Jill Letten is a contemporary artist based in Hamilton, Ontario, accredited with a BFA from McMaster University in 2021. Jill creates acrylic paintings that visualize realistic, and sometimes surrealistic, environments. Pulling from mid-century aesthetics, and imagery for visual inspiration, she utilizes archive imagery of a heavily idealized period of economic growth to explore and examine the visuals of rose-tinted idealism and social euphoria. For Jill, idealist escapism has felt familiar to aspects of contemporary life, with brands, social culture, and entertainment media leaning into digital escapism and romanticizing daily life to cope. The word ‘anemoia’ has become a term of interest in her work, defined as “a nostalgic sense of longing for a past you yourself have never lived.” Intrigued by the process of layering visuals that call on the past to be viewed in a modern context. Inviting viewers to examine beneath the fragments of what is visible to connect and relate to past lives through a relatable or critical lens. 

Jill’s work has been shown at places such as the Hamilton Artist Inc, McMaster Innovation Park, Glenhyrst Art Gallery, Paul Elia Gallery, You Me Gallery, Northern Contemporary, Blue Crow Gallery, Cedar Ridge Gallery, and The Art Gallery of Hamilton. She is currently an Artist in Residence for Art of Creation, a partnership between the Art Gallery of Hamilton and McMaster University’s Sloboda Lab, and a 2023 Emerging Artist in Residence at Centre[3].