LONDON and LEIPZIG.- Fred announced Peter Jones' first solo exhibition with the gallery in both its London and Leipzig spaces. The exhibition gathers together a large group of Jones' monkey portraits. This is Jones' singular subject matter: Old toy monkeys. Jones scours antique markets and auction catalogues searching for original Steiff and other vintage monkeys, mainly from the 1940's and 1950's although occasionally more modern monkeys creep into the collection.

The monkeys are often found wearing wounds and bruises from their years spent with unknown owners. They sometimes appear in the portraits with their stuffing bleeding from torn limbs or bulging from stitched noses. Looking at a group of these monkey portraits we instinctively ascribe personalities and emotions to these inanimate objects. Jones superbly suggests and then captures _expression in these portraits. As with a child's imagination these toy monkeys become animated by the artist's brush. So like Giapetto's Pinocchio or The Nutcracker the toy transgresses it's inanimate status through the hands of the artist. The Pygmalian fantasy abounds.

The singularity of the subject of the toy monkey especially when collected together en masse is at first extremely bizarre. However, the monkey as a subject in art when used as a symbolic parody of human behaviour, has a long historical precedent. In particular we think about the French decorative art genre of the singerie which has left us with such wonders as the Grand Singerie in Chataeu de Chantilly: A monkey room decorated with wall paintings by Christophe Huet. We also recall " Le Singe Antiquaire " by Chardin in the The Louvre. The monkey is clearly an intriguing and compelling subject: It's exotic status simultaneously reflecting so many human expressions, from light to dark, goodness to badness.

Jones' monkey portraits have further links to historical portraiture: For instance the large canvas of the monkey with folded arms references Titian's " Man With A blue Sleeve" in The National Gallery. The device of a series of work in terms of scale and composition also brings to mind other subjects in art whose identity is created through repetition. The most striking examples are the tiers of saints on the Byzantine Iconostasis or the Renaissance Polyptych Altarpiece.

Jones works on each painting in a scrupulous way, each portrait is preceded with numerous pencil and oil studies on paper, then gridded out before being rendered on canvas. Scanning these obsessive paintings the viewer is drawn into the luxurious fur or a beautifully suggested stitch or the stare of a gleaming, glassy eye. In the series of the seated monkeys each painting is designed to work individually although in the studio these works were meticulously conceived as a group. Jones in a strictly formalistic style sets each monkey against a two-tone background. The colours in one painting then govern and relate to the next painting in the series. Thus the whole group is formulated into a grid with each painting sharing a relationship with each other. The colour combinations in these works are as vital to each of these paintings as the subject of the monkey; The background colour governs the tones of the monkey.

Viewing a large group of these works in the gallery space the idea of repetition is firmly brought to the fore. The series of the seated monkeys in particular feature an acidic technicolour palette which brings to mind Warhol's polymer screen paintings of the 1960's and 1970's. The idea of the multiple allows the artist through repeated subject matter to create works where colour and composition can be the primary formal concern, endlessly worked out and worked upon, like a mad professor searching for the perfect and ultimate combination. Where Warhol chose Icons such as Marilyn and Jackie on which to project himself, Jones has chosen the monkey as an archetype with which to communicate his own personal _expression. An intrinsically banal object is transformed through scrutiny, patient observation and art from it's unwanted, discarded status into something else, something worthy of it's portrait. The use of repetition often a strategy to question values and status is here reversed and in fact works to elevate the subject of the painting. Each Portrait sits on the gallery wall like a gem gleaming with colour, texture and emotion.