Grace Before Jones: Camera, Disco, Studio

A new exhibition on influential Jamaican musician Grace Jones will take place at the Nottingham Contemporary gallery this September. ‘Grace Before Jones: Camera, Disco, Studio’ will offer a close examination of the artist’s life and career, with a focus on her confrontational approach to notions of race, gender and sexuality.

Emerging as a star of New York’s Studio 54-centred disco scene in the late ’70s, Jones quickly became infamous for her androgynous appearance, bold sense of fashion and impenetrable demeanour in the decade that followed. Incorporating new wave, reggae and post-punk into her music, she became one of pop music’s biggest stars as controversial, sexually-charged pop songs like ‘Pull Up To The Bumper’ and ‘Demolition Man’ impacted the charts.

Jones was well-known for her close associations with some of the era’s leading art figures, and the exhibition will feature contributions from recognisable artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Robert Mapplethorpe. Jones had previously been due to curate the 2020 edition of the Southbank Centre’s Meltdown Festival in June, which is now postponed until 2021.

‘Grace Before Jones: Camera, Disco, Studio’ runs from September 26, 2020, to January 3, 2021, at Nottingham Contemporary.