KB JONES: Present
In Collaboration with Chozick Family Art Gallery
November 1 - December 20

Chozick Family Art Gallery & Kristen Lorello announce exhibition Present by artist KB Jones, on view at Kristen Lorello’s uptown gallery.

Chozick Family Art Gallery in partnership with Kristen Lorello is pleased to present a selection of new works by Brooklyn-based painter KB Jones. This solo show follows her participation in a group show at the gallery in August and draws inspiration from quotidian moments and overlooked objects captured in photographs by the artist around the Upper East Side, a place the artist long called home.

This show builds off of and combines two distinct styles Jones has become known for: lush, photorealist oil paintings of unexpected objects, such as her iconic series of trash bag paintings, and cartoon-influenced depictions of domestic scenes using industrial house paint. This show is the first time the artist has combined these two paints, and consequently these two painting styles, on the individual canvases themselves, representing an exciting evolution in the artist’s practice.

Many of the paintings have been conceived of in pairs: a cartoon-like black-and-grey hot dog stand contrasts a naturalistic UES street portrayed in great depth and detail, drawing our attention to the simple pleasures of these classic New York sights and treats; its mirror features an oil paint still-life hot dog stand against a cartoonish, flat, mint-green street background, rendering something familiar deliciously strange.

Serving as translations of each other, these pairs of paintings transfer perspectives back and forth and cause us to shift our own. By juxtaposing the high- and lowbrow and swiftly turning the scene on its head, Jones asks us to look again, to look more closely, at what we walk past every day. The catalyst for the project, and its centerpiece, is a pair of presents, red wrapping paper tied with a silver bow: one features a Minnie Mouse-style bow against a buttery background, the other a bow that looks real enough to tug on against a one-dimensional redness. Through her renderings of a Laduree bag, a line of student backpacks, zoomed-in scenes from Central Park, or frames from the Met, Jones draws our focus to the joy we derive from the banal but decorative objects that dot our daily lives—maybe the wrapping is just as good as what’s waiting inside.

Text by Emma Ramadan

KB Jones (b. Huntsville, TX) is an artist based in New York City. She earned her MFA in Painting from the University of New Mexico and a BA in Philosophy and Visual Art from Columbia University. Recent solo exhibitions include The Land and the Fog at Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York (2023); Betty at Premises Gallery, Dallas (2024); and Green Lights at The Lemonade Stand, Fairbanks (2024). Her work was also featured in Plein Air (2022), curated by Aurora Tang, at MOCA Tucson and The Armory Center for the Arts, Los Angeles. Jones has collaborated widely with poets, dancers, and musicians, and was a 2020 artist-in-residence at The Chinati Foundation. She currently teaches Art at The Brearley School.

Chozick Family Art Gallery was founded in 2025 by Rebekah Chozick. The gallery is focused on fostering collaboration and experimentation through the representation and exhibition of international multi-disciplinary artists. Chozick Family Art Gallery is located in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City on the second floor of 370 Broadway. In line with the collaborative voice of the gallery, this is a shared space with JDJ and Deanna Evans Projects, each gallery presenting their own exhibitions on a rotating schedule. In addition to the gallery’s on-site programing, Chozick Family Art Gallery participates in domestic and international art fairs, and presents off-site exhibitions throughout the year. In collaboration with designers Rosa McElheny and Hilary duPont, the gallery runs a publishing imprint called Family Books which periodically produces monographs for the artists of the gallery.