Benjamin Jones

IMAGE GALLERY

BIO

Benjamin Jones creates haunting images that reveal a distinct visual language. Subjects include current events and icons of popular culture; however, his most consistent subject is himself. Inhabiting an intriguingly indefinable space, each of these poignant self-portraits reveals the artist’s innermost feelings and insecurities. Mixing whimsy with horror or humor with malevolence, Jones’ forms become vehicles for messages about the struggle of life and all its paradoxes. These seductive and intimate drawings, paradoxical in themselves, create a tension between the purity of their intuition and the refinement of their presentation.

Stylistic parallels have been drawn between Benjamin Jones’ work and that of Jean-Michel Basquiat, as well as with Jones’ acknowledged influence, Jean Dubuffet and the works of Art Brut. However, his drawings are undeniably his own. Larry Rinder, former Curator of Contemporary Art at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, comments that Jones’ drawings possess “…energy, vitality, those…impalpable feelings – the sense that the work had to be there, that it was compelled by some internal urgency on the part of the artist.” Benjamin Jones’ drawings are included in prominent museum collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, NY; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; J.B. Speed Museum, Louisville, KY; Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA; and Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA, as well as significant corporate and private collections.

Jones received a 1994 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Southern Arts Federation. In 2004 he was the recipient of the prestigious Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award. Jones is a graduate of the State University of West Georgia and resides outside Atlanta.

Rebekah Jacob Gallery
169-B King Street
Charleston SC 29401
phone: 843.937.9222
cell: 843.697.5471
email us »

Tues.- Sat.: 10am-5:30pm
Sun. and Mon. by appt. only

VISIT

Book Release! The Projectionist: Photos by Kendall Messick

The ideal artist is unwilling to sacrifice his or her individuality to anything or anyone, particularly commercialism or outside control. Such artists often work in seclusion and their creations are uniquely pure. Gordon Brinckle is such an artist. [Messick's] photographs are both tender and authentic in the greatest sense, and I found myself as close [...]

read more »

BLOG

FOLLOW US ON:

  

CONNECT

HOME | EXHIBITS| ARTISTS | ABOUT | RESOURCES | VIDEO | PRESS | BLOG | CONTACT
all image copyright © of the artist