In Jennie C. Jones’s new Acoustic Panel Paintings, she continues to explore the perception of sound within the visual arts while experimenting with a new material, architectural felt. Like the noise-absorbing foam panels of her earlier paintings, this substrate also has sound dampening properties. Composed of layered felt and acoustic panels, Soft End Measure (2021) subverts the flat formalism of Minimalist painting. Transforming its reductive geometry into something far more expansive and immersive, the work physically and aurally extends outwards to actively engage viewers. Encouraging viewers to anticipate the presence of sound, Jones states that this and other similar paintings are always “active.” As she explains, “I always say they’re active even when there’s no sound in the room; they are affecting the subtlest of sounds in the space—dampening and absorbing even the human voice.” Seamlessly integrating visual practices with auditory ones, the titles of Jones’s paintings often directly reference musical terminology. Soft End Measure plays with the bar notation that indicates the end of a piece of music. Crafting this bar from soft felt and affixing it to the edge of her canvas, Jones literally constructs a “soft end” while creating a composition that serves as a visual coda. This unexpected gesture, combined with the strip of black paint that coats the canvas’s other edge, deconstructs established modernist visual languages to advocate for a new understanding of minimalist conventions. “There are social and political ramifications to rejecting ‘subject’ and embracing ‘object,’" Jones reminds viewers, "… as an African American woman, much more is at stake.”