Project Space

Project Space

John Jones has a long history of supporting emerging artists and contemporary art. Our passion to generate new opportunities for artists led to the development of the 3,000 square ft John Jones Project Space in 2007. The space generated the potential for artists to realise large scale projects and exhibitions relieved from the pressures of commercialism, allowing room for experimentation and professional development.

The Project Space quickly developed a reputation as a resource to introduce artists and curators to a new audience of gallery owners and collectors, creating strong opportunities across our creative network.

Following twelve exhibitions, The Project Space closed at the end of 2009 as our plans to redevelop our site move ahead. We plan to reopen the space when our new building is complete at the start of 2012.

Past Exhibitors

Manderley

Manderley
2010
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Manderley

Manderley

Curated by Edd Pearman, ‘Manderley’ represented duality - the characteristic of being two-fold: Lightness with Darkness, Life and Death, the tranquil amidst the dreadful. The collection of works presented such dichotomies - each individual artist extracting a sense of beauty from the profane. August yet imposing marquetry, warningly serene photography, and magnetically hypnotic but voyeuristic video work: all initially appear to embody one intention, yet possess in equal measure, opposite qualities. Each of the artists either studied or taught in the Printmaking Department at the Royal College of Art, London.

Sarah Kate Wilson

Sarah Kate Wilson
2009
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Sarah Kate Wilson

Sarah Kate Wilson

As a John Jones Artist in Residence, Sarah’s residency enabled her to work in the lower gallery of the Project Space for three months, culminating in a solo show in the main space. An emerging British abstract painter, she lives and practices in London. Creating ambitious, overtly pretty and often very demanding works, Sarah’s wall paintings highlight the desire to place work directly in the ‘Real-World’ and provoke and challenge the way the audience has to think about painting.

WORK09

WORK09
2009
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WORK09

WORK09

Our annual staff show where staff members took over the project space to exhibit contemporary art, design and furniture. During the opening event the show included an interactive cake installation designed by the John Jones Cake Club with many homemade treats for sale. All funds generated from the evening went to local charity London Play, who provide accessible and inclusive play opportunities for children in the capital. The private view also included a recital of two short poems by Ellie Humana and music throughout the evening compiled by Robbie Macfarlane.

Meet Pamela

Meet Pamela
2009
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Meet Pamela

Meet Pamela

A group show featuring work by Bronwen Buckeridge, Laura Buckley, Laura Morrison and Amy Stephens, MEET PAMELA brought together four artists who independently developed a perspective on the act of making, elevating it from a mode of production to assume a place within the subject matter of their work. The title of the show is a reference to Francois Truffaut’s ‘La Nuit Americaine,’ 1973, which tells the story of the making of the film ‘Meet Pamela’, where the drama shifts between the narrative of the film in production and the techniques and processes of filmmaking itself.

PAPERVIEW

PAPERVIEW
2009
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PAPERVIEW

PAPERVIEW

PAPERVIEW curator and artist Danny Rolph brought together a selection of works on paper from three London based contemporary art collections to develop a survey on challenging work by emerging and established artists who utilise this material as their main media. The show brought into focus Rolph's own playful, subjective, reflective and ongoing intrigue in the medium of paper with works also shown by invited artists including Chris Ofili, Raqib Shaw, Julie Mehretu and Laura Owens alongside works selected from the The Zabludowicz Collection, The Lodeveans Collection and the John Jones Collection

Jan Hendrickse

Jan Hendrickse
2009
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Jan Hendrickse

Jan Hendrickse

John Jones and ACME Studios worked together to initiate an Artist in Residence project for an ACME artist onsite at John Jones. As a sound artist, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Jan Hendrickse spent time at John Jones, recording and analysing the sounds of production around our workshops, creating bespoke instruments that explored the materials and surfaces that we use. Jan experimented with ways of using paper and aluminium in conjunction with loudspeakers to create resonating surfaces. Other experimental approaches included building a pyrophone, which is an instrument played using fire. Jan's site-specific installation for the John Jones project space was composed of several different elements that responded to the space itself and the low frequency vibration that pervaded the John Jones buildings which Jan recorded and reconfigured to make three new interrelated pieces Sound Structures, Particle and Sound Field.

Best in Show

Best in Show
2008
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Best in Show

Best in Show

Best in Show was the culmination of Goldsmiths alumni Pearce & Ramsey’s trawls across the United Kingdom to survey the graduate shows of summer 2008. After visiting scores of shows including institutions in Nottingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, their travels concluded with an exhibition of 19 emerging artists from across the country working in a range of disciplines such as sculpture, painting and installation, whose practices reflect both curators’ personal preferences for humorous, process obsessed and provocative work.

John, I’m Only Dancing

John, I’m Only Dancing
2008
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John, I’m Only Dancing

John, I’m Only Dancing

John, I’m Only Dancing featured artists Yason Banal (Philippines), Juan Pablo Echeverri (Columbia) and Rose Eken (Denmark). Each of the artists were selected for the quality of their independently developed languages. Viewed collectively, the work explored the intersection between narrative and the construction of fictional illusions. Here music, adapted through drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, film and performance, transforms everyday and historic worldsinto the realm of the metafictive, for the laying bare of illusions.

WorkFORCE

WorkFORCE
2008
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WorkFORCE

WorkFORCE

Following on from the success of Square Eyes 2007, workFORCE explored art work in its most basic components such as colour, form, material and size. The show aimed to deconstruct the relations of staff to each other in the context of their roles at John Jones and identify their involvement in another type of production. As part of the exhibition, curators Elizabeth Gossling and Andy Wicks worked with designers Abake inviting every employee at John Jones to classify themselves by their name, their job title and their definition of their activities outside of the workplace.Through the assembly of work according to their various languages of production combined with information about hobbies, talents, collections and skills submitted by the staff, the installation will propose a potential for a redefinition of the workforce through their creative output.

Square Eyes

Square Eyes
2007
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Square Eyes

Square Eyes

The Square Eyes staff show represented a mix of photographers, painters, illustrators and sculptors, highlighting the depth of ambition and creativity we find within our team. The show’s title “Square Eyes” is a phrase used to describe the effect of too much time spent staring at a screen. This term humorously refers to the observations of John Jones staff whose time is largely spent working with square and rectangular objects. The links between the working lives and artistic practises of our team were evident. Specialist skills involved within each craft during the working day are often mirrored by the objects made outside of the workshop environment.

The Juddykes

The Juddykes
2007
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The Juddykes

The Juddykes

A collective of practitioners including artists, architects, graphic designers, playwrites, poets, filmmakers and fashion designers, who share the common goal that 'the ultimate aim of all creative activity is an idea!'This collective comprises of more than 30 emerging and established artists, including architects, graphic designers, playwrights and furniture makers. The fictitious movement, loosely based on the Luddites, was founded in the belief that the production of art and artifacts need to turn away from the constraints of the art market. In 2007, Outset enabled the publication of a catalogue to accompany the first exhibition which was published to coincide with the Juddykes’ first group show, held at the John Jones project space.

Happy Days

Happy Days
2007
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Happy Days

Happy Days

Dorian Gray is a series of curated shows across London that reflects the processes of contemporary methods of painting practice. Following on from the successful show at the Vegas Gallery, Dorian Gray presented 31 contemporary painters who were an eclectic mix of subject matter, materials and concepts explored within painting. New artists were introduced such as the graffiti artists Key and Nomad, who explored the concept of graffiti art in different ways.