About

b. 1992

Astoria Jellett’s figurative oil paintings dwell on the burden of connection, unresolvable grief, and the fragile relationship of self to self. Through careful planning and repeated processes, the paintings compress color and value into tonally restrained worlds gradually built through subtle contrasts in chroma and clarity. Figures emerge and dissolve between varied degrees of individuation and resist fixed definition in environments similarly transitioning between the real, the imagined, and the abstract. Drawing on experiences of inconsistency and displacement across families, continents, and cultures, Astoria’s work treats the act of looking as an invitation to self-revelation and self-authorship.

Astoria Jellett was born in the U.S. and adopted internationally. At thirteen they moved their bed out of their bedroom so they could use it as a studio, but after their initial undergraduate art education they stepped away from painting. They worked in humanitarian and environmental contexts in Europe and Central America before returning to painting and pursuing classical atelier training. This interruption and return informs the paintings, which often examine the tension between grief and longing, connection and withdrawal.

Their artwork has been exhibited at Manifest Gallery and Elaine Bailey Augustine Gallery, among others, and published in Maintenant, Anthology of Forests, and more. Their writing has been published in Trouvé, Toad Suck Review, and other journals and shortlisted for the New Philosopher Writer’s Award. After earning their BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design, they trained at Lyme Academy of Fine Arts and the Florence Academy of Art. They live, work, and teach drawing in Savannah, Ga.