J.O.Klassen
Jesse is a contemporary Canadian Artist working in a wide array of visual media exploring 21st century manifestations of spiritual and faith identity.
Abby Arts Collective
The Abby Arts Collective is an affordable family run studio space for artists founded by Jesse in 2019. Located in Abbotsford BC, the studio backs Sumas mt at the end of Dawson Rd. boasting a serene working environment for all manner of creatives and working professionals.
Take a Class!
Plein Air Painting – Nature studies at the Abby Arts Collective.
Intro To Abstraction – Exploring techniques, materials, and tools for beginners.
Advanced Abstraction – Honing style and use of form, light, and poetics of non-representational imagery.
More about the Artist
I am a contemporary artist working across painting, sculpture, and mixed media. My practice is rooted in abstraction and explores questions of faith, spirituality, and belief within a secular cultural context. Drawing from devotional imagery, architectural space, and personal inquiry, my work examines how belief is formed, hidden, tested, and sustained.
Painting
Painting functions as both process and prayer within my studio practice. Working in abstraction, I use paint to explore spiritual longing, layered belief, and the quiet spaces where faith is tested, obscured, and slowly revealed. Through depth, light, and material tension, my paintings hold moments of devotion and doubt simultaneously, inviting sustained contemplation rather than resolution.
Sculpture and Mixed Media
Through sculpture and mixed media, I investigate architectural space as a container for spiritual experience. Referencing altars, thresholds, and interior structures, these works consider how faith is built, entered, and sustained. Material, light, and spatial tension invite the viewer into a bodily encounter with belief.
Studio Visits
Studio visits are an important extension of my practice. I’m deeply interested in meeting with curators, collectors, writers, and fellow artists to discuss the work in person. I’ve always maintained that the physical presence of the artist—within the space where the work is made—is integral to understanding its true depth. Conversation, proximity, and shared attention reveal layers that cannot be fully accessed through images alone.
Curator Review
Evoking both the monumental and the
abstract, artist Jesse Klassen’s works
explore the connection between art,
religion, and the self. Within both his
abstract assemblages and paintings,
Klassen’s work offers us a pluralistic
utopia through its abstract and inquisitive
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Address
The Abby Arts Collective, 37780-C, Dawson Rd. Abbotsford BC. V3G 2K9, Canada