Jennie C. Jones

Jennie C. Jones (born 1968 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an African-American artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been described, by Ken Johnson, as evoking minimalism, and paying tribute to the cross-pollination of different genres of music, especially jazz. As an artist, she connects most of her work between art and sound. Such connections are made with multiple mediums, from paintings to sculptures and paper to audio collages. In 2012, Jones was the recipient of the Joyce Alexander Wien Prize, one of the biggest awards given to an individual artist in the United States. The prize honors one African-American artist who has proven their commitment to innovation and creativity, with an award of 50,000 dollars. In December 2015 a 10-year survey of Jones's work, titled Compilation , opened at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas.

Education
Jennie C. Jones received her BFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1991. She then graduated from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, earning her MFA in 1996. In the summer of 1996, Jones was a participant at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

Career
Jones is a visual and sonic artist whose paintings, sculptures, and works on paper incorporate ideas around minimalism, abstraction, Jazz, and Black history. Valerie Cassel Oliver noted in her “Outside The Lines,” catalogue essay, that “working in painting as well as sound, she has mined the politics, culture and aesthetic innovations of the mid-20th century and has emerged with sharp criticisms and astute queries that are now embedded in the work. Jones's work challenges us to understand the frameworks of modernism, which embraced black musical forms but excluded black visual art from its canon". During Absorb / Diffuse, her fall 2011 exhibition at The Kitchen in New York City, Jones presented a piece titled From The Low, which is a sound piece that has multiple music samples, ranging from jazz to modern electronica. From The Low presents her political statement: that African-American artists and musicians are absent from modernism. The samples used in this sound piece have been "given a new context, perhaps to be classified in a category of black minimalism".

The audio pieces are constructed using traditional sound editing methodologies and often have their origin in historic recordings. With the amalgamation of industrial acoustic materials, often used in recording studios and listening rooms, Jones's art focuses on building a bridge between two-dimensional works, architecture, and sound. Jennie has stated that "conceptualism allows these different media to occupy the same space.” Jones is a critic in the Sculpture Department at Yale University.

2000s – early work
In Jones's 'Selected Early Works,' she combined photography, visual arts, and audio art. Jones's website displays 30 images of her work completed in the 2000s. These works not only includes static, lasting art but also records of her installation art, such as her 2003 A/V Sound Work installation. These works, along with the works that follow, are easily accessible on her artist website. Towards the end of the early years of Jones work she received the William H. Johnson Prize in 2008. This is a $25,000 award given to African American artists based in the Los Angeles area.

2009 – Atlanta
This installation was a collection of visual works of acrylic painting, ink and collage works among other mediums. Jones's "Atlanta" exhibit at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.

2010 – Electric
This collection is a variety of 2-D and 3-D works exhibited at Sikkema, Jenkins & Co. Gallery during July 8 - August 13, 2010.

2011 – Absorb, Silence
This installation at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California was a combination of acrylic paintings, installation art, and various other 3-D art works.

2012 – Harmonic Disruption
This exhibit was a collection of ink works on paper and installations of cable and speakers located in the Arratia Beer gallery in Berlin, Germany.

2013 – Higher Resonance
At the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gallery in Washington, D.C., this exhibit contained works of acrylic paint, wood, fiberglass, mineral wool filling, and fabric.

2014 – Tone
In a combination of acrylic paint on canvas and acoustic absorber panel, noise cancelling cable, and mixed media collage, Jones's Tone was displayed at Sikkema, Jenkins & Co. Gallery.

2015 – Group
This exhibition was a group collection at the Sikkema, Jenkins & Co. Gallery. Jones, along with Josephine Halvorson and Leslie Hewitt displayed works of paintings and photography during 12/11/15 - 1/28/16.

2016 – Compilation
This installation at The Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, Texas, was on display from December 11, 2015 - March 27, 2016 and combined 2D art and 3D art.

2017 – Amplitude
This installation included both paint on canvas and acoustic soundboard. The Sikkema, Jenkins & Co. Gallery had this to say about Jones's Amplitude: "Jennie C. Jones' work exposes the connections between conceptual and avant-garde African-American music and the cultural, political, and historical ideas surrounding Minimalism and Abstraction. Jones brings to light the unlikely alliances that emerged between the visual arts and the imprint of music, highlighting the way they became and continue to exist as tangible markers of social evolution and political strivings."

2018 – Alternative Takes
This installation was at the Patron Gallery, Chicago, Illinois from February 3 - March 18, 2018. It combined acrylic paint and 3D art.

2018 – RPM (Revolutions Per Minute)
This installation brings together audio collages and works on paper. It was displayed at The Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut from September 2018 - January 2019.

Exhibitions
One of Jones's first notable New York City group shows was "Freestyle" at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Jones is represented by Alexander Gray Associates and Patron Gallery.

Fellowships and residencies

 * Rauschenberg Residency, Captiva Florida 2014
 * The Lower East Side Printshop – Special Editions Resident, 2011
 * Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study Center – Italy, March 2008
 * American Academy in Rome, Italy, Visiting Artist - April 2008
 * Liguria Study Center for the Arts & Humanities Fellow – Genova, Italy, 2004
 * Cité internationale des arts in Paris, 2002–03
 * Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Residency World Trade Center, 1999
 * Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (1996)

Awards

 * Robert Rauschenberg Award, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, 2016
 * Joan Mitchell Award Grantee, 2013
 * The Joyce Alexander Wein Prize, 2012
 * Art Matters Grant, 2012
 * William H. Johnson Prize, 2008
 * Creative Capital Grantee, 2008
 * Pollock-Krasner Grant Recipient, 2000

Collections

 * BNY Mellon, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
 * Deutsche Bank, New York, New York
 * Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York
 * Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint, Michigan
 * The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
 * The Zimmerli Museum, Rutgers University, New Jersey
 * The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, New York
 * Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, California
 * The Americas Collection, Deutsche Bank
 * Weil, Gotshal & Manges, New York City, New York
 * Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York