Jennie C. Jones

Jennie C. Jones’s minimalist Acoustic Panel Paintings incorporate noise-absorbing acoustic panels into their compositions, encouraging viewers to anticipate sound even in the quietest of environments. Indeed, the artists states that the acoustic panels in the paintings are always “active.” “I always say they’re active even when there’s no sound in the room,” she explains. “They are affecting the subtlest of sounds in the space—dampening and absorbing even the human voice.”

In recent paintings in this series, Jones continues to expand her research into the sonic, illustrating aural experiences visually through innovative approaches to geometry, color, and materials. In the diptych Fractured Extension (2021) Jones highlights the division between the work’s two panels by painting the edge of each bright red. This grace note-like flourish of pigment causes each canvas to resonate with reflected color while amplifying its object-hood. For Jones, this amplification is particularly pressing. As she reminds viewers, “There are social and political ramifications to rejecting ‘subject’ and embracing ‘object’—as an African American woman, much more is at stake. Minimalism becomes a radical gesture empowering a refusal to sell my narrative or bodies.”