Chris Jones
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Stemming from my love for nature, Christian upbringing, and Black, Queer identity, my paintings are visual manifestations of safe spaces. Growing up
in unsafe spaces where vulnerability, honest emotion and identity expression had to be buried within, I gradually began building my own mental construction of a safe space where all of me could exist. With this in mind, I paint figures among vivid nature dreamscapes to honor creation spiritual healing and sexuality through a queer lens. I approach the painting process with sensitivity, softness, and with an open-mindedness t keep on evolving the work with my truths. My aspirations for my work is by being vulnerable I can create a visual realm of community and relief for viewers, and to reinforce the need for safe spaces to exist beyond the paintings.
Chris Jones
Cocoon, 2022
Oil on canvas
30 by 40 in.
76.2 by 101.6 cm.
WORKS NOT FOR SALE
(b. 1998) is a Connecticut-based teaching artist and recent graduate from Southern Connecticut State University’s Studio Art with a B.S. in painting. They specialize in surrealist figurative oil paintings, marrying memory with invention in their approach. Within their work, Jones treasures the power and beauty of Blackness, queerness, nature and fantasy. Their paintings have been exhibited at Kehler Liddell Gallery, New Haven; Lyman Allyn Museum, New London; and City Lights Gallery, Bridgeport.