Matt Jones
b 1980, Rochester, NY
Lives & works in New York City
The paintings occupy a space between the domestic and the uncanny, where familiar objects and figures feel suspended, estranged, or unsettled. History enters not as quotation but as residue: persistent visual logics that echo and mutate within the present. Time appears synchronic rather than sequential—tree rings compress duration into surface, eyes recur as ambiguous witnesses, and organic growth seems paused or looping. These gestures reflect an interest in how experience is carried forward and reactivated, rather than left behind.
While the work resists didactic interpretation, it remains ethically attentive. It is shaped by a belief in painting as a space for sustained looking, reflection, and uncertainty. In this openness, the work holds a quiet sense of hope—not as resolution or optimism, but as a commitment to keeping experience active, thinkable, and alive.
Education
Cooper Union. (BFA)
Yale University School of Art—Norfolk. Ellen Battell Stoeckel Grant.
Hunter College. (MFA)
Selected One. Two. and Three Person Exhibitions
2025
Dawn. The Parsonage. Searsport, ME.
2024
In Advance of a Visit. studio e. Seattle, WA.
Ecphoric Wonderland. Automat. Philadelphia. With Heather Drayzen and In June Park. Curated by Whitson Ramsey.
2023
Wanderlooking. Gallery 178. New York, NY. With Katita Miller.
2022
Nowhere Fast. Olympia. New York. With Cassidy Early and Jessi Li.
2018
Time Walk. Galerie Jérôme Pauchant. Paris.
2016
Passion as Model for Patience. Galerie Jérôme Pauchant. Paris. With Quentin Euverte.
2015
Ancestral Recall. Galerie Jérôme Pauchant. Paris. Catalog.
A horrendous assembly. clawing and jerking. all mashed tightly into specks that rest upon the seeing orb. eventually layering as a pearl does into kingdoms of permanent escape. Castor Gallery. New York. With Eric Wiley.
2014
Geister. The Richard Massey Foundation. New York.
Solo Booth. Bodson Gallery. Art Brussels. Brussels. Belgium.
Super Smash Brothers. Creative Time. New York. Performance. With Kadar Brock.
2013
Planetary. Bleecker Street Arts Club. New York.
2012
Evil Dead 2. Horton Gallery. Berlin. Germany. Catalog. With Kadar Brock.
The Dinner Party. Anonymous Gallery. New York. Performance.
2011
Multiverse. Freight + Volume. New York. NY.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
Up/Rooted. Maine Jewish Museum, Portland, ME.
Drawn To Drawing. Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco.
More Light!. Gallery 178, New York.
2023
Six Stages. Project Art Distribution (P.A.D.). NADA. New York.
Art from the Upper Rooms. Sanctuary. OSA. New York.
2022
The Innerworld of the Outerworld of the Innerworld. Soy Capitan. Berlin.
In with the Old // (Nearly) Six Years of Project Art Distribution. Yeh Art Gallery. St John’s University. Jamaica. NY.
In with the Old // (Nearly) Six Years of Project Art Distribution. Richard and Dolly Maass Gallery, SUNY Purchase, Purchase, NY
Slight of Hand. Mepaintsme. Online.
Shushan’s Hands. Tappeto Volante/Studio Archive Project. New York. Online.
2021
A Gathering. The Catskills. New York.
The Catskills Presents: Heavy Show. Spring Break Art Show. New York. Curated by Leonard Reibstein.
Chromatic Vigils / Low Tides. Upstate Art Weekend. Hudson Opera House. Hudson. New York. Curated by The Sphinx Northeast .
Visions of Kindness. Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center. Moscow. Russia.
2 Gathering. Studio E. Seattle. WA.
Known Unknowns. Studio Archive Project. Online. Curated by mepaintsme.
2020
Assemblage: The MFA Show. The Olympia Project. New York.
Purple. Underdonk. Brooklyn. New York.
Living Room. Galerie Jerome Pauchant. Paris.
Leyline of Abundance. Puppy American. Bronx. New York.
Trust Fall. Hunter MFA Online Viewing Room. (Online)
Gravity Spell. Hunter MFA Thesis exhibition. Hudson Street Gallery. New York.
NYPL2020. Project Art Distribution (P.A.D.) Gallery. New York. NY.
2019
Eat Bloody Pussy: A Community Garden. curated by Fitch ball. Essex Flowers. New York. (performance)
Age Before Beauty. Wallspace. Brooklyn.
No Rules. Mana Contemporary Glass Gallery. Jersey City. NJ.
2017
Hard Hunting. Hunter College. New York.
2016
Geo Necro. ADA Gallery. Richmond. Virginia.
Polychrome. Driscoll Babcock Gallery. New York.
Between You and Me. Geoffrey Young Gallery. Great Barrington.
2015
Art—Les Bains in 2015. Les Bains. Paris. Curated by Jérôme Pauchant
18 Percent. Castor Gallery. New York.
2014
Sha Boogie Bop. Anonymous Gallery. New York.
Cirrus. Dorfman Projects. New York.
Mandala: Locus of Thought. Tibet House. New York.
New/Idols. The Varsity. Brooklyn.
NY/NO. Galleri Geo. Bergen. Norway.
Post-Psychedelic Dreams. Grey East. East Hampton. NY.
Driscoll Babcock. Miami Project. Miami.
2013
Suddenness & Certainty. Robert Miller Gallery. New York. Curated by Robert Greene
Pulse Art Fair. Driscoll Babcock. Miami.
Sweat Baby Sweat. Gildar Gallery. Beverly Hills. CA.
Magic Kingdom. Old School. Spring Break. New York.
The Example. Bleecker Street Art Club. New York.
About Space. The ArtBridge Drawing Room. New York.
Painted Perfect. Anonymous Gallery. Mexico City. Mexico.
Synthesis. Bottleneck Gallery. Brooklyn.
2012
News from Chicago and New York. Fiebach Minninger. Cologne. Organized by Henning Strassburger.
Portrait of a Generation. The Hole. New York.
Powerplay - A Radical Sculpture Park. Hayground. Bridgehampton. NY.
The Usual Suspects. Brooklyn Fireproof. Brooklyn.
Cosmic Architecture. Artists Wanted. Long Island City. New York.
The Final Frontier. The Atlantic Conference. Brooklyn.
casas de empeño. Anonymous Gallery. New York & Mexico City.
2011
.... The Hole. New York.
Between Two Friends. Varet Space. Brooklyn.
NADA. The Hole. Miami. FL.
Control Alt Delete. HKJB. Brooklyn. NY.
Outer Space. Exit Art. New York. NY.
Visiting Artist and Talks
2024
Artist Talk and Studio visits—NYU MFA.
2020
Artist Talk—Drawing During the Pandemic. Professor Mark Thomas Gibson. Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Philadelphia. PA.
Artist Talk—Drawing During the Pandemic. Professor Laura Frantz. Hunter College. New York. NY.
Studio Visit—ISCP Young Patrons. New York. NY.
2016
Artist Talk. Matt Jones—Abstraction. Professor Anna Kell. Bucknell University. Lewisburg. PA.
2014
Artist Talk and Studio Visits—Professor Mark Thomas Gibson. Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. New York. NY.
2013
Matt Jones in conversation with Lucianne Walkowicz. Bleecker Street Arts Club. New York.