Jon Langford

La Luz de Jesus Gallery is pleased to present Make Americana Great Again, a solo exhibition by musician and visual artist, Jon Langford on view from September 6 – 29, 2019.

Jon Langford is a prolific Welsh musician and artist based in Chicago, USA. He is one of the founders of punk band The Mekons, post-punk group The Three Johns, and alternative country ensembles The Waco Brothers and Pine Valley Cosmonauts.

In his solo exhibition at the gallery, Langford’s iconic portraits of musicians and their strange mythical talismans bring the lyrics of their melodies into the visual realm. In this current body of visual work, Langford explores the intersection of music and politics in an American landscape of greed and decline. His monochromatic woodcuts combine with poignant text and imagery that resemble punk rock show flyers and timeless cowboy folk art. A comment on the grass roots of American storytelling, Langford aims to “Make Americana Great Again.”

Best known for his striking portraits of country music icons, Langford was the artist in residence at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, TN. Nashville Radio a book of Jon’s artwork and writings was published by Verse Chorus Press in 2006 and was followed in 2011 by Skull Orchard Revisited, a book, and CD about his roots in South Wales. The Executioner’s Last Songs, a multimedia music/spoken word/video performance has been performed across the United States, Europe, and Australia and two of his solo albums Gold Brick and All the Fame of Lofty Deeds were adapted for theatrical productions in 2009. Langford also illustrated the comic strip Great Pop Things under the pseudonym Chuck Death.