HEATHER JONES BIOGRAPHY
Heather Jones is an artist that uses abstraction and color to comment on matrilineal connections, the historical and socio-political relationship between women and textiles, and explores the relationship between gender, place, time, and culture in her work. Her sewn paintings and sculptures continue the story of geometric abstraction, and she is influenced by artists including Josef and Anni Albers, Ellsworth Kelly, and Carmen Herrara, but also equally by a vast group of unknown female makers from the Southern and Appalachian regions of the United States and their patchwork quilting. The subject of her work is unequivocally feminist: she chooses to work with fabric rather than paint, in reference and reverence to the fact that fiber arts were often the only type of art that women were encouraged to practice for many years throughout history. Conceptually her work focuses on the use of readymade, common material and its elevation to high art; the power of color and shape; and is an authentic connection to the past, both personally and universally. She documents the story of our current world, particularly female narratives often neglected from history. By working within the realm of geometric compositions, Jones creates a universal visual language to tell these stories, using textiles as a reference to issues of domesticity and women’s work.
Jones is represented by Contemporary Art Matters, Columbus, Ohio; the George Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina; Moremen Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky; and has work available though David Richard Gallery, New York, NY. She was selected as an artist-in-residence for Kehinde Wiley’s inaugural class at Black Rock Senegal, and worked there in October 2019. Jones’ solo exhibition, Storytellers, opened in February 2022 at the Contemporary Dayton (Ohio), one of three concurrent solo exhibitions featuring the work of Jones, Odili Donald Odita, and Jeffrey Gibson. She also had her first solo exhibit in New York City at David Richard Gallery that opened in February 2022. Jones recently finished a 10-month residency program at Silver Art Projects in New York City.
Her work has been exhibited widely at national and international venues including the Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH (solo); Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati, OH (solo); Contemporary Art Matters, Columbus, OH (solo); The Speed Museum of Art, Louisville, KY; the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; Art on Paper, New York, NY; Aqua Art Miami, Miami, FL; Marta Hewett Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; Iowa Quilt Museum, Winterset, IA; New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, MA; Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY; the University of California, Berkley, CA; Dakar Biennale, Dakar, Senegal; Boecker Contemporary, Heidelberg, Germany; drj- dr. julius | ap, Berlin, Germany; Five Walls, Melbourne, Australia; and M17 Contemporary Art Center, Kiev, Ukraine. Jones’ first book, Quilt Local: Finding Inspiration in the Everyday was released in October 2015 by STC Craft, an imprint of Abrams, New York. Her work was acquired by two major institutions in 2023, The Speed Museum of Art and the Columbus Museum of Art.
A native Cincinnatian, Jones studied art history at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning, earning both a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts (ABT). She currently lives outside of Cincinnati, Ohio on a small farm with her husband and two children.
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