Julian Jamaal Jones, Wabash College Artist-in-Residence for spring 2025, will open an installation of his work, “AMEN,” on Friday, Jan. 24, in the Fine Arts Center.
The College will hold an opening reception from 4-7 p.m. and attendees can chat with Jones and be among the first to interact with his engaging contemporary quilts and works on paper.
Jones memorializes Black culture by presenting fresh perspectives and creative freedom within traditional landscapes. His unique practice communicates through the historical language of African American quilting tradition by implementing abstract forms and vibrant colors in his works to bypass preconceptions and open conversations around his Black experience.
“I best express myself through sketching,” Jones said. “My drawings are colorful, abstract, gestural, and ultimately unexplainable. Even I can’t quite comprehend what comes out of my sketchbook. I approach the making of quilts as a sketching process, working quickly to creatively process the sense of alienation that comes from being a Black man in white spaces.”
AMEN explores the experience of an evolving faith rooted in the artist’s affinity to the Black church, a communal space housing a subset of Black expression and spirituality. Through bold, instinctive mark-making, Jones fondly revisits his memories of this home space as a foundation to his unwavering belief and life view.This body of work follows “Take Me Back,” an exhibit from January 2024 that documented Jones’ nostalgia towards 1990s Black church life, a pivotal era of spiritual communion emphasizing political mobilization, community engagement, and progression of experimental soundscapes and f
ashion styles.
In AMEN, a maturation has taken place. While his memories as a child in this sacred space remain, manifested through the warmth of his signature sun-drenched hues and gestural line work, we now are presented with an awakening, seen through the immersive quilts in this body of work.
Born and raised in Indianapolis, Jones received his bachelor's degree in photography in 2020 from the Herron School of Art + Design and a master’s in photography in 2022 from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He was selected to participate in the Black Mountain Active Archive Residency in 2024; the recipient of the CICF Ar
tist Travel Ambassador Grant in 2023; awarded ArtsConnect “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’ works are in the permanent textile collections of Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Richmond Art Museum in Richmond, Indiana, and The Book Tower in Detroit.
The Eric Dean Gallery is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Thursday 7-9 p.m., and Saturday 2-6 p.m. All events are free and open to the public.