Jessica Russo Scherr makes art to process the world around her.
Having lived across multiple countries, she experiences “home” as fluid rather than fixed. Living in Italy for nearly a decade, for example, has made the entire country feel like home.
Working primarily across oil painting, collage, and printmaking, she constructs images through an accumulation of layered fragments of photographs, color, pattern, and memory. These layers reflect how experience is formed: partial, overlapping, and continually reshaped over time.
Juxtaposition drives her practice. She places images, marks, and references in dialogue, allowing unexpected relationships to surface. Many works also include art historical references, positioning contemporary experience alongside historical visual language.
Photography often serves as a point of departure, but Russo Scherr is equally interested in its limitations. A photograph isolates a fragment of experience but cannot contain its fullness. Her work reconfigures these fragments into open, constructed, and interpretive fields.
Rather than resolving into fixed narratives, the work invites viewers to construct their own connections. Each piece becomes a space of recognition and discovery, where personal memory and visual history intersect differently for every viewer.
Russo Scherr constructs her work through observation, translation, and reconstruction. Meaning is not immediate, but accumulates through duration and repeated looking.
Jessica Russo Scherr is an internationally exhibiting artist based in Germany. Originally from New York, she has lived across four countries, an experience that continues to inform a practice rooted in movement, memory, and place. Her work has been recognized with a Fulbright Grant from the U.S. Department of State and is held in private collections internationally. She is the author of The Gelli Arts Printmakers Handbook and shares her practice with an audience of over 300,000 across social platforms. Alongside her studio practice, she teaches IB Visual Art and Theory of Knowledge.
Author of "The Gelli Arts® Printmaker's Handbook: Exploring Color, Image Transfers, and Layering Techniques for Creating Art with Gel Plates"
"Gel plate printing is an approachable new way of making creative monoprints without a press. Using the flexible printing plates, artists can use paints, inks, stencils, and different textures to create mixed-media prints. Now, noted artist and instructor Jessica Russo Scherr shares her groundbreaking secrets for bringing together photography, painting, and printmaking to make unique works of art. This book breaks down what might seem like complex processes into approachable steps. By layering images and exploring color relationships, Russo Scherr shows how to make prints that honor both photographic precision and painterly expression. She also helps readers find their creative voice through this versatile medium. Whether you're a seasoned printmaker or just beginning to explore artistic expression, this book will help you explore the endless possibilities of gel plate printmaking."
ISBN 979-8-88814-387-2 Check it out on Amazon
Prints and original pieces are available
