"Night Works will be a body of approximately 15 paintings around the idea of constructed narratives, exploring the subtle links that connect the painted scenes. I wish to maintain a fine balance between specific references to a place, and more open-ended ideas that might come about during the painting process. The works in the show will explore the influence of technology and the invisible forces and structures that shape us as humans. I would like to make a body of clean, smooth, immersive paintings that illuminate different vantage points and means of experiencing reality, whilst retaining a tactility that only paint can offer. I intend for the worlds created to feel real; familiar and immersive, but balanced with the idea that the normal rules don’t apply – the way shadows fall, the solid appearance of surfaces being called into question, the feeling that at any given moment a wall could fade into nothingness or a horizon could collapse in on itself; subtle clues which question the notion of the real. Equally, I hope the works present open-ended narratives, which are completed by the viewer. The settings will be similar to my previous works: pools, tennis courts, and architectural interiors. I feel the inherent ambiguity of these types of spaces will serve the themes I hope to explore. The title ‘Night Works’ refers to the idea of an ambiguous setting, which runs throughout the work as a recurring motif. It also connotes physical process and ideas pertaining to the construction of spaces."
About Laurence Jones
Touted as an artist to watch by Saatchi, Jones has spent the last two years exhibiting at prestigious international fairs like Seattle Art Fair, Art Toronto and Miami Project, before focusing on this new body of the work. He is fascinated by processes of figuration, and how painterly devices can be used to construct a narrative.
His paintings focus on hyper-modern dwelling spaces, which he likes to think of as settings taut with a sense of imminent drama. The screen-like finish of each work, achieved through dextrously worked layers of oil and glazes, creates a strongly immersive experience for the viewer. And yet, just as we are drawn in, the sense of staged imagery - a strange feeling of déja vu fed by our over-exposure to modern media - places his paintings in an ambiguous state between fiction and reality. The works investigate the nature of the gaze as well as fabricated spaces.
The show will run from 4 - 28th May
REBECCA HOSSACK ART GALLERY
2A Conway Street
Fitzroy Square
London W1T 6BA
United Kingdom
