Louis Buhl is pleased to present a new Salon Highlight with Detroit-based artist and 2023 Kresge Visual Arts Fellow Louise Jones, opening September 23rd and on view through November 8th, 2023. Showcasing new paintings, the exhibition reveals Jones’s reconciliation of the entanglement of beauty and absurdity encountered in the mundane moments of everyday existence.
The compositions are primarily based on photographs of candid moments that Jones took herself. Long recognized for her affinity for painting botanical subjects, she now seeks to avoid the human inclination to idealize the natural world, instead embracing and incorporating the inherent qualities we perceive at first glance as flaws. “Blight” embodies this concept in its framing of a backlit sunflower, looming ominously and pockmarked by defoliating beetles. The flower motif is one that Jones has long explored as an artist, but since shifting a greater focus to her studio practice in recent years, she’s removed these limitations and her subject matter has expanded to include anything she encounters that captures her imagination. “Adult Fun” illustrates a grocery store array of canned alcoholic beverages lining the shelves of a local grocery store. This colorful display of strategic attractiveness, with each brand presenting its plumage in hope of grabbing our attention, captivated her for the ways in which consumer marketing can mimic the influence of sexual selection on the appearances and behaviors of plants and animals. The idea of human culture as having transcended subconscious instinctual drive is called into question.
The aforementioned paintings, highlighting the cracks and seams in otherwise idyllic aesthetics—whether depictions of objects we admire for their beauty or ones we value for enjoyment—are also joined with scenes arriving at a similar theme through the inverse of this, moments typically dismissed as conventional ugliness containing elements of overlooked or abandoned joy. Amidst a group of overflowing trash cans in an alleyway, discarded colorful toys are spilling out into the street in “Influencers.” Deceased birds, flattened on pavement, lay in states of repose that recall the majestic poses depicted in ornithological illustrations and decorative ceramic plates alike in “Spring Is Here.” These apparent contradictions—of life and death, of consumer products and garbage, of the organic and the synthetic—reflect the complexities, paradoxes, and circular nature of existence.
A hierarchy amongst the paintings does not exist; Jones approaches each canvas with an equal treatment of detail, fascination and dedication. This interplay exemplifies the artist’s interest with the emotional impacts of her subjects, whether it is a personal family photo or a scene of strewn litter. Her concern extends beyond mere appearances to the sensations they evoke, which can manifest in anything we encounter on a daily basis. Jones's art becomes her method for dissecting and contemplating these visceral experiences.
Salon Highlight: Louise Jones is on view from September 23 through November 8, 2023 at Louis Buhl & Co.
Paintings
Louise Jones – Adult Fun
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 24 in
Louise Jones – Blight
Acrylic and spray paint on canvas
36 x 24 in
Louise Jones – Discovery
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 36 in
Louise Jones – Influencers
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 36 in
Louise Jones – Spring is Here
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 24 in each
Louise Jones – Crab Dinner 12/29/02
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 36 in