About the Juror

Jessica L. Porter’s career came full circle five years ago when she launched Porter Contemporary, a gallery dedicated to showcasing emerging and established artists from around the world whose work embodies both skill and risk taking. The mission of Porter Contemporary continues to be based on founder Jessica L. Porter’s vision of opening contemporary art collecting to a broader audience.

Porter began her career with a dual degree in Art History and Foreign Languages (French and Japanese), quickly finding herself in the curatorial department of the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum. From there, Porter broadened her career by taking an opportunity to use her language background through sales and marketing in the art shipping industry. Porter’s interests only continued to broaden and soon became consumed with the research and investigation of issues surrounding stolen art, primarily during World War II. She soon entered law school focusing on art law and intellectual property issues while founding the Entertainment Art and Sports Law organization at the University of Maryland School of Law. After obtaining her Juris Doctor, she moved to New York and began practicing law. During the five years of practicing law, Porter realized that her passion still remained in the art industry and continued to be involved in the art market by working in galleries on weekends, assisting friends and colleagues purchase art and volunteering in museums. The seeds for opening an art gallery were soon planted and officially launched in 2006. Currently, in addition to running Porter Contemporary, she runs a consulting business utilizing her art and law background that focuses on assisting foreign galleries navigate the U.S. art market, she teaches courses on the basics of art collecting and is launching a new online art business in October 2011.

Porter has a resounding commitment to being a leader and resource to other women and is the founder and president of Raandesk Women, a collaborative women’s networking group, a member of the Leadership Advisory Board for the Girls Scouts of Greater New York and is an active member and committee leader of ArtTable.

The theme StoriesWeTellfor the Women’s Caucus for Art encompasses not only one of woman’s most important roles but an important and unique role for women artists. Women are the communicators of society and women artists have the additional challenge of translating these stories visually and broadly.

Each artwork reflects a reason for storytelling entertainment, education, cultural preservation or the installation of moral values balanced with each artist’s skill and visual ability to communicate. Many artworks communicate very sad stories regardless of the topic but the overwhelming diversity in work and experience is what is most poignant. These artworks and the stories they tell show strength, passion, kindness, thoughtfulness, love, commitment, power, creativity, solemnity and contemplation among many other things. They tell secrets, some tell lies and some make statements while others are emotional reflections of stories. Whatever the story, or artwork, this collection of works tells us where we are today as women, where we once were and our strength and passion toward our future. I thank and applaud all the women who not only showed us their artworks but gave us an insight into themselves through their stories and I know you will enjoy reading and viewing them as much as I have.

Jessica L. Porter Owner/Director Porter Contemporary