Living in the Anthropocene
Libby Jones
3 – 27 April 2025
Private View: Thursday 3 April 6-8pm. Email gallery to RSVP.
Q & A with the Artist: Sat 26 April , 2.30pm. Just drop in.
Libby Jones presents an exhibition of installation, sculpture, printmaking, mixed media and textiles to reflect on the angst, powerlessness, confusion, and beauty of living in the Anthropocene*.
Libby Jones has been acutely aware of climate and environmental issues since visiting Antarctica in 2009 where she saw first hand the effects of climate change and plastic pollution in such an ostensibly pristine environment.
The artist explores these subjects with diverse and innovative artworks. Large colourful quilts draw attention to wildfires, worldwide coral reef destruction, and animal and insect extinctions. Threats to the Polar regions are explored in a witty installation using an old microwave oven. Another installation ‘Fossils of the Anthropocene’, set 50 million years in the future, imagines fossils of our era found and displayed in a museum by intelligent rats. Prints and cyanotypes celebrate the beauty of biodiversity and the magnificent scenery of Antarctica.
Influences include Anselm Kiefer’s viscous textured surfaces and overt politicism, Daniel Beltra’s photographic images, especially Poles and Spill, and the work of Australian artist Katherine Boland made after the wildfires of 2018/19.
*The Anthropocene: The period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment
About the artist
Determined to be an artist, Libby Jones had to wait until the age of 45 to gain an art education. Before this she taught English in England, Lebanon and Cyprus, married, had three daughters, was forced by the Lebanese civil war to flee to Cyprus where she opened a Joke shop, before finally arriving in London in 1984 when she began to study art, first a BA in sculpture and later an MA in printmaking.
Libby has taken part in countless exhibitions. Her early works were predominantly sculpture and installation. Later she developed an interest in printmaking, and has been a member of Kew Studio for 40 yrs, is a member of Richmond Printmakers and until 2023 was a member of Southbank Printmakers.
Recent work has included three large quilts addressing the effect of climate change. One of these, ‘Do not go Gentle into that Good Night’ was shown in the Barbican Library in 2023.
ART EDUCATION:
2005 MA Printmaking and Professional Practice, Brighton
1994 Diploma in Advanced Visual Studies (Book-works, distinction) Oxford Brookes
1991 BA Hons 1st class (Sculpture) St Albans School of Art
1988 Diploma in Art and Design, Sir John Cass. Owen Rowley prize winner.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
The Sidney Nolan Trust
Grainger Trust plc
West Middlesex Hospital
Hillingdon Hospital
Thomas Guy House Guy’s Hospital
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2023 Arthouse Richmond
2015 Prints and Installations. 30 years at Kew Studio. Kew Studio
2002 Snaps, Casts and Impressions. The Riverside Room Richmond
2001 Myths and Monsters. The Wine Gallery Chelsea
1997 Earth, Air, Fire and Water. The Stables Gallery Twickenham
1993 Libby Jones: Prints, Ormand’s, St James London W1
1992 Metamorphosis, Old Town Hall, Richmond
TOURING EXHIBITIONS:
Deep South: Seven artists explore Antarctica– Dulwich College – The Stables Twickenham – Discovery Centre Dundee – Diss Norfolk
Paper Art: Mino Washi Paper Museum and other venues Japan
Southern Band Touring Exhibitions: An Artist comes to Town. Residency in Milton Keynes and touring.
Sculptural Books: Icon Gallery Birmingham
PRIZES:
Diana Armfield Drawing Prize 2nd prize,
EWACC Sculpture Prize 1st prize,
Owen Rowley Prize, John Cass
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