Current Exhibition
Jessica Vollrath, Stories On a Train
Through Saturday, March 7, 2026
Gallery hours
Saturday, February 14, 11am-3pm
Saturday, February, 21, 11am-3pm
Saturday, February, 28, 11am-3pm
Friday, March 6, 6–9pm – Artist’s Reception
Saturday, March 7, 11am-3pm – Last Look
Artist’s Statement
Growing up, I never was allowed to watch TV or movies and became understandably obsessed with children’s books. The illustrations were the impetus of my love of narrative drawings. Disappearing into an obviously fabricated reality felt like slipping into another world, often softer and more colorful than my own. I would imagine the warmth of living in the tree that belonged to the Berenstain Bears or how much fun it would be to explore a mall at night with a stuffed toy named Corduroy.
Stories are the foundation of the human experience. We understand reality based on the stories we have been told by our religions, art, entertainment, society, family of origin and our environment. These stories are so interwoven with our sense of everything that is real that we can often find it impossible to separate ourselves from our stories. With curiosity, internal and external exploration and a more physics-based understanding of reality, we have the opportunity to realize that what is real can be warped, changed and even invalidated by the narrative we choose to believe.
Becoming a mother in 2019 has given me many moments of dissecting the stories I grew up with, questioning if I wanted to pass on that version of reality on to the next generation. Did this story save me? Hinder me? How many stories have I had to unlearn in order to expand? And most importantly, what are the stories I am unconsciously telling my children about what it means to be human?
Artist Bio
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. 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. 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, 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
