Mary Jones - "Attachments" exhibition catalog

MARY JONES AT TAC H M E N T S

MARY JONES Attachments

Mary Jones, Attachments 2020 is a big, bold painting of sweeping brushwork presided over, top and center, by full-frontal dental X-ray. The mouthful of ghostly teeth, naked to their roots, forms a skeletal grin so wide and ghoulish it’s almost comic—but not quite. The emotional instability of this clenched image is enhanced by the surrounding field of broad, curving strokes, blue and black at the bottom and warmer at the top. Jones compares this figure to a Jack in the Box, and it does indeed slam into visibility with almost audible force.

In addition to naming what has become a terribly fateful year, the title 2020 refers to a designation of “normal visual acuity.”1 That is, 20/20 vision is seeing things as they are, at actual size, a definition that dissolves the more closely it is considered. For starters, we might wonder, whose normal? And, with or without assisting technology? Jones has been using X-rays for the past five years, although some of the examples she has collected date back the 1980s, when they were still analog, precious and, like daguerreotypes, almost illegibly rich, with velvety blacks and Correggio-like clouds of infinitely modulated grays. Now they are digital and, by comparison with newer kinds of imaging (MRIs, CT and PET scans), considered fairly crude. But, still eerily penetrating, they remain a preferred first tool in at least two kinds of search for trouble, revealing medical problems of the present (damage, illness) and, in art connoisseurship, exposing problems of the past (overpainted images, overzealous conservation, fraud). In either case, X-rays offer a view of things not meant to be visible. And like all technical images they are said to be read, as if they were texts, rather than seen. By contrast, painting—particularly if it’s mainly abstract, like Jones’s—is relished, absorbed as if by every sense. At the same time, while X-rays drill into space, Jones’s gestural abstraction rests on the surface—or rather flies across it, active, mobile. In her work, paint is living flesh to the X-ray’s undying bones.

This is true not only of Jones’s large paintings on canvas but also of smaller works on paper in which she stacks small X-rays into totemic figures. At the top of Cat Person, for instance, is an X-rayed brain within an oddly feline skull, which is placed atop a partially bleached mammogram and even murkier scans below, all set amid horizontal washes of lush color. “Built from back to front,” as the artist puts it, these collages fully integrate figures with grounds that tend to hint, as in the large paintings, at landscape. Jones re-photographs the X-rays she uses (they are donated by family and friends, and include some of her own) and prints them on acetate. Adhered glossy side out, they create small fields of dark reflectivity that are echoed, in other works on paper (which do not include X-rays) by rectangles of silver leaf adhered to the surface. These collages focus on reproductions of artworks taken from

museum and auction house catalogues, applied to the surface by gel transfer. Damage to the image in the transfer process produces figures that are degraded and (in a connection to X-rays) transparent; the painted surfaces on which the figures sit are similarly abraded and otherwise worn. Jones thinks of these gel-transfer works as restorations as much as paintings—they involve finding and mending, analyzing and searching.

In a few, we see, in fragments, a photo of a 13th-century statue of a Hindu Devata, from Rajasthan, her head tipped slightly, her torso curvaceous, at once boldly sensual—Jones compares her to the performer Madonna—and mutely pious. In one of the Devata images, delicate curlicues above evoke the stylized clouds of an Indian miniature; there are echoes elsewhere of the sfumato and atmospheric perspective in Leonardo’s landscapes. Jones says she has also been thinking recently about the tertiary colors with which Warhol paired black in his silkscreens. But in another gel transfer work portraying the goddess Chamunda, identified in the museum catalogue from which the image was taken as a “horrific destroyer of evil,” the sculptural figure is set in a fiery red ground beneath a small ball of light with a blazing, cometlike tail, a palette anything but subdued. Other gel transfer images feature a reproduction of an 18th-century porcelain harlequin figure produced by Meissen.

Wrapped tight in a diamond- patterned bodysuit that rhymes with starry, stenciled patterns billowing theatrically behind him, the harlequin is seated but dynamically torqued, as if ready, like a Jack in the Box, to leap. Part Picasso, part Spiderman, he reminds Jones, she says, of Dr. Strangelove’s Major Kong riding the bomb to Armageddon.

That coiled energy is writ large in Spring, a big painting dominated by a large overhead X-ray of a skull, which is supported by broad-shouldered figure rendered in a tornado of black and gray brushstrokes worked into a luminous pink ground. De Kooning’s furious women come inescapably to mind, as does Philip Guston’s late palette and energy. But a nimbus of warm pink behind the X-rayed skull, and the tender blue behind and below, tip this painting in another direction, devotional and softly radiant.

Equal emotional complexity can be seen in The Lookout, where the top-down skull X-ray is emblazoned heraldically on a banner of glaring mineral green that is brushed across the painting’s top. Below, eight little X-rayed brains bob and float like jellyfish, glimpses of soft red—fleshy, irradiated—visible behind them. The midsection of this painting is a turmoil of scraped black swirls, applied with rollers.

A reference to surveillance in this work’s title, and, in its composition, to the kind of omniscience envisioned by Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, invokes the exercise of unchecked power. But in additio

to a prison watchtower, a lookout is a kind of structure built for communal protection—or, the person occupying such a place. The tenor of the painting, animated, anxious and hyperalert, supports both associations—and perfectly characterizes the present moment.

Following a late summer studio visit (masked and distanced; windows open), Jones referred me to a fascinating essay by the architect and theorist Beatriz Colomina that explores the connection between Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen’s discovery of X-rays (in 1895) and the development of Modernism’s signature architectural form, the glass-walled (or “curtain-walled”) structure, transparent to its interior bones. Exploring several metaphorical and practical applications of Röntgen’s powerful new imaging technique, Colomnia notes that in X-rays, “the body is inverted—the inside becomes the outside.”2 Art historian Jonathan Crary, analyzing the impact of new imaging technologies in the nineteenth century, suggests they exploited an emerging understanding that vision is embodied, fractured and consolidated in the mind. He concludes, “What begins in the 1820s and 1830s is a repositioning of the observer, outside of the fixed relations of interior/exterior presupposed by the camera obscura and into an un-demarcated terrain on which the distinction between internal sensation and external signs is irrevocably blurred.” For both authors, picturing fatality is at the heart of the new photography. Colomina writes that Frau Röntgen, on agreeing to have her hand experimentally X-rayed, is reported to have said, “I have seen my death.”3 Writes Crary, “Once vision became located in the empirical immediacy of the observer’s body, it belonged to time, to flux, to death.”4 Compounded of photographs and paint, X-rays and gel transfers, Jones’s work gives us a frank image of our mortality—and also a vision of enduring vitality.

Nancy Princenthal, 2020

1 Per the American Optometric Association, aoa.org 2 Beatriz Colomina, “X-Screens: Röntgen Architecture” (e-flux journal, #66, October 2015), 8 e-flux.com/journal/66/60736/x-screens-rntgen-architecture/ 3 Ibid, 2 4 Jonathan Crary, Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, MA and London, MIT Press, 1991), 24

2020, 2020, oil, spray paint, and X-ray acetate print on canvas, 64” x 48”

Spring, 2020, oil, spray paint, and X-ray acetate print on canvas, 40” x 30”

Hatchling, 2020, oil, spray paint, silver leaf, and feathered wallpaper on canvas, 11” x 14”

The Slayer, 2020, oil, gel-transfer, spray paint, and silver leaf on canvas, 14” x 11” Promised Gift, 2020, oil, gel-transfer, spray paint, and silver leaf on canvas, 14” x 11”

Christie’s, 2019, oil, Christie’s catalog page, spray paint, X-ray acetate print, and X-rays on Arches oil paper, 35” x 24”

Cat Person, 2019, oil, spray paint, X-ray acetate print, and X-ray on Arches oil paper, 35” x 21”

Front Porch Dreamer, 2020, oil, spray paint, silver leaf, and feathered wall paper on canvas, 11” x 14” Oh So Many, 2020, oil, spray paint, silver leaf, and feathered wall paper on canvas, 11” x 14”

Shego, 2020, oil, silver leaf, copper leaf, spray paint, feathered wallpaper, Swarovski crystals, and resin on canvas, 14� x 11�

Lamb, 2020, oil, spray paint, silver leaf, and feathered wall paper on canvas, 11” x 14” Chamunda in the House, 2020, oil, gel-transfer, spray paint, silver leaf, Swarovski crystals, needle, and feathered wall paper on linen, 12” x 9”

The Lookout, 2020, oil, spray paint, and X-ray acetate print on canvas, 76” x 54”

Inoperosito, 2020, oil, acetate X-ray print on canvas, 14” x 11” Najinksi, 2020, oil, gel-transfer, silver leaf on canvas, 14” x 11”

Liaison, 2020, oil, spray paint, silver leaf, and feathered wall paper on canvas, 11� x 14�

Christie’s II, 2019, oil, Christie’s catalog page, spray paint, X-ray acetate print, and X-rays on Arches oil paper, 35” x 24”

Chamunda, 2020, oil, gel-transfer, spray paint, and silver leaf on canvas, 14” x 11” The Assignment, 2020, oil, gel-transfer, spray paint, and silver leaf on canvas, 14” x 11”

Mary Jones b. Granite Falls, NC EDUCATION MFA, BFA, University of Colorado, Boulder ​ ​ SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2020 Attachments, High Noon Gallery, NYC 2019 Travel Light, High Noon Gallery, NYC 2017 Conversation (with Denise Adler), Hudson Guild Gallery, NYC ​ 2016 Proxima b, John Molloy Gallery, NYC 2013 Studio 7D, NYC 2012 Floating Explosions (with Bobbie Oliver), The George Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA 2008 Jancar Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2006 Jancar Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Robert Green Fine Arts, Mill Valley, CA 2005 Cenci Gallery, Rome, Italy 2004 Robert Green Fine Arts, Mill Valley, CA Jeffrey Coploff Fine Art, NYC

2003 Robert Green Fine Arts, Mill Valley, CA 2002 Bower of Bliss, Cynthia Broan Gallery, New York, NY 2001 Jeffrey Coploff Fine Art, NYC Robert Green Fine Arts, Mill Valley, CA 2000 Jeffrey Coploff Fine Art, NYC 1995 Bill Maynes Gallery, NYC 1993 Tom Cugliani Gallery, NYC 1989 Hanes Art Center, Chapel Hill, NC Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA ​ 1988, 1986, 1985, 1983 Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA ​ 1981 Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2019 Incise, Echo and Repeat, curated by Camilia Fallon and Kylie Heidenheimer 2018 Music for your Ears, OCCCA, Newport Beach, CA 3 Days at Custom Cabinets, Los Angeles, CA 2017 The Painted Desert, High Noon, NYC Alternative Facts, curated by Denise Adler, Pleiades Gallery, NYC Holding it Together, curated by Teri Hackett, Brooklyn, NY

2016 Future Past Perfect, MS Barbers Gallery, Curated by Lauren Comito, Los Angeles, CA ​ 2015 Future Past Perfect, Projekt 722, Curated by Lauren Comito, Brooklyn, NY Repose, Hall St. Projects, Curated by Hovey Brock, Brooklyn, NY Phase III, Mammal Gallery, Atlanta, GA 2014 Cultural Guerrillas, Hudson Guild, Curated by Denise Adler, New York, NY Nature Doesn’t Knock, The George Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA 2013 Flux/Quirk, The George Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA Elven@7D, studio 7D, Curated by Allen Furbeck, New York, NY Little Languages, Coded Pictures, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY ​ 2012 Between the Two: Six Artists from New York, The George Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA ​ 2011 Haywire, Storefront, Bushwick, NY Paper A-Z, Sue Scott Gallery, New York, NY Neo-Vitruvian: The Body Now, curated by Richard J. Goldstein, Hal Bromm gallery, New York, NY 2009 Williams Studio Art Faculty Exhibition, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA ​ 2008 Works on Paper, Michael Steinberg Fine Art, New York, NY 2007 Diving in the Decadent Ditch of Des Essientes, New York, NY Dutch Barn Show, Clinton Corners, NY 2003 Timelines, Signal 66, Washington, D.C. 2002 Landscape, Lindsey Brown, New York, NY

2001 Four Painters, Lindsey Brown, New York, NY Works on Paper, Jeffrey Coploff Fine Art, New York, NY 2000 Group Show, Jeffrey Coploff Fine Art, New York, NY Le Salon, London, England 1999 Immediacies of the Hand, Hunter College, New York, NY 1998 Baroque Geometry, Marlborough Gallery, Chelsea, NY Jeffrey Coploff Fine Art, NYC 485.73482 Cycles per/sec, 76 Varick, New York, NY 1997 Summer Invitational, Steffany Martz, New York, NY Push, 450 B’way Gallery, New York, NY Stellar Spectra, Mary Barone, New York, NY The Enduring Presence, Roland Gibson Gallery, SUNY, Potsdam, NY 1996 The Enduring Presence, Ewing Gallery, U. Of Tenn., Knoxville, TN 1995 Group show, Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY 1994 Small Abstract Painting, Bill Maynes Gallery, New York, NY SELECTED COLLECTIONS ​ The Broad Art Foundation, Los Angeles George and Betty Woodman, NYC John Guest Ltd. (London) Security Pacific Bank, Los Angeles Celebrity Cruises art collection Prudential Life Wells Fargo Bank The Carnation Company

BIBLIOGRAPHY Chambers, Christopher Hart, “Travel Light,” dArt International Magazine, dartmagazine.com/?p=608, February 9, 2019 Goldner, Liz, “Nature Doesn’t Knock,” artscenecal.com/archive/810-qnature-doesnt-knockq Frank, Peter, huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/02/haiku-reviews-_n_2397584.html 1/02/2013 Chapline, Jonathan, ffffffwalls.com/2012/11/mary-jones-chelsea/ Estenger, Max, maxestenger.blogspot.com/2012/05/in-studio-with-mary-jones.html. In The Studio with Mary Jones, May 26, 2012 Kienholz, Lyn. “L.A. Rising: SoCal Artists before 1980,” The California/International Arts Foundation 2010 Mallinson, Constance. Art in America, review, May 2007 Frank, Peter. “Addition/Reduction,” Mary Jones LA Weekly Wed. January 10, 2007 Chang, Richard. ARTnews, review, June 2007 Pagel, David. Los Angeles Times, Friday, Dec. 22, December 2006 Jashinsky, Judy. “time lines,” catalogue, 2003 Garwood, Deborah. “Bower of Bliss,” catalogue, 2002 Yablonsky, Linda. “Mary Jones,” catalogue, 2002 Bourbon, Matthew. NY Arts, “Mary Jones,” review, Feb. 2000 Sheets, Hilarie M. ARTnews, “Mary Jones,” review, June, 2000 Johnson, Ken. NY Times, “Baroque Geometry,” Friday, Jan. 8, 1999 Cotter, Holland. NY Times, “Immediacies of the Hand,” Friday, April 9, 1999 Smith, Roberta. NY Times, “Hothouse” review, Friday, Sept. 6, 1996 Drier, Deborah. “Vision At Sea,” catalogue, 1996 Barrett, Chris. “Happy Chaos,” Metro Pulse (Tennessee) 1996 Mills, Dan. “The Enduring Presence,” catalogue, 1996 Hirsch, Faye. “Mary Jones: Color Sense,” catalogue, 1995 Saltz, Jerry. Art in America, “A Year in the Life” Oct. 1994 Smith, Roberta. New York Times, “Review” Friday, Dec. 10, 1993 Frank, Peter. LA Weekly, “Art Pick of the Week” Friday, Dec. 8, 1989 Curtis, Cathy. Los Angeles Times, Calendar Galleries Friday, Nov. 24, 1989 Pincus, Robert L. Art in America, “Mary Jones At Ovsey” Sept. 1988 Donahue, Marlene. Los Angeles Times, Friday, Feb. 26, 1988, Part IV McKenna, Kristine. Los Angeles Times, Friday, Sept. 26, 1986 Part IV McCloud, Janet. ARTWEEK, “An Integration of Opposites,” March 9, 1985 Muchnic, Suzanne. Los Angeles Times, Friday, March 1, 1985 Part IV Pincus, Robert L. Los Angeles Times, Friday, Oct. 21, 1985 Christenberry, William. ARTFORUM, “Directions, 1983” Oct. 1983 Silverthorne, Jeanne. ARTFORUM, Oct. 1983 Ashbery, John. Newsweek, “Biennials Bloom In The Spring” Fleming, Lee. Images & Issues, “What’s At Issue Is The Issue” Sept/Oct 1983 Knight, Christopher. Los Angeles Herald Examiner, “California Living-Art Inc.” Drohojowska, Hunter. Los Angeles Herald Examiner, “Making Art In The M-Zone”, June 20, 1982 Knight, Christopher. Los Angeles Herald Examiner, “Mary Jones: Art That Runs Silent, Runs Deep,” April 11, 1982

Mary Jones | Attachments September 24 - November 8, 2020

Edition of 100

Publisher © 2020 Jared Linge HIGH NOON GALLERY

Art © 2019 - 2020 Mary Jones Text © 2020 Nancy Princenthal

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cover (detail): Promised Gift, 2020, oil, gel-transfer, spray paint, and silver leaf, 14” x 11”