Jonathan Alibone is a British artist whose figurative paintings and drawings have the ability to enchant and unsettle observers at once. With a style reminiscent of 20th-century photojournalism, Jonathan’s voyeuristic visuals pry into the privacy of his subjects, creating narratives which invite and resist interpretation and tap into our insatiable hunger for meaning.
Jonathan’s practice is informed by the idea that art is entirely mutable and contingent; the meaning behind any given artwork is as easily bestowed as it is contested. His subjects, often appropriated from film, magazines, pulp fiction and pornography, tend to occupy a precarious space where only glimpses of their story and psychology are revealed. The viewer is left to ascertain whether the scene is one of play or one of malice. His oil paintings such as The Immortal Commonplace are steeped with mystery and familiarity; it is not clear whether this is a scene of a crime or of intimacy. Likewise, portraits such as Come Go With Me suggest the brink of something uncertain.
Jonathan’s thrilling works have been exhibited globally, with pieces featuring in collections in the UK, Europe, Russia and North America. Jonathan is also a resident of The Artist's Sanctuary in Northampton, England, and forms one half of ‘Articulating History’ – an ongoing collaborative founded with artist Alexander Small.