Lot 218 - Sal Jones - Keep Me Alive

Oil on primed paper
2025
A6 (10x15cm)
Original Artwork
Signed on Verso
Curated by Art on a Postcard

About
Drawing inspiration from sources such as film, media, and popular culture, Sal's oil paintings, weighted with psychological tension, defy the usual portrait genre and gender stereotypes. The subjects are mostly women, often fictional or notorious, with a social or cultural relevance. The painted surface draws attention to the process of painting and to the artist’s choices in transforming the photographic source image.

Sal has a BA Hons in Fine Art and a PGCE in Art & Design, she lives and works in Hackney, London. She has over 20 years of experience working in the education sector teaching and undertaking art residencies; she is a freelance Artist, Museum educator and exam board Assessment Associate and has exhibited widely in London and the UK, in selected and solo shows.

Sal has been shortlisted for Wells Art Contemporary (WAC 2023), Wales Contemporary Art Prize (2022); long-listed for the BEEP Biennial (2024), the Women’s United Art Prize (2021), and the Jackson’s Open Art Prize (2016), winning the interim oil painting prize.

Sal has also had work selected for the Royal Cambrian Academy open and the Wales Contemporary open. She was an invited artist for the ING Discerning Eye exhibition (2020) as well as being selected for the Discerning Eye, annual open exhibition at the Mall galleries in 2014. She has had work selected for the Society of Women artists annual open exhibition (2023, 2020 and 2015) and has shown with the Bath Society of Artists, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Visual Arts Scotland, and Feren's gallery Hull in their annual open exhibitions.

She was one of 21 visual women artists invited to produce new work for ‘Dear Christine’, an arts council-funded touring exhibition in tribute to Christine Keeler (the exhibition toured during 2019 – 2020 to Newcastle, Swansea, and London).

Education
1989 – 1990
Postgraduate Certificate of Education in Art & Design, Middlesex Polytechnic

1983 – 1986
BA(hons) degree in Fine Art, Sunderland Polytechnic

Solo Exhibitions
2021
No Time Like The Present, Hampstead Garden Gallery, London

2018
Something that Feels Like the Truth, Unit G gallery, London

2017
Appearances, Solo show, Nude Tin Can gallery, Herts

2014
Moving Scenes, solo show, Gallery at Hackney Picturehouse, London

Group Exhibitions
2024
Linden Hall Winter Open, Linden Hall, Deal
BEEP Painting Biennial, Elysium Swansea
Now & Then, Visual Arts Scotland, Dalkeith Palace, Edinburgh

2023
Scandal '63 Revisited, De Montfort University Gallery, Leicester
Wells Art Contemporary, Wells Cathedral Somerset
Society of Women Artists 162nd Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
The Look of a Woman, The Stash Gallery, London

2022
Fenella Fielding: Actress, Gallery 286, London
Wales Contemporary, Waterfront Gallery, Pembrokeshire and Gallery@Oxo London
British Painting III, Bermondsey Project Space, London
Royal Cambrian Academy Open Exhibition, Conwy, Wales

2021
Bath Society of Artists 116th Open Exhibition, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
The Marks We Make, The Curator's Salon

2020
ING Discerning Eye, Annual Open Exhibition, Invited Artist
Society of Women Artists, 159th Annual Open Exhibition
Healthcare Heroes, Google Arts and Culture
Dear Christine, Touring Exhibition, Arthouse 1, London

2019
Dear Christine, Touring Exhibition, Vane Gallery, Newcastle & Elysium, Swansea
Bath Society of Artists, Open Exhibition, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath

Awards
2024
Longlisted BEEP Painting Biennial

2023
Shortlisted Wells Contemporary Art

2022
Shortlisted Wales Contemporary Prize

2021
Longlisted Women United Art Prize

2016
Longlisted for the Jackson’s Open Art Prize, Winner Interim Oil Painting Prize

Public Collections
De Montfort University, Leicester
The Fenella Fielding Foundation, London
Space Park, Leicester

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork
I am particularly drawn to a gesture captured rather than conventional poses, those unguarded moments; something we can relate to as viewers. These two works depict fictional subjects, in moments of quiet introspection, suggesting darker undercurrents.