them. It gets a bit overwhelming sometimes. It’s basically a glorified shed in my garden, and I've let mother nature just take over. I’m losing light now because I've let all the Jasmine grow over the windows, but I just can’t bear to cut it. So I’ve taken my paintings into my kitchen to see if they're finished, because it’s quite dark, but it’s getting a bit silly now.

MD: When you’re painting, do you notice yourself entering a particular headspace? Do you usually have music on, or prefer silence? Is it something that tends to happen at night? I’m curious - when do you feel most inspired, and what does that process actually look like for you?

JI: It's different. I usually listen to music. Sometimes it's nice to have the quiet, but it depends what mood I'm in, really. I create during the day because obviously the light is so much better then. I use a lot of vintage porn from the 1800s - it’s not graphic - I really like the dramatic black and white mixed forms, quite gestural. So I use that for inspiration sometimes. More and more, I'm just working quite intuitively. I just sort of see what happens. I do have piles of images everywhere, which I might just look through and then put them down. It might help with deciding a colour palette and things like that but I don't have a rigid process, I just see what happens…

MD: You work with oil paints - what draws you to this medium?

JI: love the smell, first of all, but I also love the fact that I can just rub everything out and blend things really easily. There is a transient nature to it, which I think resonates with what I'm trying to say in my work. I rub out a lot of stuff, so there’s loads of ghosts living underneath the paint - I like the malleability of it. 

MD: Do you think you could ever see yourself kind of experimenting with a different medium, or are you like this is it? 

JI: Yeah, no. I’ve tried acrylic, but I just can't bear how quickly it dries.

MD:  Let’s bring it back to the exhibition. You’ve already hinted that there's going to be a bit of a party. Can you go into more detail about what guests can expect? 

JI: Yeah! I’ve got my friends from SOL Collective. They’re amazing. 

MD: They’re so good! I checked them out and they're so much fun.

JI: They're so great and they always bring a great vibe - they’re doing a little Latin set, which will be really fun. I always think that music and art, they just go so hand in hand, so that was quite a must for me. There will be tasty drinks from Black Lines -  it's an artisan cocktail maker, and equally tasty non-alcoholic drinks by Botivo but yeah, that’s it!

MD: That’s all you need, and more…! So what advice would you give to young or emerging female artists navigating the art world today? 

JI: Try and stay authentic. Paint for yourself and not what you think other people want to see. I really think that if you stay authentic, this will definitely speak to people more than on a level that I feel purely aesthetic art can. Don't be afraid to make something that’s shit, because you can always rub it out and at least you know not to do it again [laughs]. Don't be scared to mess up and just try and please yourself because I think that will speak better. 

MD: This F word magazine, what’s your favourite F-word? 

JL: Feral

MD: Ooh, we've not had that before. I love that word!

 JL: I love that word. I use it a lot.

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