Jon Gernon
Jon Gernon is a painter, printmaker and independent curator living in the Eastside of Historic Troy, NY. His current works focus on creating modern day fables, allegories and lore.
Jon is a former gallerist and gallery director with over 25 five years of curating and designing exhibitions. His personal work has been included in over seventy group and solo exhibitions including at the Attleboro Arts Museum (Attleboro, MA), The Morris Graves Museum (Eureka, CA), The Hyde Collection (Glens Falls, NY), The George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University (Montclair, NJ). The Kinsey Institute at Indiana State University (Bloomington, In). In 2015 his work was part of the traveling Contemporary Magic Realism Exhibition in Denmark, England, and the United States.
His work has been written about and published in American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur, Art Alternative, Juxtapoz, Southwest Art, Artscope, Wallstreet International and Hyperallergic.
Artist Statement
“It’s all alchemy and witchcraft mixed with a bit of beauty and really simple ideas. When done correctly you have magic.”
Making art is a strange thing. Artists have an idea, a feeling, a spark and put paint to canvas, clay to form, notes to music and pen to paper. We try to communicate this idea in the hope that the viewer, listener or reader “gets it.” Getting it is where it all goes to hell. Why do we even have to “get it?”
Today the world is filled with such negativity and the access to it is a fingertip away. There are artists that relate their frustration through their work that is sometimes incredibly uplifting and beautiful and sometimes…well, completely depressing and emotionally heavy. The artist and the recipient have different ideas, different thought patterns going on. Sometimes, most of the time in the case of my work it’s very simple; I want you to create a story. I want you the viewer to leave feeling… happy.
This new body of work is for you to have ideas and stories. Your own Myths and Fables. Don’t be caught up in what the artist has to say but be part of the story and the artwork you see before you. Make believe is a wonderful place to live.