Opening September 4, 6-9pm, These Grand Places by Tomiko Jones began in 2017 when she saw a list of federally-protected public land to be reviewed for de-regulation. At sites spanning Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and California, Jones immersed herself in these vulnerable landscapes to consider how the concepts of public land and national identity relate to each other — who belongs, what land is viewed as worthy of protection, and how politics and power shape America’s physical and social environment. These Grand Places celebrates the beauty of America while asking us to consider our collective ties to this place we call home, and to each other.
From September 4-October 23, 2026, a companion exhibition of Jones’ Field Table will be on view in Aurora’s Efroymson Gallery. Continuing her immersive, site-specific engagement to place, Jones will visit Indianapolis in late September 2026 to create new work in and around the city that will be added to the exhibition and Field Table as it is completed. Jones will be present in the gallery for questions and conversation about her work for First Friday, October 2, 2026.
Tomiko Jones’ photography and multidisciplinary installations explore social, cultural and geopolitical transitions, considering the twin crises of too much and too little in the age of climate change. Jones was awarded a 2025 Anonymous Was A Woman Environmental Art Grant for the socially engaged project These Grand Places, to be presented in a traveling mobile gallery with pop‑up exhibitions in fall 2026. She received the Grand Challenge Seed Grant from the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education (2019-2022) to develop These Grand Places, a photographic project on public land. She is the recipient of awards including the En Foco New Works Fellowship (New York, 2014), 4Culture and City Artists (Seattle, 2010), and Pépinières Européennes pour Jeunes Artistes (France, 2008). She was an invited resident artist at Museé Niépce in Chalon-Sur-Saône, France (2008), and selected for a project-specific Fellowship at The Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France (2009).
Jones received her MFA and Certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Arizona, Tucson, where she studied with Professors Sama Alshaibi and Frank Gohlke. She was formerly Associate Professor of Art at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Vilas Professorship, Early-Career Investigator Award (2024-27). Her professional experience includes a Visiting Artist and Curator-in-Residence position at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, Assistant Professor and Photography Program Coordinator at Metropolitan State University of Denver, Mendocino College, New Mexico State University and Drury University Summer Institute for Visual Arts.