FOCUS: Ben Jones

April 11, 2010 - June 7, 2010
Ben Jones, MS Video Painting I, 2010

Ben Jones
MS Video Painting I, 2010
Canvas, gouache, DVD (Magic Saints Video, 2010. Five-minute DVD loop)
168 x 120 inches
Acquired in 2010
Gift of the Director's Council and Museum purchase

April 11, 2010 - June 7, 2010

American-born artist Ben Jones' work investigates new methods of pictorial storytelling in the digital age. An interdisciplinary artist working in video, sculpture, painting, light painting and drawing, his artworks and installations evoke environments and themes both familiar and bizarre.

For years, Jones has sharpened his skills by working as an animator and comic book illustrator. Consequentially, his work has a colorful and playful visual language.  Jones’ artwork reflects the wide-ranging influences that inundate the artist (and viewer) in their daily experience within contemporary society. The artist levels the playing field for such disparate references as minimalism, video games, dogs and “The Simpsons,” by equally favoring all in his work, and in so doing, he slyly merges high art with popular culture in a present-day vocabulary.

Jones currently lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island; he is a member of the acclaimed East Coast artist collective Paper Rad. He has shown internationally on his own and with Paper Rad. Jones was recently in exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MACRO) in Rome, Italy; Museum of Modern Art in New York; Deitch Projects in New York; and Andreas Melas Presents in Athens, Greece.

Ben Jones
MS Video Painting I, 2010
Canvas, gouache, DVD (Magic Saints Video, 2010. Five-minute DVD loop)
168 x 120 inches
Acquired in 2010
Gift of the Director's Council and Museum purchase