Chris Jones
This exhibition marks the 10th anniversary of Chris Jones’ (b. 1975) first solo show at the gallery.
Chris Jones is a British sculptor who creates intricate and alluring sculptures from image fragments, sourced from magazines, encyclopedias, books, and other printed material. His collaging of unrelated, decontextualized images suggests imaginative and unexpected connections that arrive spontaneously, activating an other-worldly story as the narrative unfolds. Jones utilizes space and time as materials to contextualize pieces of images into his fictionalized narrative.
This new series of work is both melancholic and museological – the wall mounted collages exhibit a more calculated and thematic approach as in his selection of crystals, arrangement of tools, and posing of birds within a tree. Jones explores the enlivened nature of the fragments he works with as they seem to activate their adjoining images, concocting these small, “other” worlds.
In Tree of Knowledge (2022) one half of the birds, though separately sourced, look to be in unanimity, perching in the same direction – and in conversation with, or opposition to, the other half of the birds in the tree. The more multiplex, architectural sculptures are built out from specific elements previously identified in the wall works, such as the integration of stone fragments in both Emporium (2022) and of Cubit Town (2022). These are mostly grand buildings, no longer in use, and in decay. The excavation of walls and doors offer a glimpse into its former functions and possibly its secrets.
Jones’ sculptures are portals into our ways of lives: curiosities, obsessions, mysteries, vanities, loss, and hope. They careen from wondrous sunsets, clouds, and crystal collections, to the veiled and forbidding that is part of the human condition.
Chris Jones earned an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, London 2002. Jones was awarded an artist residency at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art (Peekskill, NY) in 2008 followed by a solo show at the museum. Past solo gallery shows include Galerie Martin Van Zomeren in Amsterdam (2006) and the Glass Box Gallery, Manchester (2001). Jones has participated in numerous group exhibitions throughout Europe, North America, and Asia. Notable recent museum presentations include the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, NYU, New York (2016); The Oakland University Art Gallery, Michigan (2014); Prague Biennial (2013); Manchester Art Gallery (2012); and the Knoxville Art Museum (2014).
