Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons

"A psychedelic explosion" ★★★★ 

The Guardian 

"A riot of colour" ★★★★

The Times

Renowned for her striking use of colour, blending of abstract and figurative motifs and distinctive technique, Jones pushes the boundaries of painting.

Gated Canyons is the first contemporary solo show in our main exhibition space, and features a compelling new body of work, comprised of large-scale and intimate paintings created with Jones' signature tools of oil stick and oil pastels, 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 our historic Collection, Jones takes Flemish artist Pieter Boel’s Head of a Hound (c. 1660–5) as a starting point for the new series, while drawing on the exaggerated expressions and epic 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).