About | Jessica Vollrath

JESSICA VOLLRATH (b. 1984) is a Dallas-based artist known for her figure paintings exploring themes of spirituality, motherhood, and familial history. She earned a BFA in Art from Howard University and her MFA in Painting & Sculpture from Texas Women's University.

Her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at Pencil on Paper Gallery, Dallas, TX; The Pool Gallery, Fort Worth, TX; Bath House Cultural Center, Dallas, TX; South Dallas Cultural Center, Dallas, TX; Art Basel, Miami, FL; the Museum of Biblical Art, Dallas, TX; the African American Museum of Dallas; Cain Gallery, Corpus Christi, TX; and Fort Works Art, Fort Worth, TX.

In 2025, Vollrath was the recipient of the Best in Show award for Painting at the Carrol Simms National Black Art Competition and Exhibition. Other accolades include being a finalist for the Hopper Prize, and residencies at Tech Wildcatters at Alto 211 and the WoodSong Institute of Art.

Vollrath currently lives and works in Dallas, TX.

Vollrath’s narrative, richly expressive portraits explore religiosity and tender moments of motherhood. Her approach to contemporary portraiture reinterprets scenes from Western mythology and biblical history through the physical and emotional experience of mothering. Formally, her works combine elements of drawing and realistic painting, saturating subjects in unnatural hues and surreal lighting. The artist’s oil paintings raise questions of ancestral lineage and the possibilities of sublimity in the everyday banal.