ABOUT
Jill Wells (American, b. 1980) is an American interdisciplinary artist whose research-driven practice moves across painting, installation, sculpture, public art, sound, light, and socially engaged projects. She received her BFA in Painting and Art History from Drake University in 2005. Working at the intersections of race, disability, history, and contemporary culture, she explores how archives, materials, and environments shape the ways we understand identity, memory, belonging, and care. Rather than treating accessibility as accommodation, Wells approaches it as an artistic language—one capable of generating new aesthetic forms, sensory experiences, and ways of being together.
Braille, light, sound, color, architectural space, and public participation operate as recurring materials throughout her practice. Drawing from Black studies, disability studies, intersectionality, and archival research, Wells creates immersive works that invite audiences to engage through multiple senses while expanding conversations around access, visibility, perception, and collective memory. Across intimate objects and large-scale installations, her work asks how art can become a place where histories are encountered, bodies are welcomed, and belonging is actively constructed.
Wells has presented exhibitions, public art commissions, lectures, and research nationally and internationally, including representing the United States at the Zero Project Conference at the United Nations in Vienna. Her work has been exhibited at the Dubuque Museum of Art, ARC Gallery (Chicago), Woman Made Gallery (Chicago), Loggia Gallery (Chicago), Drake University, The Harkin Institute, and the International Convention Centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, among others. Her public commissions include Iowa's first tactile mural and 3D mural model, permanent installations for ChildServe, Community Support Advocates, Johnson STEAM Academy, and public murals throughout Iowa.
Wells is a 2025 Iowa Artist Fellow, recipient of the 2025 G. David Hurd Innovator in the Arts Award, the 2025 Florence Grannis Library Service Award, the 2025 Athena Educational Foundation Award, and the 2024 Tanne Foundation Award. From 2022–2024, she served as Artist Fellow at The Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Civic Engagement, where her research focused on accessibility, disability justice, and public art. She serves on national arts committees and boards and is the founder of ARTIST × ADVOCACY (AXA) and co-founder of the Freedom of Expression (FOE) Project, initiatives that support artists of all abilities through mentorship, collaboration, research, and public engagement.
