Wimbley featured in Comstock's Magazine Art Exposed by Melissa LuVisi
- Jessica Wimbley
- Dec 1
- 3 min read
As soon as you enter the Crocker Museum, sitting at the top of a staircase, a vast, larger-than-life video projection flips through a carousel of nostalgic photographs with scenes of children playing jump rope, excerpts of text and physical images of the ocean waves and flowers. These are contrasted with historical video and images of activism, protest, violence and, notably, the American flag.
Framed by her Afro, the self-portrait invites viewers to question the politicization of Black bodies, particularly Black hair. The tender images of play and scenes of meditation evoke love, joy and compassion. This is artist Jessica Wimbley’s moving-image series “True Story of Edges,” which premiered in the 2022 exhibition “Coordinates,” organized by Site(s) of Vacancy, a nomadic curatorial project founded by Faith McKinnie. That single installation has since expanded into a growing body of public artworks, including a commission for the Los Angeles Metro’s K Line at Leimert Park and a new piece for the City of West Hollywood’s Moving Image program on Sunset Boulevard.
Originally from Illinois, Wimbley earned her undergraduate degree at the Rhode Island School of Design and completed her MFA at UC Davis, which she describes as her “gateway” into California. She settled in Southern California after her MFA and lived there for 13 years, teaching and working for museums.
She completed an M.A. in arts management at Claremont Graduate University before moving back to Sacramento in 2018. Her practice often begins with deeply personal experiences, including major surgery and navigating health care as a Black woman. Her work radiates outward to address reproductive justice, public health and the complexities of contemporary political life.
To begin, can you describe your work and what you are focused on right now?
Currently, I’m working on another public art project that I’m really excited about. It’s part of the City of West Hollywood’s Moving Image program along Sunset Boulevard, using their digital billboards. This piece is a continuation of “True Story of Edges” and will be titled “True Story of Edges: Sunset Boulevard.” It will explore the history of the site and the surrounding region through hair.
In October, I opened a new public artwork with L.A. Metro at the Leimert Park K Station. It’s part of the Love Leimert curated video exhibition for the new K Line. And now “True Story of Edges: Sunset Boulevard,” which I am currently working on. Both works are sited in prominent public locations in Southern California. The series began with a piece that was at the Crocker Art Museum, first shown in “Coordinates” in Sacramento.
What motivates your practice? In particular, how did your hysterectomy and recovery shape the direction of your work?
It’s interesting to look back on having made that work after having some time to heal. The process itself was intense because I created it right after my surgery, in the middle of recovery. The personal really radiates out into the universal. The piece begins from a deeply personal place, but it touches on broader issues that many people face, especially women’s health and reproductive care.
There was a charged and painful irony in the fact that I had a hysterectomy, and just a few months later Roe v. Wade was overturned. I was having my own real, physical, visceral experience, thinking about my health, what it means to be a Black woman in medical spaces, how my body is seen and treated, while, at the same time, the politics around reproductive health were being publicly contested in real time.I feel that part of my work is to tell the stories of how we’re experiencing these cultural moments, and to hold space for them. I want to offer a wider frame, to focus on particular nuances, to bear witness to lived experiences, and to give language to some of the things that feel almost inarticulable. Through visual and visceral forms, I try to tap into sentiment and emotion while also acknowledging the complexity of our current moment, because we are living in increasingly complex times.
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