Artist Rachel Jones: On Art and Expression

Artist Rachel Jones joins Hirshhorn head curator Evelyn Hankins to discuss how art can be used as an expression of oneself and offer a broader cultural critique.

Jones is a London-based painter who creates monumental paintings that employ vibrant colors and textures to propose new possibilities for exploring and understanding identity. According to the artist, “You can use colour and shape and form to speak to people in a way that isn’t about a spoken language, it’s about emotion and inciting feelings that don’t have to be explained or expressed. It’s responsive, it’s instinctive, and a core part of all of us.” Her electric paintings have been exhibited recently at Thaddaeus Ropac in London and at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa Texas.

Her painting SMIIILLLLEEEE (2021) is on view in Put It This Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Collection at the Museum through Fall 2023.

Photo by Eva Herzog, 2023. Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac gallery