Mathew Jones

He has held over 20 solo exhibitions in Australia, New York and Canada and been included in over 45 group exhibitions throughout all Australian states and in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Sao Paulo, Caracas, Copenhagen, New York and London.

[3] Jones’ earliest work such as ‘Silence = Death’ (200 Gertude St, Melbourne; Artspace, Sydney; and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane throughout 1991) embraced notions of silence and refusal as political strategies in ways that pre-empt the interests of many younger queer artists today.

‘I Feel Like Chicken Tonight’ (Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne; Canberra Contemporary Art Space and Artspace, Sydney throughout 1995) highlighted the expulsion of NAMBLA from ILGA during the mainstreaming of gay politics.

‘Poof!’ (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne and the Art Gallery of NSW, 1993 and 1995) exploded the idea of a stable gay identity whilst ‘The New York Daily News …’ (pictured) pined for a time before Stonewall.

Whilst work of the ‘90s critiqued gay identity politics he is wary now of a growing hegemony within queer politics and recent works look backwards at creative ways we can forge gay links with artists of the past.