Vince Jones lives and works in Dallas. He earned his MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York (1990), and his BFA from the Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta (1986).

Comprised of humble, worn, and anti-heroic materials found in dumpsters or bought in thrift stores, Jones’s sculptural objects and installations have a rough, funky elegance.  On the floor or on the wall, they seem to be things that have just stopped doing whatever they do – open, close, flip, turn, and so on.  Are these things toys, games, or traps?   Even if they cannot be touched, they beg the viewer’s participation in making them do their thing.

Strategically installed on the floor or wall, Jones’s work forces the viewer to renegotiate the space and become more aware of his or her position in relationship to the work and space.  Echoing the work of Post-minimalists artists such as Eva Hesse, Barry Le Va and Richard Tuttle, especially his Floor Drawings, Jones softens the rigidity and impersonality of Minimalism and blurs the distinctions between drawing, painting, and sculpture.  In his work, improvisation, chance and gravity are incorporated, giving the work an overall sense of movement and flow.  

Although Jones’s work can be at times, absurdly playful and humorous, there is an atmosphere of dead-on seriousness. Non-linear narratives are held in check or balanced by a formal rigorousness; astute aesthetic choices.  With intellect and intuition, Jones balances abstraction and content, form and narrative.  He creates work that is a refreshing reminder that there is still plenty of room for pushing the potential of sculpture to generate engaging images, ideas, and experiences.    

 

- Suzanne Weaver, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, San Antonio Museum of Art