Jessica Gurnsey is a New Zealand painter born and raised in Wellington. She moved to Auckland at the age of 10 and discovered her love for painting through completing NCEA folio boards at high school. It was a perfect outlet to for her perfectionist tendancies, hence the detail in her work. With some encouragement from her high school teachers, she decided to enter a few awards...

Her acrylic on canvas paintings have been recognised with national-level awards since the age of 17, including being the youngest ever recipient of the prestigious ADAM Portraiture Award in 2022. That year, she moved back to Wellington and after a successful pitch she received a seed fund for young entrepreneurs called He Kākano. This is a partnership between The King’s Trust Aotearoa New Zealand, The Ministry of Youth Development, business and taiohi. This enabled her to host her first solo exhibition ‘People Watching’ at just 18-years-old. Jessica has continued exhibiting at shows and galleries alongside some of Aotearoa’s most renowned artists.

At the end of 2025 Jessica will complete her Commerce degree at Victoria University of Wellington, majoring in marketing and management. She works as a content creator specialising in the creation & capture of authentic, lo-fi photo & video content for Social Lover NZ in the Wellington region which builds on her eye for capturing people in places.