Samuel Levi Jones was born and raised in Marion, Indiana. His work explores the relationship between documents and systems of knowledge and power. Jones deconstructs discarded books and other historical materials to build collages that question the selectivity of “authoritative” texts and documentary practices. His large, grid-like compositions examine exclusion and identity and critique larger issues of social and racial inequality that are at the forefront of current debates in the United States. In 2014 Jones received the Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize, an annual award whose past recipients include prominent artists such as Leslie Hewitt, Glenn Ligon, and Lorna Simpson. His work is included in collections such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Rubell Family Collection, Florida; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; and Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Jones is represented by Galerie Lelong in New York, Patron Gallery in Chicago, and Vielmetter in Los Angeles.
Born 1978 in Marion, Indiana.
Lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.
EDUCATION
MFA, Spring 2012, Studio Art, Mills College, Oakland, CA
BFA, Spring 2009, Fine Art in Photography, Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, IN
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Samuel Levi Jones: Longing, Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris, France
Samuel Levi Jones: Conscious Intuition, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, NY
2021
The Empire is Falling, The Contemporary Dayton, Dayton, OH
No Color in the Pages, Patron Gallery, Chicago, IL
Rise Up, Galerie Lelong & Co, Paris, France
2020
Third Space, Edison School of the Arts, Indianapolis, IN
2019
Mass Awakening, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, NY
No More Tokens, Susanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA
Left of Center, Newfields, Indianapolis, IN
Let Us Grow, Galerie Lelong & Co. Paris, France
2018
Nexus, PATRON, Chicago, IL
2017
Remedial Suffering, Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
2016
Burning all illusion, Galerie Lelong, New York, NY
Reciprocity, PATRON, Chicago, IL
Samuel Levi Jones, The Arts Club, London
Samuel Levi Jones, Halsey McKay, East Hampton, NY
48 Portraits (Underexposed), EXPO Projects, PATRON, Chicago, IL
2015
After Fred Wilson, IMOCA, Indianapolis, IN
Talk To Me, Pro Arts, Oakland, California
Unbound, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
2014
Black White Thread, PAPILLON, Los Angeles, CA
2013
DELETE, Los Angeles, CA
48 Portraits (Underexposed), Harrison Center for the Arts, Indianapolis, IN
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Wrongs & RIGHTS, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, New York
Past is Present: Black Artists Respond to the Complicated Histories of Slavery, Herron School of Art + Design, Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana
Samuel Levi Jones, & Marie Hazard, Sunday-S Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Ways of Seeing: Sports and Games, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Subversive Media, Second Street Gallery, Charlottsville, VA
Whatever Gets You Through the Night, The Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint, MI
Young, Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi family Collection of Contemporary Art, Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, PA; Manetti Shrem Musuem of Art University pf California, Davis
2021
Art of California: greater than the Sum, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA
New Prints and Editions, Galerie Lelong & Co. New York, NY
20 Years Anniversary Exhibition Part 2, Vielmetter, Los Angeles, California
DeHaan Artist of Distinction Group Exhibition, Gallery 924, Indianapolis, IN
2020
I Yield My Time, Fuck You, Altman Siegel, San Francisco, CA
Paper Pavilions, Curated by Sean M. Starowitz, 411 Gallery, Indianapolis, IN
Duro Olowu: Seeing Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL
Nexus: Contemporary Art from Leading Miami Collections, Lowe Art Museum, FL
Shifting Gaze: A Reconstruction of Black and Hispanic Body in Contemporary Art form the Collection of Dr. Robert B. Feldman, Virginia Museum of Art, Virginia Beach, VA
2019
Resilience: African American Artists As Agents of Change, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, curated by Antwaun Sargent and Matt Wycoff , OSilas Gallery at Concordia College, Bronxville, NY
State Your Intentions: New Works in the Weisman Art Museum Collection, Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN
On Soft Ground, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, IN
Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/ Giuffrida Collection, Smart Museum of Art, Chicago IL
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Gallery 360, Northeastern University, Boston MA; Las Cruces Museum of Art, Las Cruses, NM; Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona, FL
2018
Sidelined, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, New York
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek,
California
2017
Basile Gallery, Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, Indiana
Susanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles, California
Excerpt Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
2016
Chicago Invites Chicago, Galerie Lelong, New York, NY
Trust Issues, Ronchini, London, UK
A Dark Matter, Tarble Gallery, Eastern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL
2015
Trashed and Treasured, Napa Valley Museum, Napa Valley, CA
Theory of Forms, PATRON Gallery, Chicago
I Like It Like This, S2 Sotheby’s Gallery, New York, NY
The Silence of Ordinary Things, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, CA
2014
The History of Technologies, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, CA
OPEN, PAPILLION ART, Los Angeles, CA
2013
A Basic Measure, SEUI ULTCW, Los Angeles, CA
TRANSPORT, ProArts, Oakland, CA
2012
X Libris, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
BAILA con Duende, Watts Towers Art Center, Los Angeles, CA
MFA Show, The Last Show on Earth, Mills College, Oakland, CA
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2017
Sustainable Arts Foundation, San Francisco, California
2015
Artist in Residence, Pamela Joyner and Fred Giufrida, Sonoma, California
2014
Recology Residency, San Francisco, CA
Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
2012
Vivian and Margarita Stephenson Award, Mills College, Oakland, CA
2011
Mills Graduate Teaching Assistantship, Oakland, CA
2010
Evelyn V. Staton Fellowship in Fine Arts, Mills College, Oakland, CA
2009
Mildred Darby Menz Award, Herron School of Art and Design Indianapolis, IN
2008
Junior Bratton Award, Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, IN
Samuel Levi Jones
Sidelined
2018
Color flatbite and aquatint.
Rives BFK paper
Image size 69" x 36"
Paper size 73" x 40"
Edition of 25
Samuel Levi Jones
Water and Air
2018
Color flatbite and aquatint.
Rives BFK paper
Image size 65.5" x 65"
Paper size 65.5" x 65"
Edition of 25
Samuel Levi Jones
Amalgamation
2017
Color flatbite and aquatint.
Somerset White paper
Image size 37" x 29.5"
Paper size 39" x 31.5"
Edition of 25
Samuel Levi Jones
Elements
2017
Color flatbite and aquatint.
Somerset White paper mounted on soft white
Image size 23.5" x 34.25"
Paper size 26.25" x 36.5"
Edition of 25
Samuel Levi Jones
Deeper
2017
Color flatbite and aquatint.
Rives BFK paper.
Image size 63" x 47"
Paper size 63" x 47"
Edition of 25
Samuel Levi Jones
Sold Ya
2017
Color flatbite and aquatint.
Rives BFK paper.
Image size 42" x 65"
Paper size 42" x 65"
Edition of 25