The Bite Magazine - Issue 11

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Look out world, for here comes Nick Jones!
Hailing from Liverpool, this artist has a unique
yet very creative outlook on things. Having earned a
BA Hons in Fine Arts and an MA in Art History and
Theory, this talented young man creates deep-edged
paintings on canvas that have been exhibited across
the UK and sold to private collections around
the world. His pieces feature whimsical, pop-art
characters and critters that make bold statements,
which at first glance look comical, but actually
brazenly take on cultural events. Nick Jones states,
“My art is about pop music, pop culture, cold wars,
hot wars, space races and arms races. It's about the
beauty of the natural world and the aesthetics of
an assault rifle. It's about being bitten by a kitten. It
wants the one it can't have.”
His most recent work takes a gander at pride and
country and the resulting global power and influence
of those nations.“Icons of the ColdWar or national
pride are painted onto maps that represent a world
long changed, shaped by the ambitions that would
eventually hurl living creatures into space and create
ever more formidable fighting machines.” Jones
uses quirky pop culture images to reflect these
global changes, which “are then sometimes used as
weapons in the parallel cultural wars themselves”.
This means that something like Hello Kitty, a cute
robot or funny monkey can be used as symbols
of propaganda that could lighten the severity of a
serious matter.
Overall, Jones uses robots, monkeys, space dogs and
fighter jets to meet what he considers perhaps one
of art's key goals: “that it’ll be visually appealing,
whatever that may mean to you or me.”
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