Tomiko Jones’s solo exhibition at the Center for Visual Art at MSU Denver features lens-based investigations of place and examines the notion of national belonging as it intersects with the American landscape.
Tomiko Jones: The Intimate Infinite
January 3–March 22, 2025
Center for Visual Art, MSU Denver
Tomiko Jones’s solo exhibition at the Center for Visual Art provokes questions about the human relationship with the landscape. The Intimate Infinite features lens-based investigations of place, including significant outdoor expanses and intimate interior spaces. Through photographic interventions that traverse time and notions of belonging, Jones’s work journeys through landscape, chronicling passage from interior to exterior, known and unknowable. This work reflects historical modes of artmaking while imbuing a contemporary urgency and relevance.
Drawing inspiration from her childhood summers spent with her grandmother in rural Hawai’i and on family road trips across the continental United States, Jones’s artistic practice examines the notion of national belonging as it intersects with the American landscape. Through her lens, she explores the implications of historical narratives, immigration, and personal identity. These Grand Places debuts as the centerpiece of the exhibition and reflects on the politics of public land and the environmental crises facing the United States today. Jones invites viewers to consider the stories behind these landscapes—where they are not merely scenic backdrops, but sites of trauma, memory, and cultural significance. Her work serves as a meditation on loss, reclamation, and the urgent need for collective stewardship of the land.
Utilizing both contemporary digital photography and traditional cyanotype processes, and inspired by the traditional Japanese printmaking technique of ukiyo-e, Jones creates a dialogue between the natural environment and her personal narrative. In this way, Jones urges viewers to rediscover the complex and nuanced landscapes captured in her work and create new connections to them. As the nation grapples with issues of environmental degradation, social justice, and the complexities of national identity, The Intimate Infinite challenges us to reflect on our relationship with the land and each other.
Tomiko Jones: The Intimate Infinite was curated by Cecily Cullen. The exhibition will be on view January 3–March 22, 2025, at Center for Visual Art, MSU Denver.
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