JULIAN JAMAAL JONES

Julian Jamaal Jones is a multidisciplinary artist and educator born and raised in Indianapolis, IN. Jones received his Bachelor’s degree in Photography in 2020 from the Herron School of Art + Design (Indianapolis) and a Master’s in Photography in 2022 from Cranbrook Academy of Art (Bloomfield Hills, MI), under the tutelage of Chris Fraser. Jones was the recipient of the 2023 CICF Artist Ambassadors Travel Grant, awarded ArtsConnect’s “Artist to Watch” in 2022, the recipient of the 2022 Playground Emerging Artist Fellowship, supported by the Knight Foundation and the recipient of the prestigious Museum Purchase Award from Cranbrook Art Museum in 2022. Jones’s works are in the permanent textile collections of Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI), Richmond Art Museum (Richmond, IN) and The Book Tower Detroit (Detroit, MI).

Exploring the possibilities of textiles and the fiber arts, Jones is recognized for his abstract quilts that serve as explorations of place and identity. Jones grew up in a conservative, Christian household on the northside of Indianapolis in a predominantly white neighborhood; it was only when he and his family would travel to the inner city to attend church that Jones recalls being exposed to a greater Black community. A feeling of isolation growing up turned him onto television shows like 106 & Park on BET—a space he had seeked out where he could escape and felt a sense of belonging as he watched and learned from people who looked like him. This is where his long standing love for hip hop music began, an influence that plays a major role in his work today. Beyond a sense of acceptance provided by the world of hip hop, Jones cites the rhythmic pulse of music as a direct informant to his creations, explaining how the various marks in his sketches mimic beats of songs and the different feelings that they have the power to evoke.

The creation of Jones’s quilts begin with his sketches: “I best express myself through sketching. My drawings are colorful, abstract, gestural, and ultimately unexplainable. Even I can’t quite comprehend what comes out of my sketchbook. Due to my learning disability, drawing has been my most direct form of communication to visually organize and process my surroundings.” Jones likens the body of works to a visual diary, each one a cumulation of reactions to a myriad of sources, from current fashion trends, to scriptures he is reading, to world events and his current environment—and, of course, music. Jones’s tendency towards abstraction stems from the anonymity that the style suggests. It allows space for the artist to release his innermost thoughts without exposing himself or risking judgment from others. It stems from his desire for his audience to formulate their own.