Jon Christopher Gernon

Jon Gernon is a painter living in Historic Troy, NY. His current works focus on creating modern-day fables, allegories, and lore.

His personal work has been included in over eighty group and solo exhibitions, including the Attleboro Arts Museum (Attleboro, MA), The Morris Graves Museum (Eureka, CA), The Hyde Collection (Glens Falls, NY), The George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University (Montclair, NJ), and The Kinsey Institute at Indiana State University (Bloomington, IN). In 2015, his work was part of the traveling Contemporary Magic Realism Exhibition in Denmark, England, and the United States.

His work has been written about and published in American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur, Art Alternative, Juxtapoz, Southwest Art, Artscope, Wall Street International, and Hyperallergic.


Artist Statement

Making art is a strange thing. Artists have an idea, a feeling, a spark, and put paint to canvas, clay to form, notes to music, and pen to paper. We try to communicate this idea in the hope that the viewer, listener, or reader “gets it.” Getting it is where it all goes to hell. Why do we even have to “get it”?

Today the world is filled with such negativity, and access to it is a fingertip away. There are artists who relate their frustration through their work that is sometimes incredibly uplifting and beautiful and sometimes... well, completely depressing and emotionally heavy. The artist and the recipient have different ideas, different thought patterns going on.

Sometimes, most of the time in the case of my work, it’s very simple: I want you to create a story. I want you, the viewer, to leave with your own idea.

My work is for you to have ideas and stories. Your own myths and fables. Don’t be caught up in what the artist has to say, but be part of the story and the artwork you see before you. Make-believe is a wonderful place to live.


www.jongernon.com