Gavin Jones was born in 1971 and currently lives in Auckland.
Jones studied at the Auckland School of Art (later incorporated
into the Auckland University of Technology) from 1989 to 1995 and
graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts before undertaking a
Master of Fine Arts at Elam, Auckland University's School of Fine
Arts, which he completed in 2001.
Jones' work incorporated multiple elements and media across a
number of genres including pencil drawing, sculpture and
paint. Initially, Jones' work embodied a form of cultural
pastiche, borrowing from the past an assortment of miscellaneous
fragments and assembling them into a cohesive image. As Jones
himself noted in 2005's On the Cold, "sooner or later the
forms I sample have to be painted, re-articulated. They cross over
from being someone else's work to becoming something that I
have
produced myself.
However, at some point during this exchange I seem to take
ownership of these forms, by using myself as the filter."
Indeed, as his career has progressed, Jones has become more and
more the filter for his own work, developing a singular and
recognisable style that melds expressionistic painterly technique
with formal drawing and a highly resonant colour palette to create
vibrant and intriguing 'polyvocal' works.
Jones has participated in multiple group shows and has held a
number of solo exhibitions in Auckland, including 2007's About
Stuff, a successful show at the Edmiston Duke Gallery in
Lorne St.