Jacqueline de Jong @ Pippy Houldsworth Gallery

Marking Jacqueline de Jong’s return to oil painting after a number of years, Catastrophes highlights Border Line, a series of work addressing the traumatic experiences of migrants across the globe and critiquing the callous indifference shown to those fleeing war.

The paintings from Border Line are presented alongside two earlier series that respond to major global conflict, tracing de Jong’s treatment of war and the brutality of human nature as recurring themes throughout her career. There are works on paper from WAR 1914-1918, which correlate the use of chlorine gas in two conflicts a century apart; the First World War; the Syrian Civil War, and Megaliths, a response to media coverage of the First Gulf War. In bringing together these three bodies of work, Catastrophes underlines contemporary tragedy, viewing the present moment as part of the cyclical nature of history and human behaviour.