Jackie Hilmes

Jackie Hilmes (b. 1987, Des Moines, Iowa) is an abstract expressionist painter living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Rooted in emotional urgency and embodied memory, her work is a meditation on presence—how it feels to be fully in a moment, and how often words fail to hold that truth.

Hilmes’s paintings are marked by intuitive brushwork, layered textures, and dynamic compositions that oscillate between boldness and restraint. Working primarily in oil and oil pastel on unstretched canvas or primed paper—and often incorporating graphite and ink—what emerges is improvisational and deeply felt: a breathing, shifting sensory field where emotion leads and structure follows.