Working in painting, installation, sound and performance, Rachel Jones explores a sense of self as a visual, visceral experience. In her paintings, she grapples with the challenges of finding visual means to convey abstract, existential concepts. In depicting the psychological truths of being and the emotions these engender, abstraction becomes a way of expressing the intangible. The artist repeats motifs and symbols across her series to create associative, even familial, relationships between them, underscoring their kinship as part of her ongoing investigation of identity.
The figure is notably abstracted in her works, as Jones is interested in 'using motifs and colour as a way to communicate ideas about the interiority of Black bodies and their lived experience'. Abstracted mouths and teeth suggest a symbolic and literal entry point to the interior and the self. Within this vivid inner landscape, oral and, more recently, floral forms emerge and recede from view. Her expressive use of colour becomes a way of provoking or communicating with viewers, who bring their own lived experiences and cultural backgrounds to the interpretation of her works. This sense of community and shared history comes to the fore in her installations and performances, in which imagery, sound and music coalesce in a celebration of Black culture.
The artist creates a tension or friction in her paintings through the kaleidoscopic palette, boldness of competing forms and interplay of textures. She has described her work as an 'exegesis of colour', dominated by fiery reds, fleshy pinks and acid yellows against the counterbalancing coolness of blues and greens. The same critical eye that she turns upon questions of cultural identity and selfhood is applied to the language of painting itself, in works that reconsider both traditional and contemporary approaches to colour and form.
Jones joined the gallery when her work was included in the group exhibition A Focus on Painting (2020), curated by Julia Peyton-Jones. She completed her BA Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art in 2013 and an MA Fine Art at the Royal Academy Schools, London, in 2019. Her work has been exhibited in the UK at institutions such as the Royal Scottish Academy and in a group exhibition alongside Gillian Ayres and Nao Matsunaga at the New Art Centre, Salisbury (2019). This was followed by her inclusion in Mixing It Up: Painting Today at the Hayward Gallery, London (2021) and a solo exhibition at the Chisenhale Gallery, London (2022). She was an artist in residence at The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas, in 2019 and the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art in 2016.
2022
Rachel Jones: say cheeeeese, Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK
2021
Rachel Jones: SMIIILLLLEEEE, Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK
Blessings Pon Blessings, Harlesden High Street, London, UK
2020
A Sovereign Mouth, 12.26, Dallas, TX, USA
2019
Red Shaped Mouths, The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX, USA
2018
Mad Dogs, Jupiter Woods, London, UK
Grandmama Looking At Him, Marriott's Way, Norfolk, UK
2017
Rachel Jones: The Black In Their Face, Residence Gallery, London, UK
2014
Sugar Cane Plantation, Folk, London, UK
2013
Noble Eagle/Wiley Fox, 48 Virginia Court, Glasgow, UK
2022
Black Abstractionists: From Then 'til Now, curated by Dexter Wimberly, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX, USA
In Our Time: Selections from the Singer Collection, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, AZ, USA
Put it this Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Collection, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C., USA
Rock My Soul II (Stockholm), curated by Isaac Julien, Galleri Futura, Stockholm
Saturation, Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris Pantin, France
Women of Now: Dialogues of Memory, Place & Identity, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX, USA
2021
Mixing It Up: Painting Today, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
Citizens of Memory, The Perimeter, London, UK
Drawing Biennial 2021, Drawing Room, London, UK
2020
A Focus on Painting, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK
Rachel Jones & Nicholas Pope, Sunday Painter, London, UK
2019
The Artist Dining Room | Faith Ringgold, Guest Projects, London, UK
Gillian Ayres, Rachel Jones, Nao Matsunaga, New Art Centre, Salisbury, UK
RA Schools Show, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
2018
Winter in America III, Mom's Favorite Space, Los Angeles, CA, USA
MYCO-TV, 7 Rue de Juvisy, Paris, France
Le Colt est Jeune & Haine [The Colt is Young & Hatred], DOC, Paris, France
After Cesaire/Modern Tropiques, Platform Southwark, London, UK
Premiums, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
Breaking Shells, The Koppel Project, London, UK
2017
georgette, cur. Love Unlimited, Suede Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
Hands To Mouth, FOLD Gallery, London, UK
Addams Outtakes, roaming projects, London, UK
Where’s My Sugar, Ridgeway Road, London, UK
2016
Part 5, lm6a Project Room, London, UK
2015
On Fun and Friction, SWG3, Glasgow, UK
2014
New Scottish Artists, The Fleming Collection, London, UK
RSA: New Contemporaries, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK
New at 108, 108 Fine Art, Harrogate, UK
2013
Glasgow School of Art Degree Show 2013, Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK
China
Long Museum, Shanghai
Hong Kong
K11 Musea
Netherlands
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
South Africa
A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town
UK
Arts Council Collection
Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
Tate
Towner Gallery, Eastbourne
USA
Baltimore Museum of Art, MD
Dallas Museum of Art, TX
Green Family Foundation, Miami, FL
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
The Rachofsky House, Dallas, TX
2019
Artist in Residence, The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX, USA
Andre Dunoyer de Segonzac Hon RA Prize, Royal Academy Schools, London, UK
2018
Machin Painting Prize, The Machin Arts Foundation, Stafford, UK
2016
Artist in Residence, Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art, Paget, Bermuda
2013
Selected Artist, RSA: New Contemporaries, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK
Hunt Medal for Poetic Creativity, The Steven Campbell Trust, Glasgow, UK
108 Fine Art Purchase Prize, 108 Fine Art, Harrowgate, UK