Rachel Jones (artist)

Rachel Jones
Born1991 (age 32–33)
Brentwood, Essex, UK
EducationGlasgow School of Art; Royal Academy Schools
OccupationVisual artist
Websiterachelvictoriajones.co.uk

Rachel Jones (born 1991)[1] is a British visual artist. She has exhibited work in the UK at galleries and institutions including Thaddaeus Ropac, The Sunday Painter and the Royal Scottish Academy, and has been artist-in-residence at the Chinati Foundation (2019) and Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art in (2016).[2] Her work is in collections of The Tate, Arts Council England, Hepworth Wakefield, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.[3]

Biography

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Rachel Jones was born in Whitechapel, East London, and grew up in Essex.[4] She studied at Glasgow School of Art,[5] earning a BA Fine Art degree in 2013, and subsequently an MA in Fine Art from the Royal Academy Schools (2019).[3] In a 2021 interview for Harper's Bazaar she was quoted as saying of her time at art school: "I learned a lot about how to interrogate my own thoughts and feelings through my practice, in a way that I hadn't before ... I was trying to centre my experience as a Black woman in a space that is predominantly white and, ultimately, not designed for me to thrive."[6]

Her work has been described by art critic Louisa Buck as patrolling "a porous line between abstraction and the figurative ... rooted in the sheer joy of abstract colour, form and gesture", and Jones explains: "The things that I was most drawn to and moved by as a younger artist, and even as a child, often tended to be by Abstract Expressionist painters. I also responded to things that were abstract in the sense that they were removed from a reality that was day-to-day ... you can use colour and shape and form to speak to people in a way that isn't about a spoken language—it's about emotion and inciting feelings that don't have to be explained or expressed. It's responsive, it's instinctive, and a core part of all of us. So for me, it came from a place of being intrigued by these things and understanding them as a base human desire, and wanting to figure out how I could fit within that history and explore my interest in representations of Blackness."[3]

Works by Jones are held in collections of The Tate, Arts Council England, the Hepworth Wakefield, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami,[7] and she was a participant in the major 2021 exhibition Mixing it Up: Painting Today at the Hayward Gallery in London's Southbank Centre, where she was one of the youngest artists in the show.[3][8] As one review noted: "At Hayward Gallery's group exhibition Mixing it Up: Painting Today—a who's who of Britain's emerging painters—you'd have done well not to be stopped in your tracks by the vibrant, sprawling paintings of Rachel Jones. Her monumental, unstretched canvases comprise layered passages of competing oil stick and oil paint, with a tendency towards bold crimson backgrounds, their surfaces overlaid with scumbled gestural patterns in bright colours ... she has fast become one of Britain's top younger painters."[7]

More recently, her well-received first solo show, held at the Thaddaeus Ropac gallery in London,[7][9][10] prompted the Evening Standard to comment: "The 30-year-old Essex-based artist also has a Chisenhale Gallery show coming around the corner and, ahead of that, this exhibition, SMIIILLLLEEEE, in one of Europe’s biggest commercial galleries. And no wonder there's so much excitement about her: Jones is already a distinctive voice, creating ravishingly colourful works with intriguing subject matter ... this is hugely impressive stuff."[11] Caroline Douglas of Contemporary Art Society said: "For her latest London exhibition, Rachel Jones brings not just paintings but words and music references to scaffold her work in the here and now  ... The sensual, as well as the symbolic, power of the mouth and teeth have become the way the artist uses to speak about her ethnicity, and her experience of being a Black woman in the world today."[12]

Her exhibition at the Chisenhale Gallery, say cheeeeese, ran from 12 March to 12 June 2022.[13] Aurella Yussuf's review in Artsy states: "If the primary function of Jones’s work is to express the vast spectrum of her emotions, teeth became, for the artist, evocative of so many elements of human existence, such as consumption, laughter, even violence. The mouth is both a figurative and literal opening, an entryway into the physical body—its essential functions and all the unpleasantness that it entails—as well as an avenue for speech and expression. Although not working directly from reference images, Jones's practice is informed by her exposure to visual media, nature, and her lived experiences ... the underlying principle is that everyone has a mouth and everyone has a starting point to think about the infinite possibilities that lie within."[14]

Jones designed the Britannia trophy statuettes for the 2024 Brit Awards,[15][16][17] (a commission that has previously been given to artists and designers such as David Adjaye, Tracey Emin, Zaha Hadid, Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and Vivienne Westwood).[18][19]

Exhibitions

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References

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  1. ^ "Rachel Jones joins the Pallant House Gallery collection of Modern British Art". Thaddaeus Ropac. 26 March 2021. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  2. ^ "New work by Rachel Jones join our collection". Perspectives. Pallant House Gallery. 1 February 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e Buck, Louisa (7 December 2021). "Teeth, lips, flowers: rising star Rachel Jones on her latest works and how she prioritises a Black audience". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  4. ^ Ford, Lauren Moya (14 December 2020). "True Colors: Rachel Jones at 12.26 Gallery". Glasstire. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  5. ^ Kellaway, Kate (15 November 2015). "Rachel Jones, 24: 'Trying to second-guess what other people want is a recipe for disaster'". The Guardian.
  6. ^ Chappet, Marie-Claire (13 October 2021). "Who is Rachel Jones? Meet the artist behind this year's Bazaar Art cover". Bazaar. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  7. ^ a b c Hine, Will (9 December 2021). "Rachel Jones's Sprawling Canvases Make Their Mark on London". Ocula. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  8. ^ "Mixing it Up: Painting Today | Rachel Jones, lick your teeth, they so clutch, 2021". Hayward Gallery. Southbank Centre. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  9. ^ "Rachel Jones | SMIIILLLLEEEE". Thaddaeus Ropac. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  10. ^ Frankel, Eddy (25 November 2021). "Rachel Jones: SMIIILLLLEEEE review". Time Out. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  11. ^ Luke, Ben (14 December 2021). "Rachel Jones: SMIIILLLLEEEE at Thaddaeus Ropac review – A big toothy grin from a rising star". Evening Standard.
  12. ^ Douglas, Caroline (10 December 2022). "Rachel Jones: SMIIILLLLEEEE at Thadeus Ropac, London". Contemporary Art Society. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  13. ^ Searle, Adrian (14 March 2022). "Rachel Jones: say cheeeeese review – mutating paintings put a grin on your face". The Guardian.
  14. ^ Yussuf, Aurella (20 April 2022). "Rachel Jones Disrupts Art Spaces with Stunning Yet Unsettling Abstractions". Artsy. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  15. ^ "The BRIT Awards announce 2024 trophy designer". Record of the Day. 24 November 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  16. ^ "2024 Trophy revealed, with updates to award categories!". BRIT Awards. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  17. ^ "Exclusive digital cover: Inside the BRITs 2024 with Damian Christian & Rachel Jones". www.musicweek.com. 28 February 2024. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  18. ^ "Brit Awards". Dezeen. 13 May 2021. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  19. ^ Downes, Annabel (6 March 2024). "Painter Rachel Jones' BRIT Awards Trophy Takes the Stage". Ocula magazine. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
  20. ^ "Past Exhibitions | RSA New Contemporaries 2014". Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  21. ^ "Exhibition | Rachel Jones: Mad Dogs, 02 October 2018 — 01 December 2018". Jupiter Woods. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  22. ^ "Full list of Chinati Artists in Residence". Chinati.
  23. ^ "Gillian Ayres | Rachel Jones | Nao Matsunaga". NewArtCentre. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  24. ^ "Rachel Jones & Nicholas Pope (LISTE 2020), 14 – 26 September 2020". The Sunday Painter.
  25. ^ Gutierrez, Rachel L. "Gallery 12.26 scores with the summary artwork of Rachel Jones". durangobagel.net. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  26. ^ Lima, Benjamin (10 December 2020). "Swallowed up by color | Gallery 12.26 scores with the abstract art of Rachel Jones". Dallas News.
  27. ^ "A Focus on Painting". Thaddaeus Ropac. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  28. ^ Vasey, George (8 December 2021). "Mixing It Up: Painting Today". The Burlington Magazine. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  29. ^ "Next Big Things: Rachel Jones". Galerie. 3 December 2021. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  30. ^ "Rachel Jones: SMIIILLLLEEEE |". London Ely House: Thaddaeus Ropac. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  31. ^ Buck, Louisa (7 February 2022). "Rachel Jones closes acclaimed Thaddaeus Ropac London show by inviting literary luminaries to respond to her paintings". The Art Newspaper.
  32. ^ "Rachel Jones: say cheeeeese". Chisenhale Gallery, London. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
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