Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons

Opening this summer, Gated Canyons is the highly anticipated exhibition by acclaimed artist Rachel Jones and the first contemporary solo show in the Gallery’s main exhibition space.

Renowned for her striking use of colour, blending of abstract and figurative motifs and distinctive approach to mark-making, Jones pushes the boundaries of contemporary painting.

Gated Canyons features a compelling new body of work—large-scale and intimate paintings created with Jones' signature tools of oil stick and oil pastels—presented alongside selected works from the last seven years of her practice. Responding to the historic Collection at the Gallery, Jones takes Flemish artist Pieter Boel’s Head of a Hound (c. 1660–5) as a starting point for her new series.

Through references to the exaggerated expressions and architecture found in cartoons such as Ren and Stimpy and Looney Tunes, Jones creates paintings that playfully explore the space between our feelings and how they are reflected to us through our real-world experiences and environments.

Gated Canyons invites audiences to explore how colour, shape and form can engage the senses, evoking instinctive responses that don’t have to be explained or resolved.

The exhibition is curated by Jane Findlay (Helen Frankenthaler: Radical Beauty 2021).

Tickets will go on sale in spring. Sign up to our newsletter to be the first to know when tickets are available. 

Rachel Jones, Gated Canyons, 2024, courtesy the artist. Photography by Eva Herzog.

The exhibition publication is supported by Ryan Taylor Collection.