TWO-PERSON EXHIBITION BY
KRISTA M. JONES AND ANGELA BORTONE
On Friday, June 21, 2019, a new exhibition called [es·sence] will open at Blue Mark Studios. It is a two-person exhibition by Atlanta-based artists and muralists Krista M. Jones and Angela Bortone. Their figurative paintings explore the connection between emotion, body, energy and environment. Their gestural mark-making is layered with figures as a way of suggesting the impermanence of the human experience.
Jones’ figures are created from background to foreground, typically pulling the light out of the darkness and highlighting topics of gender, sexuality, trauma and transformation. Bortone, with a strong sense of rhythm & movement, works against the chaos of ink splashes as a way of illustrating body & mind. Both artists are exploring how intuitive abstraction and representational figurative form can exist within the same space.
Krista M. Jones is an interdisciplinary artist based in Atlanta, GA. She was born in Dallas, Texas to a military family and spent most of her life traveling abroad and within the United States. Her work has been exhibited in multiple galleries in Atlanta, Georgia, San Francisco, California, Columbus, Georgia, Washington DC, and Hilton Head, South Carolina. She has sold work both nationally and internationally and is an active member of social justice arts organization Alternate Roots and local non-profit, C4 Atlanta. She was a recipient of Laura Patricia Calle grant in 2017 for Living Walls in collaboration with four other women for a mural project called “In Solidarity” and assisted world-renowned artist Hopare in the creation of Atlanta’s largest mural to date.
Angela Bortone is a painter and member of the artist collective Living Melody Collective. In her studio practice, she melds realism with abstraction to create psychological, emotive portraits. Born in the Dominican Republic, she spent nearly a decade abroad in Germany before moving to Atlanta in 2002. Her work has been exhibited across various venues Atlanta including Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, MINT Gallery, and Whitespace Gallery and in Austin, Texas and Tampa, Florida.
The opening for [es·sence] is at 7 PM – 10 PM on Friday, June 21st. The celebration will feature art, music, and refreshments. The event is free and open to the public.
