Jordan Kasey (b. 1985, Chicago, IL) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Working primarily in large-scale oil painting, Kasey’s practice centers on the abstracted body as a site where interior psychological states and external reality converge. Through light, color, scale, texture and atmosphere, her paintings function as self-contained objects that resist narrative sequencing or resolution. As the artist notes, she is drawn to images in which it is not possible to imagine what precedes or follows the depicted instant, treating each canvas as an independent entity rather than a fragment of a larger story.

Kasey’s monumental figures appear stone-like and anonymous, at once intimate and distant, suspended in moments that feel both timeless and uneasy. Cropped, oversized bodies push against and extend beyond the edges of the canvas, positioning the figure as an architectural and spatial force rather than as a character within a narrative. Limbs and gestures function structurally within the composition, while exaggerated physical presence and shifting surface treatments generate tension between heaviness and fragility, solidity and vulnerability, permanence and instability. Her subjects exist in liminal states where interior emotion and exterior landscape converge, remaining suggested rather than fully revealed. Through heightened scale, texture, and keyed-up color, physical qualities such as weight, length, and gravity become the primary drivers of the composition, shaping how meaning is felt rather than read.

Sentiment in Kasey’s oeuvre is articulated less through figuration than through the surrounding conditions of the image. Colored illumination, looming horizons, shifting skies, and compressed spaces act as psychological forces, transforming quiet scenes into charged tableaux. The surfaces of her oil paintings range from stippled impasto and carved textures to smooth passages and expansive fields of color. These variations expand painting’s capacity to convey sensation, memory, and psychological weight, encouraging a bodily, almost tactile engagement with the work.

Influenced by sculpture, geology, and classical figuration, Kasey’s subjects often appear fossilized or carved, as if caught between permanence and transience. This sensibility extends into her more intimate drawing practice, including charcoal renderings of stone-faced sculptures, frozen in time and reactivated through prolonged observation. In another charcoal series, she observes shapes of sunlight as they scan surfaces in her home, light rather than matter carving out and defining space. Across media, Kasey maintains a disciplined economy of elements, allowing each component of a composition to contribute to a singular moment that remains open and unresolved.

In recent years, Kasey’s practice has expanded to explore relational dynamics, particularly through depictions of motherhood, while maintaining a focus on gravity, ambiguity, and the emotional weight of the body. These works approach intimacy as both tender and overwhelming, depicting care, attachment, and exhaustion without narrative closure. Throughout her practice, Kasey seeks to communicate not what reality looks like, but what it feels like to inhabit a body within it.

Kasey received her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2008. She has presented solo exhibitions with Nicelle Beauchene Gallery (New York), Juen Juen Gung (Hong Kong), and Onfinitive Art Foundation (Singapore). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at MoMA PS1 (New York), White Cube (London), Loyal Gallery (Stockholm), Kaufmann Repetto (Milan), Lin Lin Gallery (Taipei), and the Zabludowicz Collection (London), among others. Her works are held in the collections of Collezione Maramotti (Reggio Emilia, Italy) and the Zabludowicz Collection (London).

Education

2008 BFA, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions

2024
Spherical Moments, Onfinitive Art Foundation, Singapore
Can We Squeeze Light from Light, like Juice from a Lemon?, Juen Juen Gung, Hong Kong

2023
Orbit, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY

2021
The Storm, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY

2019
…animal, vegetable, or mineral?, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY
From Dust We Came, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY

2017
Exoplanet, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY

2016
Free Time, Signal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
At Your Leisure: Jordan Kasey + Alyse Ronayne, Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Head Space: Jordan Kasey and Carolyn Salas, Phoebe Gallery, Baltimore, MD

2015
Sun Stroke, Michael Jon Gallery, Miami, FL

2012
Paintings, Whole Gallery, Baltimore, MD

Group Exhibitions

2025
El Royale III, Loyal Gallery at El Royale, Los Angeles, CA
The Clock of Dreams, SWCAC, Shenzhen, China

2024
Paper View 2, The Hole, New York, NY
Point of Contact, Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
Hat Trick, Lin Lin Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
15, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY

2023
an ego of her own, Kaufmann Repetto, Milan, Italy
The Stand-Ins: Figurative Painting from Zabludowicz Collection, Zabludowicz Collection, London, England
Structure Becomes Form, curated by Dennis Kardon, Massimo de Carlo, London, England

2020
The 100 Show, Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
Noah’s Ark, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY

2019
Right Behind Your Eyes, curated by Sarah Faux, Capsule Shanghai, China
Malmö Sessions, Carl Kostyál Gallery, Malmö, Sweden

2018
The Adderall and the Ecstasy, Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest, Romania
Body, Curtain, Advance, Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
Dream Works, Kate MacGarry, London, England
The Mark Inside, Signal, Brooklyn, NY

2017
Dreamers Awake, White Cube Bermondsey, London, England
Past Skin, curated by Jocelyn Miller, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY

2016
Human Condition, curated by John Wolf, Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
What’s Up, curated by Lawrence van Hagen, Revue Gallery, London, England
Barn Show, Johannes Vogt, East Hampton, NY
Closer, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY

2015
Real Things About Real Things, American Medium, Brooklyn, NY
Artemisia, Cuevas Tilleard, New York, NY
Michael Jon Gallery, Detroit, MI
In the Heat of the Night, Castor Gallery, New York, NY
Tide Pool, curated by Alex Ebstein, Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2013
Rooms Fall Apart, MAP, Baltimore, MD
From Joy to Terror, School 33, Baltimore, MD / Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE

2012
Puss Fust, D-Center, Baltimore, MD

2011
Paintings on Walls, Current Gallery, Baltimore, MD/Scapescape, Baltimore, MD

2010
The Fantastical, Project 4, Washington DC

2009
Size Matters, Load of Fun, Baltimore, MD

2008
Inside Out, Current Gallery, Baltimore, MD

Awards and Residencies

2017
Cuevas Tilleard Artist Residency, Lamu Island, Kenya

2015
Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant nominee

2013
Sondheim Award Semi-Finalist
Individual Artist Award in Painting, Maryland State Arts Council

2010
Individual Artist Award in Painting, Maryland State Arts Council

Collections

Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Zabludowicz Collection, London, England