Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons
"These are impressive, imposing, clever paintings" ★★★★
Gated Canyons is the highly anticipated exhibition by acclaimed artist Rachel Jones, the first contemporary solo show in the Gallery’s main exhibition space.
Renowned for her striking use of colour, blending of abstract and figurative motifs and distinctive technique, Jones pushes the boundaries of contemporary painting.
Gated Canyons features a compelling new body of work - large-scale and intimate paintings created with Jones' signature tools of oil stick and oil pastels - presented alongside selected works from the last seven years of her practice.
"Jones has come up with a unique visual language in contemporary painting"
The Guardian
Responding to the historic Collection at the Gallery, Jones takes Flemish artist Pieter Boel’s Head of a Hound (c. 1660–5) as a starting point for her new series, while also drawing on the exaggerated expressions and architecture found in cartoons such as Looney Tunes.
These paintings playfully explore how our emotions are reflected back to us through our real-world experiences and environments. Discover how colour, shape and form can engage the senses, evoking instinctive responses that don’t have to be explained or resolved.
The exhibition is curated by Jane Findlay (Helen Frankenthaler: Radical Beauty 2021). An online curator's talk with Jane is taking place on Wednesday 2 July.
Friends go free to all of our exhibitions.
Learn more about becoming a Friend
The exhibition publication is supported by The Ryan Taylor Collection.
