Timeline
1996 - 2014
Mount Prospect, IL
2014 - 2018
University of Notre Dame
BIOGRAPHY
Jackson Wrede is a contemporary realist painter whose work spans portraiture, still life, landscape, narrative painting, and occasional explorations of pop culture and abstraction. Grounded in classical technique but guided by a modern sensibility, his paintings draw upon the traditions of art history while remaining firmly rooted in the present. His visual language developed from an early fascination with cartoons and caricature, through experiments with pop art and collage during his college education, and ultimately toward a deeper engagement with the traditions of representational painting. In recent years, landscape painting has become an increasingly important part of his practice, particularly through plein air painting across the American West.
Rather than subscribing to a single ideology or artistic lineage, Wrede embraces the freedom available to the contemporary painter. His commissioned work demands adaptability and technical range, while his personal work is united less by subject matter than by a restless curiosity and the sustained pursuit of beauty. In a world saturated with fleeting digital imagery, his paintings invite viewers to slow down, look again, and rediscover the significance of the physical image.
Originally from the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Wrede (pronounced Ree-Dee) now lives and works in Seattle, Washington. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and his MFA from Kendall College of Art & Design. His work has been exhibited nationally and is held in private collections throughout the United States and abroad. His honors include First Place in the Portrait Society of America’s 2024 Members Only Competition, a Certificate of Excellence in its International Portrait Competition, and the Grand Prize at the 42nd Michigan Fine Arts Competition. His work has appeared in International Artist, Art and Color 365, and Southwest Art, which named him one of its “21 Under 31: Young Artists to Watch.” His debut solo exhibition, Menagerie, opened in Birmingham, Michigan, in 2025 and received positive reviews in Detroit Art Review. Wrede currently serves as Program Director of the Seattle Prize Fellowship.
STATEMENT
The world is strange, beautiful, specific, physical, and worthy of our attention.
I am drawn to subjects with a strong presence. A fascinating person, an old tree, a strange geological formation, or a fleeting moment that seems to contain something deeper. I isolate, simplify, and monumentalize them, looking for the shapes, surfaces, colors, and marks that make something unmistakably itself. I want things to feel present, alive, and real.
I believe in painting as a vital contemporary medium. We live in a culture increasingly built around speed, distraction, and constant novelty. Painting demands the opposite. It is slow, deliberate, and made by hand. I am deeply indebted to the art of the past, but I don’t want to just recreate it. I want to understand what those traditions can offer the present and what this medium can still reveal about being alive today.
Painting is ultimately a way of understanding the world and satisfying my curiosity. Regardless of what I choose to paint, I am searching for the same things: beauty, sincerity, and an elevated way of seeing. The act itself is not therapeutic for me. The pursuit of beauty and excellence is. No other idea or goal has proven more sustaining.
I grew up in Mount Prospect, IL, and discovered my love for drawing at an early age. Although I was a three-sport athlete in high school and sports often took priority, my passion for art never faded. At the time, however, I wasn’t sure how to turn that passion into a career.
I arrived at Notre Dame expecting to study graphic design or business, but everything changed when I took an oil painting class during my second semester. It became clear that painting was my calling, and I committed myself to pursuing a career as an artist. During this time, I spent summers abroad in Bangladesh and France, experiences that dramatically influenced my perspective on art, culture, and the world beyond the studio. I graduated with a BFA in Painting and Drawing in 2018.
2019 - 2025
Grand Rapids, MI
Teaching seemed like a practical path after college, so I pursued an MFA at a small program in Grand Rapids, where I was offered a fellowship. After graduating from Kendall College of Art & Design in 2021, I made Grand Rapids home, established a studio, and built a career painting commissions for collectors across the country. More importantly, this was when I truly became a student of painting, developing my craft while earning recognition in regional, national, and international exhibitions.
at present
seattle, wa
In August 2025, I married my wife, Gillian, and shortly afterward we packed up our lives and three cats and moved to Washington to join the inaugural Seattle Prize Fellowship. I spent the year creating some of my largest and most ambitious work to date while becoming an increasingly devoted landscape painter, traveling throughout the Pacific Northwest to paint from life. I’ll remain in Seattle through 2027, continuing my studio practice while serving as Program Director of the Seattle Prize.