Artist Talk: Jonathon Downing

Join us for an Artist Talk with Jonathon Downing exploring the memories, cultural references, and creative process behind his hometown solo exhibition, 2016: Synthetic Nostalgia on Thursday, November 5 at 7PM.

From familiar pop culture imagery to personal recollections, the exhibition invites us to reconsider a year that still resonates a decade later. Hear from Downing about how these references take shape in his paintings and the relationship between shared experiences and individual memory.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jonathon Downing (b. 1997) is an oil painter whose portraits craft conversations about public image and internal truth through the lens of those who idolize athletes, celebrities, and cultural tastemakers. He created his unique aesthetic while studying at the University of Michigan (2020), and continues to refine the process of digital photo montage and realistic painting.

Although Downing was raised and resides in Metro Detroit, the subjects he paints exist in an alternate reality where human beings are monstrous amalgamations of portraiture.

Surprisingly organic and honest, these portraits simultaneously depict idolized figures and those who project meaning onto them, promoting deeper observation in order to fully form a hypothesis on each character’s backstory and present emotions.