David Richard Gallery is pleased to present new geometric, color-based, abstract paintings by Heather Jones in her first solo exhibition with the Gallery. The presentation is comprised of 15 new works, all dynamic with hard-edge geometric shapes and patterns that wrap around the sides with high key and contrasting colors that yield a range of optical to trippy compositions and all made of sewn textiles stretched on stretcher bars. While they read as paintings, the artworks are rich with content, rooted in feminist concerns and as the artist stated, honoring “female narratives that are often neglected from history.” They also celebrate and were inspired by sewing and quilt making as well as Jones’s Appalachian heritage. The title of the presentation, To Hold Tender This Land, a line from African American author, activist and feminist from Kentucky, Bell Hooks’ Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place, exemplifies Jones’s commitment to honoring strong and influential women and places that inspire her and her artwork.

 

This debut exhibition of new work at the Gallery coincides with Jones’s solo exhibition of related and larger paintings at the Contemporary Dayton in Dayton, Ohio that opened earlier in February. Her presentation, Storytellers, is one of three concurrent solo exhibitions of artworks on view by Jones, Odili Donald Odita, and Jeffrey Gibson.