Jessie Holmes (b. 1982, CA) studied at Emily Carr University of Art and Design (BFA), Vancouver; the Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main; and OCADU (MFA), Toronto. Her interdisciplinary practice explores character development and parafictional narratives, integrating performance, poetry, and painting to investigate the possibilities of personal transformation through storytelling.

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Through projects such as Hotel Adipose, she constructs transitional spaces that model aspects of western modern life, where technology, labour, relationships, and identity intersect. Her performative practice developed during her time in Germany (2008–2018). Poetry often takes the form of scripts, guiding performers to embody abstract concepts through gesture and action. Works such as Mira and No Time transform poetry into multidimensional experiences. The ongoing series Mini Jobs examines the precarious conditions of artistic labour through durational performances rooted in absurd and everyday tasks.

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Holmes’ abstract paintings extend these concerns, translating narrative into colour and gesture. Biographical fragments and conversational traces form emotionally charged landscapes. Her work positions abstraction as a living narrative, where storytelling operates as both method and material.