Jon Greene

Spotlight

An online initiative featuring our favorite artists alongside a small collection of their works.
curated by and available through Skye Gallery.

Jon Greene in his studio, 2024. Still from video by Garrett Creamer.

THE Work of JON GREENE

“My work illuminates how people observe their surroundings and the defining social, psychological, and economic barriers of society. I draw from and respond to personal experiences in psychoanalysis and a childhood of seclusion and scrutiny. My precise and rigid art practice is a symptom of that time and an effort to regulate my life.” — Jon Greene

Film by Garrett Creamer + Baby Bird Films

Jon Greene, Dark Corner, 2023.

SKYE GALLERY (SG): What's the inspiration behind your work?

JON GREENE (JG): I am most inspired by architecture and usual human interferences in nature. If I did not explore and find new places and spaces, it would be hard for me to build new bodies of work.

From a young age, I had appreciation for architecture that allows for or evokes autonomy, creativity, and movement. Using drafting paper and free Google SketchUp software, I would design structures that I would want to experience or live in. Architecture remains a primary component of my art practice. An architect directs the movement of people, their perception of themselves, and their surroundings. I enjoy recreating some of these moments and fabricating illusionary techniques to suggest space.

My work is also deeply inspired by my research and experiences in Freudian psychoanalysis as a child and teenager. I saw the world from a small beige room and hoped to exist literally anywhere else with anyone other than my analyst. 

SG: What inspires you to start creating?

JG: I am most inspired to work in the studio after spending time away from my practice, around creative people, and visiting exciting new places. I am not a daily maker, but I am constantly building toward new bodies of work. Journaling, sketching, and gaining new skills all add to my practice. I prefer to make work in intense intervals, giving me periods to reflect on what I have made and find unique, strange moments in architecture and life.

Still from video by Garrett Creamer.

SG: Tell us about your artistic journey. Why and how did you become an artist?

JG: My art training is largely traditional. The past two years have been my first years out of academia. I was directed away from architecture programs as my instructors thought I would find it to be a frustrating field - I am still unsure of this. I was determined to have a creative career and the compromise was a liberal arts education. I spent as much time as I could in the studios and found that I loved printmaking, sculpture, and photography. For me, printmaking was the perfect combination of process and creative expression. The printmaking community, Tamarind institute, graduate school, and the connections I have built along the way have brought me to call myself an artist.

Still from video by Garrett Creamer.

SG: Which is your favorite piece you've ever created and why?

JG: My favorite piece that I have created so far is Partitions, an eleven-run lithograph that took me about a month to create. Partitions is a direct response to experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic as the layers of translucent ink reference acrylic glass that separated us from one another. Partitions was one of my most challenging projects and it required an extreme level of detail and concentration. The process was a meditative and frustrating, and I was proud to complete it. In a way, it brought me out of a funk and represents my closed-off state during those times.

SG: What's your favorite food?

JG: Pasta. My mother is a descendent of two Sicilian-American cheese families; Maggio Cheese and Precious cheese, named after my grandmother, Precious. One of my favorite restaurants in Philadelphia is Dante & Luigi's an Italian restaurant where my mother's uncles ate daily.

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About the Artist

Jon Greene is a visual artist and a professional printmaker whose work depicts architectural and environmental boundaries. He draws from research and personal experiences in psychoanalysis. Jon specializes in lithography, relief, and installation. He completed Tamarind Institute's Printer Training Program in 2019 and received an MFA from The University of Iowa in 2022.

Jon has exhibited his work internationally, including at Zane Bennett Contemporary Art Gallery, The Fig Bilbao International Printmaking Festival, and New York’s 2023 Art on Paper fair. This past year, Jon was a resident at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, he taught as a Visiting Professor at Colorado College and printed as a fine art lithographer at Petrichor Press. Jon's prints will be included on the set of The Curse, a new Showtime television series starring Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone.

Past Exhibitions:
First Light
October 10 - December 9, 2023