Collection: Heatwave

In this Heatwave series, artist Jamie Nelson transforms the desert into a stage where glamour collides with desolation—creating a surreal dialogue between the unforgiving desert sun and the delicate feminine form. The series thrives on extremes—hot and cold, soft and hard, absurd and sublime—mirroring the intensifying realities of climate change, where record-breaking heatwaves have become the new norm. 

Set against the iconic Joshua Tree landscape, Nelson transforms the desert into a theatrical stage for resilience, humor, and beauty under duress. One figure sprawls across a cracked lakebed as another licks ice cubes as if to sip relief. One model buries her head in a freezer absurdly set in the middle of the desert; another is encircled by a whirring halo of half a dozen electric fans. Canary-yellow umbrellas sprout across the desert floor, revealing bikini clad women desperately seeking shade. 

Known for her use of pop color and playful exaggeration, Nelson crafts images that dazzle even as they provoke. She heightens the desert to a fever dream, blurring fashion fantasy with environmental awareness. The work meditates on precarity—of bodies, of beauty, of climate—suggesting that in an era of rising temperatures, the act of cooling becomes a performance. 

Nelson’s work is both dazzling and disarming—seducing the eye while leaving the viewer to wrestle with the uncomfortable truth; beauty may be eternal, but climate is always changing. Beneath the humor lies urgency: a reflection on the absurdity of staying cool, and the pressing questions surrounding our environment.