Staff Profile

Introduction

Christopher Jones' art practice reflects an interest in expanded definitions of painting and drawing in which discipline-specific characteristics might be dissolved and combined with those more typical of sculptural, printmaking or installation practices. 

His current work focuses on the physical transformation of found and/or discarded material to arrive at "unmonumental" objects of presence: forms characterised  by small scale, rudimentary material and understatement.  Recent previous practice brought together investigation of sites of change and a process of assemblage in order to propose visual equivalents to the relationship between site, memory and the passing of time. 

Solo exhibitions of his work have been held in the UK, and in Australia, Germany, Japan, Korea, Norway and Slovakia. Group projects over the past twenty-five years have been developed within the context of a dialogue with an informal network of artists from across Europe and beyond who are interested in artist-led international exchange.

Background

Chris studied at Newcastle University and Chelsea School of Art, London and was a Monbusho Scholar at Kyoto University from 1987-89.

Before joining Newcastle University he was Fine Art Fellow at Cheltenham School of Art, GlosCAT, resident artist at the School of Art in Hull and an associate visiting lecturer at Sunderland University. He has also taught as a visiting artist at Coventry University; Nottingham University;  Fachochschule, SchwäbischHall and the Kunstseminar, Metzingen, Germany; SangMyung University and Seoul National University, Korea; Trivandrum College of Art, Delhi College of Art and Madras College of Art, India. 

In addition to his responsibilities as a full-time member of studio staff in Fine Art Chris is a Visiting Professor to Jilin University of Arts, ChangChun, China and has been the external examiner for MA Art & Design at Wolverhampton University and Norwich University of Arts. He was the external academic member of the revalidation panel for the BA Fine Art programme at Chelsea College of Art in 2014 and the external academic advisor for the review and revalidation of undergraduate Fine Art programmes at AUT, Auckland, New Zealand in 2011. 

Website 

http://www.chrisjonesweb.com 

Current & Recent Research Interests

Christopher Jones's current practice-focused research considers the material transformation of studio residue into small-scale objects of presence. In an on-going body of over 200 works the extraneous material discarded in the production, documentation, transportation and storage of earlier artworks provides the raw material to form supports and grounds for the development of drawings, assemblages and paintings. A further series makes use of these supports as a meeting point for collaboration. 

This current research practice follows on from previous projects that examined sites of change as a focus to explore themes of erasure, trace and memory and notions of the "unmonumental". In these projects groups of intimately-scaled assemblages were made in response to historically-charged architectural spaces: the particular history and architectural remains of the 'gold rush' heritage site at Hill End, New South Wales, Australia, resulted in a series of miniature "souvenir" paintings and photomontages; in rural Kyushu, Japan, material collected on site was used to create found-material objects that were installed to animate the space of a 100-year-old traditional rice grain store.

More broadly the practice engages with discourse around contemporary drawing, assemblage and painting practices; materiality; the visualisation of memory; site-responsiveness; the afterlives of artworks.

http://www.chrisjonesweb.com 

Postgraduate Supervision

Chris has supervised practice-based Ph.D. research on eastern aesthetics and contemporary installation practice; the still photograph as a record of time-span; the relationship between memory, repetition and lens-based media; presence and absence in celluloid cinema, and visual echolalia in painting.

He is currently principal supervisor of Lucy Carolan's investigation of 'lostness' as a model to consider aspects of dementia, and Heather Ross's project which aims to generate new readings and experiences of Kurt Schwitter's Merz Barn Wall as an expanded time-based work in the present.

Recent supervision has included: Dr Kate Stobbart's exploration of empathetic frameworks that link medical and fine art practices; Dr Harriet Sutcliffe's practice-based response to the Basic Design course at Newcastle in the 1960's and Dr James Quin's examination of repetition and the handmade painted image.

Residencies

2013    -  UnionScene, Drammen, Norway
              -  Studio Kura, Fukuoka, Japan
2011    -  Bundanon Trust, NSW, Australia
              -  Hill End, NSW, Australia
2007    -  SangMyung University, Korea 
2006    -  Kyoto Arts Centre, Japan
1994    -  Openshaw Printmaking Residency, Lowick House, Cumbria
1986    -  Artist-in-Residence, School of Fine Art, Hull
1983    -  Fine Art Fellow, School of Art, Glos CAT, Cheltenham

Awards 

2011    -  Hill End Residency award (BRAG & Arts NSW)
2008    -  Daiwa Foundation Small Grant
2007    -  Northern Print Bursary
              -  Asem Duo Fellowship
2006    -  Arts & Humanities Research Council Award
              -  Arts Council England Grant for the Arts (Individual)
2004    -  Arts Council England Grant for the Arts (Individual)
1997    -  Rootstein Hopkins Foundation Award
1998    -  Northern Arts Award
1996    -  Northern Print Award
1995    -  British Council Visitorship
1994    -  Openshaw Printmaking Residency Award
1987-9 -  Monbusho Scholarship to Japan
1984    -  Boise Scholarship to Spain

Selected solo exhibitions

2013    -  Unmonumental: For the Silo 2, Siloen, Union Scene, Drammen, Norway
              -  For the Silo, Studio Kura, Fukuoka, Japan
              -  Between the Hour & the Age, BRAG, Bathurst, & Jean Bellette Gallery, Hill End, Australia
2008    -  In-Between, Daiwa Foundation, London
2007    -  Erasure, Woosukhall Art gallery, Seoul National University, Korea
              -  Trace-Retrace 2, Northern Print, Newcastle upon Tyne 
2006    -  Residue, Art Space A1, Nagoya, Japan
              -  Trace-Retrace, Kyoto Arts Centre, Japan
2004    -  Postscript, Kunstverein Galerie Am Markt, SchwäbischHall, Germany
2000    -  Index, Galleria Z, Bratislava, Slovakia
1998    -  Spuren-Traces, Kunsthalle Servas, Rodalben, Germany
1995    -  Paintings & Collages, EPO Gallery, Munich
1994    -  Difficult Rhymes, Turnpike Gallery, Leigh
1992    -  The Small Hours, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
              -  From A Foreign Window, Reg Vardy Arts Foundation, Sunderland
1990    -  Frozen by Distance, Lanchester Gallery, Coventry
1989    -  Tanaka Gallery, Osaka, Japan
              -  Tamura Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Recent group exhibitions

2020    -  Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2020, Drawing Projects UK & tour
2018    -  Folding Islands, Drawing Boundaries, AUB event, British Pavilion, Venice Biennale for Architecture
              -  Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2018, TBW London & tour
              -  WAC Awards 2018, Wells Art Contemporary, Bishop’s Palace, Wells
              -  Postcards to the End, The End Festival, Sacred Heart Church, Hill End, Australia
              -  Beyond Words: Transmediating Murakami Haruki, Newcastle University
2016    -  Descriptions True & Perfect, collaborative soundpiece with Sian Bowen, Jilin University of Arts, China
            -  Paper, Table Wall & After, Taiwan National University of Arts Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

Undergraduate Teaching

Teaches into all year stages of the B.A. Fine Art studio programme.

Postgraduate Teaching

Teaches into the Master of Fine Art programme.

• Pollock VL, Alden S, Jones C, Wilkinson B. Open Studios is the beginning of a conversation: Creating critical and reflective learners through innovative feedback and assessment in Fine Art. Art, Design and Communication in Higher Education 2015, 14(1), 39-56.
• Jones C. Between the Hour and the Age. 20 miniature oil paintings on metal plate and 20 miniature photomontages which develop models for the visualization of memorial trace in response to the heritage site of Hill End. 2013. Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia: Bathurst Regional Art Gallery.
• Jones C. UNMONUMENTAL. A body of small-scale constructions formed from photographic and found material. The thread of this body of work is the development of a model of site-dependent assemblage practice founded on the examination of and response to site through formal understatement. 2013. New South Wales, Australia.
• Jones C. In-Between. A body of print assemblages which explores combinations of traditional and digital printmaking processes in order to develop visual equivalents for temporal flux and change. 2008. Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation, London, UK: Japan House Gallery, 12.
• Jones C. Erasure, two linked solo exhibitions in Japan and South Korea. 2007. Nagoya, Japan 9-14 May 2006; Seoul National University, Korea 18-23 June 2007: Art Space A1; Gallery Woosukhall, 35.
• Jones C. Trace-Retrace: a body of reproducible collages with reference to time, place and memory. 2006. Kyoto 30 April - 28 May 2006; Newcastle 10 May - 1 July 2007: Art Centre’s North Gallery; Northern Print, 11.
• Burton A, Jones C, Mulhern S. Evidence: James Quinn and Bernadette O Toole. Newcastle upon Tyne: Red Box Gallery, 2005. .
• Bowen S, Jones C. 'Lull' for 'JMNEWVIEWS: A Contemporary Response to the Life and Work of John Martin'. 2004. Haydon Bridge, Northumberland: Chapel building, 1.
• Jones C. Postscript; collage as an ‘energy stack’. 2004. Germany: Galerie am Markt, Schwäbisch Hall, 25.
• Jones CD. Gravity. Woodlands Art Gallery, London, 11 2000.
• Jones C. Index: Solo Exhibition. 2000. Bratislava, Slovakia: Galleria Z, 80.
• Jones C. Spuren-Traces: Solo Exhibition. 1998. Rodalben, Germany: Kunsthalle Servas.