NYAB Event - Erik Jones “Twenty Sixteen”

Erik Jones “Twenty Sixteen”

Jonathan LeVine Gallery

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Jonathan LeVine Gallery presents Twenty Sixteen, a series of new work by Brooklyn-based artist Erik Jones in what will be his debut solo exhibition in New York City.

Jones challenges viewers to see beauty in his chaotic, mixed-media works that merge nude subjects with nonrepresentational, abstract elements. Describing the human figures in his compositions as “aesthetic anchors,” they are the calming foreground upon which bursts of color, stenciled shapes and custom-made stickers create surreal landscapes. Using multiple mediums, such as watercolor, acrylic, colored pencils, wax pastels and oil paint, Jones’ portraits are technically complex and express a heightened sense of realism.

The relationship between Jones’ subjects and the abstract motifs that engulf them can be interpreted as conceptual fashion design. His portraits are dressed in a stunning hurricane of color and geometric patterns, suiting the needs of the individual while also maintaining their own autonomous beauty.

Along with Jones’ hypnotic portraits, Twenty Sixteen will feature a selection of works where the human form is removed, creating purely abstract environments. Sporadically placed symbols, silhouettes and a unique coded alphabet created by the artist fosters a subjective narrative he refers to as “dialogue aesthetics.” While this body of work may appear like a dreamlike universe, Jones does not view his paintings as depicting fantasy; they exist in front of the viewer, placed on canvases and paper with skill and thoughtful reverie, as if looking at a real living being.

Erik Jones was born in 1982 in St. Petersburg, Florida and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. He received a bachelor’s degree from Ringling College of Art and Design in 2007. Early in his career he primarily worked creating cover illustrations for comic books and toured the United States showing at different pop culture and art conventions. His work has been exhibited at galleries in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and London. In 2015, he had his debut solo show in Europe at Dorothy Circus Gallery in Rome.