Philippa Jones


Philippa Jones MFA is a British artist and curator based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Her practice includes printmaking, painting, animation, and interactive installations, to explore constructed realities and active myth making. She is notable as the first artist from Newfoundland and Labrador to be included in the National Gallery of Canada contemporary biennial.

Career

Prior to moving to Canada in 2009, Philippa Jones completed a Bachelors of Fine Art and a Masters of Art in Interactive Art & Design at University College Falmouth. In 2012, Jones was included in the exhibition "New Romantics" at The Rooms, alongside Photographer Anthony Redpath and artist Kelly Richardson, curated by Bruce Johnson.
When describing Jones' work in 'New Romantics,' author Katie Bethune Leamen wrote: "Jones creates feelings of physical displacement and wizard-like communion with animals."
Her work was then featured in a solo exhibition entitled "MIRIAD," the result of a three-month residency at The Rooms as part of the Elbow Room Residency Program. The exhibition was curated by Mireille Eagan.
MIRIAD is a fictional scientific organization whose directive is to "contribute to known truths through imaginative exploration." Through playful scenarios where individuals adopt roles, participants "formulate hypotheses free from preconceptions, initiating research by imagining truths, then seeking to substantiate these imaginings through the discovery of actual artifacts and specimens."Acting as a lead researcher, Jones constructed a representation of an island as other individuals acting as experts imagined it collectively, translating the results of their research into sculpture, installation, and drawings including the 15-foot pen and ink drawing "MIRIAD Island."
The drawing, and the process of creating it, was described as "an unfolding linear landscape consisting of myriad geometric shapes and expressive washes in subtly monochromatic tones.... The drawing was allowed to unfold intuitively, starting with a clearly imagined horizontal structure inspired by the vastness of the Newfoundland landscape. The artist deliberately had no end vision for the final island, wanting instead to see how it would grow and attempting to keep herself 'in a state of continuous imaginative possibilities.'"
In 2014, the National Gallery of Canada collected Jones' work "MIRIAD Island." This piece was exhibited in at The National Gallery of Canada and was curated by Josée Drouin-Brisebois, Greg Hill, Andrea Kunard, Jonathan Shaughnessy and Rhiannon Vogl.
As the curatorial text for the National Gallery of Canada described: "The resulting drawing shows both her automatic way of working and the physical results of this creative and research-based practice."
In 2016, Jones' piece "Silence" was shown at "Writing Topography," the Marion McCain Exhibition of Contemporary Atlantic Art' curated by Corinna Ghaznavi at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. Later that same year, Jones' project, 'A Study into the Phenomena of the Newfoundland Bubble' was exhibited in at Eastern Edge Art Gallery, curated by Mary MacDonald alongside artists Will Gill, Jerry Ropson, Michael Flaherty and Jason Wells.
Author Lisa Moore wrote of this work: "Philippa Jones's installation... captures the isolation of living in a town on an island in the North Atlantic, especially under the smothering, claustrophobic blanket of winter, when air travel is often thwarted and even a trip to the bar becomes a mythic voyage".

Art

Selected exhibitions

  • 2012 'New Romantics,' The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery
  • 2012 'Co-exist simultaneously' Solo show, Leyton Gallery of Fine Arts
  • 2013 'Boxed in' The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery & Craft Council Gallery, curated by
  • 2013 'MIRIAD’, The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery curated by Bruce Johnson
  • 2013 'Landscape Illuminated'
  • 2014–15 ,
  • 2015 Stories We Tell Ourselves'
  • 2015 'Elapsed’ Two Rivers Gallery, Prince George, curated by George Harris
  • 2015 'Fragments for your Imagination to Hold', Christina Parker Gallery
  • 2015 'Nature Present' Rotary Arts Centre, curated by Mary MacDonald
  • 2015–16 'Writing Topography, The Marion McCain Exhibition of Contemporary Atlantic Art' curated by Corinna Ghaznavi at Beaverbrook Art Gallery
  • 2016 , Eastern Edge Art Gallery, Curated by
  • 2016 'The Expanded Place'

    Residency

2012

Collections

  • City of St John's, NL
  • The Provincial Art Bank, NL
  • The Rooms Permanent Collection
  • Private Collections

    Books

  • Shine a Light / Surgir de l'ombre: Canadian Biennial 2014 / La biennale canadienne 2014, by Josee Drouin-brisebois, Greg Hill, Andrea Kunard, Jonathan Shaughnessy, Rhiannon Vogl. Publisher: Natl Gallery of Canada; Bilingual edition
  • , Kevin Major publisher: St. Michael's Printshop
  • Writing Topography / Cree la topographie: The Marion McCain Exhibition of Contemporary Atlantic Art / L'Exposition Marion McCaind'art contemporain de la region Atlantique by Corinna, Ph.D. Ghaznavi, Publisher: Beaverbrook Art Gallery ASIN: B01K93H50A

    Articles

  • 2012 Canadian Art Magazine, review of the '
  • 2013 Pages No. 1, a Rooms publication, 'MIRIAD: An exercise in rational amusement', Mireille Eagan
  • 2013 C magazine No. 118 Gloria Hickey review of 'MIRIAD’
  • 2013
  • 2013 Riddle Fence No. 14 feature, interview with Sara Tilley on 'MIRIAD’
  • 2014 The Overcast'Structure and Randomness: Current works by Philippa Jones', Martin Poole
  • 2014 Apartment 613 'MIRIAD Island by Philippa Jones on exhibit at NGC', by Charlene Lau Ahier
  • 2015 The Telegram 'Letting the imagination go', Tara Bradbury
  • 2015 The Overcast, 'Philippa Jones’ Latest Exhibit, Fragments for your imagination to hold', Craig Francis Power
  • 2015 National Gallery of Canada Magazine By Shannon Moore
  • 2016 Canadian Art Magazine , Lisa Moore
  • 2016 The Telegram, 'Philippa Jones has people wondering what's real and what's not with her newest art show', Tara Bradbury

    Published writing

  • 2016
  • 2016-10-13,