Jessie Mooy
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Jessie Mooy is an international artist, currently based in France.
Athough born in Amsterdam, Jessie spent most of her life in South Africa. She graduated from the University of Pretoria’s Art Academy with a B.A. in Fine Arts, majoring in Painting and History of Art before focussing on painting Eastern Cape landscapes. From 1991, she studied ceramics and sculpture at Port Elizabeth’s Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and began working more in clay, producing ceramic and bronze sculptures using the university’s foundry. In 1994, while living in South Africa, Jessie established a ceramic studio in Belgium.
The women Jessie portrays in her sculptural works have become symbolic earth mothers, or guardians of the animal world. She expresses the close bond between them by using the Raku firing technique, developed in 16th-century Japan. As part of the process, beautiful glazes are created, including bronzes and copper lustres. Such effects are possible because of the glaze firing’s last reduction phase, wherein the sculptures are taken out of the kiln at 950°C with tongs and put into smoking chambers. Fine cracks then develop in the glaze, accentuating the fragility of the women and animals, which are unified as they are fused by flames and glaze. -
Jessie Mooy has exhibited in all the major South African cities, The Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Japan, Hong Kong, Spain and France.
Jessie’s artworks have been acquired by several South African art museums: Port Elizabeth’s Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum and the art museums of Durban, Polokwane and Grahamstown. Her work is displayed as part of several public collections, including those in the ABSA Bank and Telkom’s head offices in Johannesburg.
Jessie has won prestigious South African prizes for her sculptural works, including the First National Bank Vita Craft, Corobrik and Kenzan Highly Commended Awards, as well as the Corobrik First Prize for Ceramic Art in the Eastern Cape Region.
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