18th September – 10th October 2009 www.signalgallery.com
Jonathan will be presenting a number of images of young children ‘infected’ by images of consumerism and vulnerability. Some of their faces have logos etched into their skin, while others are dripping with blood. There is a discord between the apparent ‘sweetness’ of the young faces and the disquieting markings that become more evident on further inspection. The effect is subtly disturbing.
Jonathan’s artistic concerns have centred around depicting the vulnerability of children. For him contemporary society is too obsessively reliant on consumerism, to the extent that we are all victims of it. Either we are on the ‘spend, spend, spend’ treadmill or we are off it – being exploited across the world into poverty by low wages, producing the goods the rest of us want. For him the primary victims of this acquisitive culture are children, who he sees as being most exposed to its crassness and cruelty and who are largely without choice.
Jonathan Darby has that special quality so many young artists lack – the ability to communicate his ideas clearly through the images he produces. The term accessible springs to mind, but not at all in the patronising way of ‘dumbing down’ to seek out a wider audience. Jonathan’s work remains bold and challenging.
He studied Fine Art at Central St Martin’s college where he graduated in 2008. Since then, he has been busy with a number of group shows across London to great acclaim. His work ‘The Prisoners’ based on the Katte Kollwitz piece of the same name, was selected as one of the top 5 in the curator choice category in the Noise Festival 2008. His first solo show, at Signal Gallery, should establish his name firmly on the London art scene.
