Artist Biography

Jessie Edelstein (b.1997) is a visual artist from Long Island, New York currently based in Los Angeles. Her work focuses on the themes of identity, autonomy, and technology. Her face paint looks serve as the foundation of her body of work. She believes that the physical body and face isn't fixed but a mutable material that can be changed to express one’s autonomy and inner self. She is interested in the intersection of augmentation and technology, and envisions a future where humans can customize themselves digitally. Her face paint looks create a catalog of different custom faces that could eventually become a reality.

Her first major project was her drag persona “Virgo Couture.” Inspired by early 2000’s celebrity culture, robotics, and the Internet, she started dressing up and performing under this persona in 2018 and retired the character in 2020. She wanted to take ownership of her art and self expression and no longer stay hidden behind a persona.

Since 2021, she has been working on a music/performance project called “Jessie.Mp3,” which combines sound, visuals, and conceptual lip sync performance. She released her first EP "Human Clickbait" (produced by cancercrush) in 2022, which explores navigating identity in both physical and digital space. Currently, she is interested in exploring sound as a medium and combining it with video and performance to explore different ideas.

Jessie graduated from SUNY New Paltz in 2019 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Visual Art. Her artwork has been featured in a variety of exhibitions in the Hudson Valley, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles. Her makeup work can be seen in music videos and in publications such as Paper Magazine and Dazed Beauty.