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Jennie C. Jones

Jennie C. Jones brings sonic vibes to Guggenheim, Jan. 28

Jennie C. Jones, ‘Red Tone Burst #2,’ 2021. Architectural felt panel and acrylic on canvas, 77.5cm by 76.2cm by 6.3cm. © Jennie C. Jones, courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York and PATRON Gallery, Chicago
Jennie C. Jones, ‘Red Tone Burst #2,’ 2021. Architectural felt panel and acrylic on canvas, 77.5cm by 76.2cm by 6.3cm. © Jennie C. Jones, courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York and PATRON Gallery, Chicago

NEW YORK – From January 28 through April 18, an exhibition of new and recent works by interdisciplinary artist Jennie C. Jones will be on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Jennie C. Jones: Dynamics will include paintings, works on paper, and a sound installation that responds to the Guggenheim’s iconic architecture by interweaving visual and aural experience.

Many of the works in the exhibition incorporate architectural felt and acoustic panels to create what Jones calls “active surfaces.” These materials absorb and dampen sound, thus affecting the acoustic properties of their environments and impacting the viewers’ experiences, auditory and otherwise as they move through the exhibition. Protruding from the wall, the works are both a part of and apart from the architectural spaces they transform.

Jennie C. Jones, ‘Neutral [clef] Structure 1st & 2nd,’ 2021. Acoustic panel and acrylic on canvas, diptych, 121.9cm by 91.4cm by 8.9cm each. © Jennie C. Jones, courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York and PATRON Gallery, Chicago
Jennie C. Jones, ‘Neutral [clef] Structure 1st & 2nd,’ 2021. Acoustic panel and acrylic on canvas, diptych, each component measuring 121.9cm by 91.4cm by 8.9cm. © Jennie C. Jones, courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York and PATRON Gallery, Chicago
The pieces in the show comprise multiple components and take the form of diptychs and triptychs — arrangements that Jones compares to chords in music. The surfaces of these objects balance a contained Minimalist rigor with gestural painted marks. This interplay between traces of the artist’s hand and signs of its erasure suggests the tension between improvisation and controlled structure evident in avant-garde music.
Jennie C. Jones, ‘Fractured Extension/Broken Time’, 2021 (detail).  Acoustic absorber panel, architectural felt, and acrylic on canvas in two parts, 121.9cm by 121.9cm by 7.6cm each. © Jennie C. Jones, courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York and PATRON Gallery, Chicago
Jennie C. Jones, ‘Fractured Extension/Broken Time’, 2021 (detail).  Acoustic absorber panel, architectural felt, and acrylic on canvas in two parts, 121.9cm by 121.9cm by 7.6cm each. © Jennie C. Jones, courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York and PATRON Gallery, Chicago

Jones channels in her hybrid objects a legacy of radical Black sonic practitioners who negotiated 20th-century social experience with compositions that could be powerfully expressive in their embrace of opacity. Far more than “viewers,” visitors to the museum are encouraged to experience the social and physical dynamics of perception as they explore Jones’s works on the first two levels of the Guggenheim rotunda, as well as a sound installation on the sixth level.

Jennie C. Jones, ‘Split Bar, End Note,’ 2021. Acoustic panel and acrylic on canvas, diptych, 121.9cm by 91.cm by 8.9 cm each. © Jennie C. Jones, courtesy the artist; Alexander Gray Associates, New York; PATRON Gallery, Chicago
Jennie C. Jones, ‘Split Bar, End Note,’ 2021. Acoustic panel and acrylic on canvas, diptych, 121.9cm by 91.cm by 8.9 cm each. © Jennie C. Jones, courtesy the artist; Alexander Gray Associates, New York; PATRON Gallery, Chicago

Installed alongside Vasily Kandinsky: Around the Circle, Jennie C. Jones: Dynamics invites a surprising dialogue between the two artists for whom music is central to the composition of their respective works. The synesthetic experience of encountering Jones’s art mirrors Kandinsky’s own spiritual belief in art at the intersection of sight and sound.

Jennie C. Jones: Dynamics is organized by Lauren Hinkson, Associate Curator, Collections.

Visit the website of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and see its dedicated page for Jennie C. Jones: Dynamics.

Jennie C. Jones