The exposition, the confrontation, then the denouement. Classic story structure – three acts that begin with the introduction of place, characters and mood, followed by a confrontation, a problem to be tackled, then the resolution, just as everything seems to be unravelling. Without portraying events, and rarely even characters, Jones’ paintings nonetheless have the feeling of chapters, of a narration being told, some even depicting book covers. In Cutting Shade, the walls are scattered with traces of Jones’ surroundings in rural Sussex – props, it feels, in an unfolding drama.
Act one, the exposition. After years of experimenting with different methods of printmaking, Jones realized her eye was often more drawn to the unintended moments of the process – a faint fingerprint mark, or accidental smearing of ink – haptic mishaps, rather than the supposed subject. She’d admire German artist Andrea Büttner’s iPhone etchings – made of daubs from her fingerprints on a smartphone, scaled up to look like gestural paintings. Jones wanted her prints to achieve a similar soiled and self-referential quality. She settled for a specific lithographic experiment: printing a photograph to scale onto a polyester plate coated in water and oil, which she manipulates with watercolor. She realized the materials underneath had to have a mercurial quality, too, mastering a technique by working on to suede and silk, often hoarding scraps from ebay, or cutting up old jackets. The fabrics absorb oil and paint in different ways: the delicate silk soaks them up, bleeding the color deep into its fibers – the tough suede made for blotchy stains, yet is sensitive to the lightest of fingerprints.
The confrontation, act two. What are these things, which she dubs as ‘objects’? Each teeters between printing, painting and photography. Human representation is absent, yet humanity is present, with faint impressions left behind. Her fingerprints fox the suede surfaces – remnants of deliberating and handlings in the studio. She’ll make countless decisions, reaching down further into her overflowing box of offcuts: some that are dyed, others left bare, their history never entirely obliterated. Her approach to subject is equally as complex, infusing familiar sights from her home in unfamiliar close-up: a half-empty glass, burning candles, shadows from a window. She takes quick snapshots when a vision blooms, cogitating over perspectives and crops before transferring one on to plate. In On Photography, Susan Sontag writes: “Photographs are, of course, artifacts. But their appeal is that they also seem, in a world littered with photographic relics, to have the status as found objects.” Jones’ ‘objects’ each retain the patina of being held or discovered from a different era. They quickly capture a fleeting moment, but hers unashamedly linger on a feeling – her three melting candles, or half-opened blinds, for instance, both metaphors for time passing.
Cutting Shade is derived from a verse in Gertrude Stein’s book of poems, Tender Buttons. Stein used the expression to describe layers of pastry, but to Jones it sparked a similarity with her process, ’shadowing’ being to mimic reality, as a shadow does. Once composed, stretched and framed in panes no bigger than the page of a book, Jones’ denouement is hanging them on the wall for the viewer to begin the story. And so it goes round, in the telling and retelling, each piece a fragment of a passing day, like words briefly fixed to a page.
- Text by Ted Targett to accompany Cutting Shade- Poppy Jones at Mrs Gallery Los Angeles Feb 2022
Current
Fortnight Institute, New York, USA 'Ashes Denote that Fire Was' - Group show
16 July- 31 August 2022
Galerie Mighela Shama, Geneva Switzerland- Group show with Audrey Guttman, Poppy Jones, Yoora Lee and Chloe West
May 5th- 17th June 2022
Recent (Solo)
Cutting Shade- Mrs.Gallery at Ochi Aux 3305 W.Washington Blvd Los Angeles, California USA
February 2-26, 2022
Bright Sleep- South Parade, London, United Kingdom. Co-Presented with Painters Painting Paintings
12 August-11 September 2021
(Group)
Art Brussels 2022 Galerie Derouillon with Alejandra Moros, Alexandre Benjamin Navet, Gal Schindler, Poppy Jones, Roman Moriceau, Santiago Evans Canales and Shuo Hao April 28-May 01 ,2022
Poppy Jones- Contrappunto, Vin Vin Vienna Vienna, Austria 12 March - 16 April 2022
Watch the Fire from the Shore- Linseed Projects, Shanghai, China
Nell Brookfield, Sophie Vallance Cantor, Cheng Chi Tien Lin, Tom Howse, Poppy Jones, Li Hei Di, Lukas Leichtle, Ellie Pratt,
Pu Yingwei, Shi Jiayun, Mary Stephenson, Kiki Xuebing Wang, Eva Zhang Yi, Zheng Zhilin, Zhi Wei
12 November- 4 December 2021
Windows The Artist Room, London United Kingdom
Nicole Coson, William Eggleston, Poppy Jones, Daido Moriyama, Ed Ruscha, Prem Sahib, Donavon Smallwood, Wolfgang Tillmans and Cy Twombly
London 14th October - 20th November 2021
What's Up /London curated by Lawrence Van Hagen. London, United Kingdom
Brice Guilbert, Camille Henrot, Emily Mae Smith, Günther Förg, Jannis Kounellis Jorge Zalszupin, Jose Dávila, Joshua Oheneba-Takyi, Kenneth Noland, Loie Hollowell, Martin Eisler, Mohamed Bourouissa, Nicolas Party, Oscar Niemeyer, Poppy Jones
Robert Longo, Ron Gorchov, Sara Anstis, Sergio Rodrigues, Sol LeWitt, Taizo Kuroda, Takis
October-November 2021
Past
Tender Blue, Gerald Moore Gallery, London 2017
Seasons, Maxilla Space, ACAVA, London, 2017
Cultural Traffic, FirstSite, Colchester, February 2017
The Gardener Who Saw God, (Solo) Project 78 Gallery, St Leonards-on-Sea, UK, 2016
Cultural Traffic, London 2016
Eiderdown, (solo) 248 Clapham Road, London. 2014
On New Grounds, the Bluecoat, Liverpool 2014
AA2A, University of Bedfordshire, 2014
Beach House, Cornwall 2013
Memory Stick, Woodmill, London, 2011
Sluice Art Fair, Lise Hovesen and Poppy Jones, APlan, London 2011
SAGS, Woodmill, London 2011
Print, The Exchange, Newlyn Gallery, Cornwall, 2011
Calling upon Spirits, Testbed, London 2010
RCA SHOW, Royal College of Art, London 2010
My Aura Needs Cleaning, Joseph Long, Samara Scott, Henrik Potter, Poppy Jones, Tim Pritchard Space, London 2010
Idle Women,Gabriele Beveridge, Rose O'Gallivan, Niamh Riordan, Poppy Jones and Lise Hovesen T1+2 Gallery, London 2010
Park View Situ, CGP, London 2009
Statues Die Too, Gabriele Beveridge, Rose O'Gallivan, Niamh Riordan, Poppy Jones and Lise Hovesen, London 2009
Space Reverie, CGP, London 2009
These Screens (solo) Oxo Tower, London, 2007
Frieze Art Fair, Curated by Bob and Roberta Smith, Resonance FM, 2007
Acid Free, Simon Dara, Rose O'Gallivan, Poppy Jones, London, 2006
Education
Royal College of Art, Fine Art Printmaking MA 2008-2010
Falmouth College of Art, Fine Art BA (Hons)2004-2007
Residencies
Kirsten Kjaer Museum, 2016
West Dean College, 2015
University of Bedfordshire, 2013-2014
Frans Masereel Centre, Belgium 2011
Horniman Museum Library, London 2010
T1+2 Gallery, London 2010
Awards
Eaton Fund Grant 2014
Graduate Pre-incubation Award, Falmouth University 2013
Alf Dunn Award, Royal College of Art 2010
20/21 British Art Fair Prize (shortlisted) 2009
Lynn Painters Stainers Prize- Young Artists award 2007
Lynn Painters Stainers Prize- Runners up award 2006