FEVER DREAM by JONATHON DOWNING | SOLO SHOW

Das sagt der/die Veranstalter:in:

BETTER GO SOUTH is pleased to present the upcoming Solo Show by American artist Jonathon Downing (b. 1997, Michigan), opening in September 2025 during Berlin Art Week.
The Show marks the culmination of Downing’s two-and-a-half-month residency in Berlin and features ten new canvas works created in the gallery space. This debut presentation also marks the artist’s first extended stay in Europe and first Solo in Berlin.

Jonathon Downing is a portrait painter whose practice merges traditional oil painting with digital collage techniques. His compositions begin as elaborate digital montages –meticulously built from a vast personal archive of over 20,000 collected images sourced from Instagram, fashion editorials, music videos, and sports culture. These layered digital drafts serve not only as preparatory studies but as conceptual blueprints, forming the visual DNA of each painting.

Downing’s portraits feature recurring elements: multi-eyed faces, symbolic jewelry like Jesus pieces, and animals like horses or snakes. Eyes often dominate, hinting at emotion beneath composed exteriors. His figures appear still – caught between vulnerability and control.
The artist’s practice is shaped by a wide range of influences, from Renaissance and Baroque painting – especially the compositional drama and chiaroscuro of Caravaggio – to hip-hop, pop culture, fashion and sports, especially professional basketball. He references icons like LeBron James, and Lil Peep, though he deliberately avoids overt celebrity depiction, allowing symbolic resonance to take precedence over direct portrayal.

While Downing’s works evoke the layered complexity of digital and AI aesthetics, they remain rooted in a meticulous, traditional painting process. Each painting is a synthesis of highly composed imagery and precise oil rendering. In recent works, his palette has grown darker and more emotionally charged, reflecting themes of personal transformation, nightlife, and sobriety.

Jonathon Downing received his BFA from the University of Michigan Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design in 2020. Recent international Solo Exhibitions include Appearances, Aspirations, and Allusions at VLAB Gallery in Madrid (ESP), Laced Up at Glass Rice Gallery in San Francisco (US) and Checks over Stripes at Bridge Mogura Gallery in Tokyo (JPN).