Jessie Makinson (b.1985, London) lives and works in London after graduating from the London-based Turps Banana Studio Programme in 2016, the Royal Drawing School, London in 2013 and the Edinburgh College of Art in 2007. Makinson's painting, ceramic sculpture and site-specific installation take inspiration from science fiction and classical mythology. They confuse the boundaries separating human from animal as well as desire and fear. Her paintings belie concurrent understanding of reality, replacing the world as we know it with an adventurous yet unreliable narrative. Most of her subjects exhibit distortions of power play, with the artist fashioning the figures in subversive means of dress and undress. She also utilises underpainting as a key player in her storytelling in order to unify all the seemingly disparate substances represented. Makinson described her underpainting on the canvas as ‘seeping and dripping through like rotten flesh or bruised fruit,’ which contrasts with the still figures in the foreground. These combined elements infuse her verdant forest scenes with a wild sense of chaos, fantasy and seduction, evoking the chase between the hunter and the hunted. Recent solo exhibitions include those at Lyles & King, New York (2020); Fabian Lang, Zurich (2019 and 2018); and Galeriá OMR, Mexico City (2019). Recent group exhibitions include: I See You, Victoria Miro, London (2020); No Patience for Monuments, Perrotin, Seoul (2019); Hyper Mesh, Assembly Point, London (2019); In the Company of (curated by Katy Hessel), T.J. Boulting, London (2018); BioPerversity, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles (2018); Breaking Shells, The Koppel Project, London (2018); and Fake French, Roman Road, London (2016). In 2016, Makinson won the prestigious Marmite Prize for Painting, and in 2017, she was an Artist in Residence at the City and Guilds of London Art School.