Listening Session: this must be the place to be
with rod jones ii
Saturday, December 10th
3:00 – 6:00pm
RSVP here
For info on the January 7th listening session and closing reception, see here.
Join us in the gallery on Saturday, December 10th from 3–6 pm for a listening session with Philadelphia-based artist rod jones ii as part of his first solo exhibition, this must be the place to be. Guests are invited to experience a series of curated playlists and to interact with jones’s soft sculpture “homies” as part of these intimate sessions.
In this must be the place to be, his first ever solo exhibition, jones uses common household materials and beauty supplies such as resourced fabric, synthetic hair, glass and acrylic beads, and dental floss. The homies–and the world that they inhabit–are materially recognizable, and yet, their forms and personhood are impossible to characterize.
Didier William, the exhibition mentor, observes that upon entering the space “a strange sort of envy creeps in, as our soles are subject to the bare wood floor while we witness the homies carefully cradled against the wall and nestled atop this delicately braided carpet. Time is intentionally slowed to a crawl and the soft figures are given a comforting mediator between their bodies and the bare ground…The walls embrace their would-be performers and attempt to shield them from the voracious appetite of our gaze."
For these listening sessions, guests are invited to embrace the space of the homies as one of rest, tenderness, and connectivity.
This event is free and open to all. RSVPs are encouraged but not required. RSVP below. The artist will be present for both sessions.
About the Artist
rod jones ii (b. 1994) is a multidisciplinary artist from Gary, Indiana living and working in Philadelphia, PA. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Printmaking from Truman State University, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Art from the Pennsylvania Academy. He has shown work at InLiquid Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (Philadelphia, PA), Woodmere Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA), Truman State University (Kirksville, MO), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Philadelphia, PA) and Anna Zorina Gallery (New York, NY). His work has also been collected by The Woodmere Museum of Art. He is currently an adjunct professor of Printmaking and Drawing at the University of Pennsylvania and Moore College of Art, and has lectured at Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Pace University, William Paterson University, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
