A breath of fresh air

Painter, ceramicist and Neighbourhood member Jessie Lee Nash talks about Spring Clean, her new show of pots and paintings, running at the studio and pop-up shop for six weeks from 29 March.

Jessie Lee Nash has taken a long and winding road to get to her new show at Neighbourhood – and in many ways her life journey is the show’s underlying theme. An Aussie born and bred, she studied painting first at the Queensland College of Art, then the National Art School in Sydney, before breaking off to head to the UK and explore “a world much bigger than the place you grew up in”.

She’s since spent time in Italy, working at the Venice Biennale, and in the US, where she had a three-month residency at the OSMOS Station, a super-cool art institution with spaces in NYC’s East Village and the Catskills. Getting closer to Queens Road, she spent a while doing a Tracey Emin Artist Residency in Margate before finally moving to Hastings in 2023 – which is where we take up the story…

You’ve certainly travelled a lot! What do you think of Hastings?

I love it. It happened by pure accident, but coming here has been a blessing. It’s a natural fit for me. It’s a town full of like-minded creatives. And it’s a place where I can afford to have a studio and give my painting practice the space it needs – unlike, say, London where you need unlimited financial resources.

Tell us about the show. Why is it called Spring Clean?

It includes work that has built up over the past year, working first in a home studio due to medical limitations, and later in my studio. The work comes from the minutes and days of the years past – so it’s about spring cleaning in that way. Having a clear out, addressing all the things you gather and make along the way, basically! But it’s also about new life: about new work, especially ceramics, and new beginnings and moving on. So, it has a double meaning for me: looking back and looking forward at the same time.

Talk us through some of the works…

Image by Yazz Jansen

‘Self as Sarah Lucas’

This is a work I made while in residency at OSMOS Station in New York in late 2023. My practice is very rooted in feminine history; in particular the way in which women have been placed in art history, especially as painters. For that show, I’d done a lot of research into self-portraiture: the ways in which women have documented themselves, and why they have documented themselves, and how that’s evolved.

For a long time, women artists were really only allowed to sit in a room with a closed door, painting a pretty picture of a vase or something. They were absolutely not permitted to make figurative art, being banned from life drawing rooms and the likes. When the mirror came into the story in the early 19th century,  everything changed. Women finally had a subject to paint, and that subject was themselves. I find that really exciting.

Something that I can always rely on as a painter is a mirror: my reflection. People might say that’s narcissism, but it's really not like that. If you want to paint people, you can’t always afford a model – or maybe you don’t even want one. Maybe you want something a bit more nonchalant, something (someone) with less pressure, someone more accessible and vulnerable. And there's no one more vulnerable than yourself, in my opinion, and your reflection - I think to paint yourself is ultimately a very brave thing to do.

So I got really tied into that narrative and I collected a bunch of self-portraits by female artists who have taught me to be the woman and the painter I am: Tracey Emin, Frida Kahlo, Sarah Lucas, Marina Abramovich. And I repainted them and inserted myself into those works. So that’s what this painting is all about.

‘Women’s Work (Edie)’

I painted this in 2024. I had two major operations on my spine, and that really impacted my practice. All I was doing was resting, taking painkillers and watching Desperate Housewives. After hitting a physical wall I tried not to overcomplicate my return to painting – the Desperate Housewives are what I wanted to paint.

I started taking screen grabs, because I became quite obsessed with the way it was filmed. It’s not a high-brow show by any means, but so many of the shots are saturated with cliché and symbolism, which translates very excitingly to a painting. I did this series of paintings much smaller than I usually paint, due to the physical restraints I was under. I felt like I was doing them just to get through. This picture was one of those: a really iconic scene of Edie washing her convertible in hot shorts.

This show has given me a purpose for those paintings. To put the resentment of such a restrictive chapter behind me and give myself a fresh start and move on. Plus this painting has been shortlisted for inclusion at the Royal Academy this summer. Desperate Housewives in the Royal Academy… yes, please.

‘Consider It an Investment’

I’ve played around with ceramics for ages – I remember the first time I did ceramics at primary school and I loved it. During Covid in Australia I spent a bunch of time living in the mountains, with loads of space to make work and figure things out, which in hindsight I am so, so grateful for. I reached a bit of a dead end, so I thought, get some clay, play around. And I did.

I started making pots; mostly vessels, but still rooted in artistic integrity, rather than practical and functional. I just really enjoyed it as a different medium to wake me up a bit; to wake up my hands and get me thinking. Now I’m really glad I found it again. I think painting and ceramics work in tandem. I think the vessel for me is like the canvas. When making something, I’m nearly always thinking: how am I gonna decorate this, how can I adorn it?

It’s so great that this show being held at Neighbourhood because it’s such a big part of the story. Ceramics for me at Neighbourhood has been like a breath of fresh air. It pulled me out of a pretty stuck place, I just love being there. I find it such a safe space. It’s so positive, so inspiring, so fun.

I never feel disappointed when I leave there. It’s like when you were at school and there was a class or a party afterwards that you really looked forward to. I get that feeling when it's a day where I go to the pottery studio. Since I started going there, it’s definitely upped me a level and motivated me in my painting. And things have started feeling really good. I think it’s just nice to have that, you know, in this day and age. It’s really hard to create those spaces. So all the more kudos to you guys for doing that.

There are five paintings and around 20 pots in the show, all of which are for sale. The launch party is 4pm to 7pm at Neighbourhood, 73/74 Queens Road on Saturday, 29 March. The show can be viewed in the pop-up shop from 11am. The shop will also be open from 11am to 4pm on Saturday 12 April and 26 April. You can view the show during studio opening times, but if a class is progress, please come back another time.