Jamie Stambolie Nelson

Jamie Stambolie Nelson is a Zimbabwean mixed-media artist from Bulawayo, currently based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Growing up in Zimbabwe, she was influenced by the resourcefulness and creativity found in everyday life, leading her to collect old magazines and create layered collages. Working primarily with paper collage and paint on canvas, her practice explores immigration, memory, renewal, hope, and the lived experiences of African immigrants abroad. A recurring thread in her work is the parallel between human migration and the movement of plants across geographical borders. Familiar flowers growing in foreign lands become metaphors for adaptation, belonging, and the possibility of flourishing far from home. Her work also explores ordinary immigrant experiences through human figures, familiar objects, and moments of joy, memory, and connection. Reclaimed paper cut-outs layered through collage echo themes of memory, renewal, and transformation.