Jonathan Parsons (b. 1970, Surrey, UK) is known for the diversity of his practice, which includes installation, sculpture, found objects, drawing, painting and fabrication.
His work often deconstructs the conventions of representation – an approach which can be traced back to the hanging map piece Carcass, as displayed in Saatchi’s Sensation exhibition in 1997. His long-running series of grid paintings deal with the brushstroke and also the impossibility of something that appears to be 3-D being flat at the same time.
‘There are no layers whatever’, he explains, ‘just abutting colours which create a succession of apparent levels which are actually flat’.
Parsons studied at Goldsmith’s College, University of London between 1989 - 1992.
He was selected for the British Art Show 5 (2000) and was one of the youngest artists to be included in the notorious Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts (1997). Recent solo exhibitions include: Spectroscopic, Coleman Projects, London (2024), The Black Drawings, Bunker Gallery, Isle of Wight (2022); Scribble and the Structures of Depiction, Hardwick Gallery, Cheltenham (2021), the land art piece Fossil Ocean Floor, Dorking, Surrey, UK (2018) and New Paintings, New Art Projects, London (2014). Public collections include the UK Government Art Collection, the Arts Council of England Collection and Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery.
