"From Where I Am" Jessica Oreck

Las Vegas-based multidisciplinary artist Jessica Oreck showcased her latest exhibition, From Where I Am, to Available Space Art Projects (ASAP), offering viewers an intimate glimpse into her unique creative process. Known for her fascination with the overlooked, forgotten, and invisible aspects of everyday life, Oreck continues to blur the lines between nostalgia, travel, and art in this captivating collection of postcard collages.

The show features an array of collages made during Oreck’s travels. The materials she incorporates—stamps, playing cards, cyanotypes, and various paper ephemera—form a visual narrative of places visited and moments captured, subtly revealing the artist's love for the small, the discarded, and the commonplace. Each postcard collage feels like a layered piece of memory, both personal and universal, inviting viewers to examine their own associations with the objects and fragments used.

Oreck’s work is a reflection of her artistic philosophy, which she describes as "collecting the invisible." This doesn’t refer to the mystical or otherworldly, but to the everyday materials and experiences that often fade from collective awareness, receding into the background of life. Her work is a conscious attempt to bring these overlooked details back into focus, sparking a sense of wonder in the familiar.

While Oreck is widely known for her work in film and animation—her films having premiered at prestigious festivals like Sundance, SXSW, and Tribeca—her recent focus has shifted towards sharing her collections. In 2021, she opened the Office of Collecting and Design in Las Vegas, a space devoted to the minuscule, the forgotten, and the discarded. Visitors have described the museum as an enchanting blend of your grandparent’s attic and Hogwarts Castle, and it’s clear that From Where I Am continues this thematic thread of collecting, cherishing, and preserving the fragments of life that others might overlook.

Through her postcard collages, Oreck captures not just physical objects, but emotions, memories, and the invisible weight that travels and experiences leave behind. The collection invites us to slow down, examine the details, and perhaps start seeing the world—and our own lives—with a little more attention to the small, beautiful things we often miss.