LONDON.- A work by the British artist Rachel Jones (B. 1991), Spliced Structure (7), is among the highlights of Bonhams’ Post-War & Contemporary Art sale on Thursday 24 March at Bonhams New Bond Street. Having studied at Glasgow School of Art, followed by the Royal Academy Schools (2016 – 2019), Jones was recently included in Hayward Gallery’s 2021 exhibition Mixing It Up: Painting Today, and received widespread acclaim for her distinctive and bold style. Created in 2019, Spliced Structure (7) is a sterling example from a foundational series by the artist. The work has an estimate of £40,000-60,000.

Ralph Taylor, Bonhams Global Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art, commented: “Jones is a truly remarkable artist whose unique style and visual approach to matters of identity and voice has already earned her much attention from the international art community. Spliced Structure (7) is packed full of the joyously colourful expression that is characteristic of her approach to painting, and Bonhams is excited to offer a work at this stage of Jones’ promising career.”

Rachel Jones is one of Britain's most ascendant painters, and her works are already held in the collections of The Tate, Arts Council England, the Hepworth Wakefield, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. More recently, her first solo show held at Thaddaeus Ropac in London, SMIIILLLLEEEE, showcased the distinctiveness of her artistic voice, and many of the works exhibited the striking visual motif of lips and teeth which is a central focus of Spliced Structure (7). Holding a particular significance for the Black community, relating to tooth adornments like grills and gold caps, Jones uses motif and colour to foreground the experience of Black bodies, the mouth constituting a symbolic entry to the self.

Writing in Bonhams Magazine, Aindrea Emelife, said: “Rachel Jones is a painter for the modern era. Her visceral abstract visual language grapples with the psychologies of colour, brushstroke and repeated motif […] she has created a tactile and impeccably modern abstraction that talks to us about living as a Black woman in contemporary Britain.”

Other highlights of the sale include:

• Frank Auerbach (B. 1931), Portrait of Debbie Ratcliff III, 1984. Estimate: £450,000-650,000

• Yayoi Kusama (B. 1929), Fruits, 1996. Estimate: £300,000-500,000

• John Baldessari (1931-2020), Two Landscapes (One Blocked): Each With Two Figures (One Yellow/Violet), 1990. Estimate: £280,000-450,000.

• A. R. Penck (1939-2017), Standard West KR6, 1982. Estimate: £180,000-250,000.