Gold cat, 2026

In 'Gold cat', The satin of an Adidas tracksuit burnishes a lustrous backdrop for the subject, whose white velveted fur appears even softer, flatter, in contrast. The original painting was created using a layered technique of priming, painting and then sanding back to expose the linen weave. In its intimate scale and meticulous detail, 'Gold cat' sits between portraiture and still life, acting both as a mirror of self-reflection and a window onto the nature of contemporary representation in the digital age. Jones constructs his subjects – often cats and flowers – from composites drawn from his vast archive of found and shared photographs, interrupting the frantic circulation of images to instead prompt a slower reading. Through a colour palette at once subtle and saturated, Jones implies the dream-like quality of representation, and the unreal or surreal quality of photorealism. Working serially with domestic images, Jones’s vernacular explores the relationship between sentimentality and obsession, and how structures of belief and interspecies bonds might reveal our own longing.