Viewing Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons at Dulwich Picture Gallery

The Wick are huge fans of the young British abstract painter Rachel Jones, who has already received numerous accolades and acclaim, at only 34 years old (not to mentioning designing a Brit Award!). This anticipated exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery is a landmark for Jones but also for the gallery, who open their entire main exhibition to a show by a single contemporary artist for the first time in its history.

Gated Canyons demonstrates why Jones has made a name for herself – its not only her striking, unforgettable palettes with contrasting bold hues, but her brilliant, seamless command of expressive, joyous mark-making with oil stick and oil pastels, moving between abstract and almost-recognisable motifs.

This completely new and never-seen-before body of work ranges from large-scale to intimate, and riffs on Dulwich Picture Gallery’s collection, and in particular a painting by Flemish artist Pieter Boel, Head of a Hound (1660-5). It’s a thrilling collision with the history of art, reseen, reinvigorated and reinterpreted for today. Jones is capable of making you think, but perhaps just as importantly, of making you smile.