Bett Gallery

Locust Jones

WAITING FOR NEWS

Saturday 31 July until 21 August 2021

Bett Gallery is proud to present an exhibition of new Lightbox works, major drawings and lithographs by Locust Jones.

WAITING FOR NEWS...well there is no shortage of it these days...heavens. President of Haiti assassinated, Wildfires in the U.S and the hottest recorded temperature ever recorded on earth in Death Valley yesterday of 52c. Whoa. Then there is the U.S withdrawal from Afghanistan, Global Pandemic and now NSW in lockdown with the Covid Variant Delta, Astrazenica, Pfizer, Jabs and all the political headbutting around vaccine rollouts. So In a way I don't need to wait for News as it streams into my inbox, across the radio waves , internet.

The Light Box drawings are drawn from myriad sources for example the people featuring in the light box 'Waiting for News' are sourced from an old black and white photograph of London Literary luminaries. Global heating is another big one as well as the War in Tigray Northern Ethiopia and the Jailing of Jacob Zuma in South Africa. In short, what I am doing is weaving a story with all the associated News events. Filtering the World News through my own Personal Lens

Locust Jones, 2021Born in 1963, Christchurch, New Zealand, Locust Jones currently lives and works in the Blue Mountains, Australia. Locust has held over 35 solo exhibitions within Australia and internationally, his work is instantly recognizable and widely appreciated. Categorized by strong lines, vivid colours and an irrepressible energy, Locust’s paintings and drawings are heavy with textual markers of our dark contemporary age.

Selected solo exhibitions include: Back to the Dark Ages, Blue Mountains City Art Gallery (2015) Burn Freeze, David Krut Projects, New York (2014); Descent into the Mass Media Maelstrom, Galerie Patrick Ebensperger, Berlin (2014); 24HR News Feed, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand (2013) and Some Mistakes were Perhaps Made, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, NSW (2012).

Locust has participated in numerous museum exhibitions including: Dobell Australian Drawing Biennale, Art Gallery of New South Wales; Bove-Expat, Kunstraum Dusseldorf, Germany; Art Gallery of South Australia, Heidi Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne and Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. His work is held in major public collections including: Art Gallery of New South Wales; Art Gallery of South Australia; Artbank; Bathurst Regional Art Gallery; National Gallery of Victoria; Australian War Memorial; Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand; James Wallace Trust, Auckland, New Zealand; National Gallery of Australia; Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery; Kunstwerk Museum; Collection of Peter W. and Alison Klein, Stuttgart, Germany and the Shepparton Art Museum.