SAMUEL LEVI JONES: BLACK WHITE THREAD - NOVEMBER 8, 2014 - JANUARY 4, 2015
SAMUEL LEVI JONES IS AWARDED THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM $50,000 JOYCE ALEXANDER WEIN ARTIST PRIZE
Congratulations to Samuel for receiving this distinguished award this year, the Wein Artist Prize is awarded each year to an artist who demonstrates great innovation, promise and creativity. He is in very good company as previous awardees include Gary Simmons, Glenn Ligon, Leonardo Drew and Jennie C. Jones to name a few.
The Los Angeles Times review in the Art section - click HERE
Samuel Levi Jones is an emerging abstract conceptual artist working in multiple media. His work, often utilizing found objects, fits within a rich tradition of West Coast Conceptual art and assemblage, while also embracing abstraction. Jones was born and raised in Marion, Indiana, and currently works and resides in the San Francisco Bay area. Trained as a photographer and multidisciplinary artist, he earned a BA from Taylor University and a BFA from the Herron School of Art and Design in 2009. In 2012 he received his MFA in Studio Arts from Mills College, Oakland, California.
Jones’s work is informed by historical source material and early modes of representation in documentary practice. He explores the framing of power by disassembling objects to metaphorically deconstruct the accepted beliefs connected with them. Reassembling these materials into works of art, Jones investigates issues of manipulation and the rejection of control in the broad sense. In recent work, Jones has collected encyclopedias and medical reference books, removing their covers and reassembling the skin-like material into formal grids. Literally tearing apart these books—widely published arbiters of authenticity—and reconstructing them into abstract two-dimensional works for the wall is, as Jones writes, “a means of creating a medium that communicates this feeling of being on the outside, as well as providing a possible resolution to the search for a place of inclusion and identity as an outsider.”
Jones recently completed the Recology Artist in Residence Program in San Francisco which concluded in a group exhibition. His work has been featured in exhibitions around the country, including TRANSPORT…Where we go from here at Pro Arts, Oakland, California, in 2013, as well as at the Latent Image Gallery, Indianapolis; the Cal State University Gallery; the Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis; Mills College, Oakland, CA; and the Watts Towers Art Center, Los Angeles, CA.
The Studio Museum in Harlem will present a solo exhibition in 2015 showcasing Jones’s very first site-specific work.