TernformGallery

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Artist · Ternform Gallery

Jonas Pell

Practice and approach

Jonas Pell works with the visual authority of objects that people think they already know. A sculpted head, a pedestal or a protective covering arrives with a familiar set of expectations. His practice examines what happens when those expectations meet a change in colour, material or handling. The subject is often less the object itself than the distance a viewer places around it: how close it feels possible to stand, and whether it seems available to touch.

Pell begins by describing the function of each component in plain language. A base lifts; a covering protects or conceals; a bright field separates one object from its surroundings. He then changes one relationship at a time, making small tabletop arrangements before thinking about an exhibition room. The process does not assume that adding a discarded material makes an artwork environmentally virtuous. Questions of origin, durability and disposal remain practical questions. His working notes distinguish an observed appearance from a claim about composition, so a glossy fold is not automatically identified as a particular plastic.

Soft Monument brings these concerns together around the image of a classical bust and an ordinary wrapper. The exhibition considers concealment, display and the surprising delicacy of a material often treated as incidental. A fold can hide the eyes while drawing attention to the outline of a head. Pell uses this contradiction to ask how cultural authority survives when the supposedly secondary part of an arrangement becomes its most conspicuous feature.

In conversation about an object, Pell prefers a comparison that can be checked. He might ask whether a shadow belongs to a hard edge or a loose fold, or whether a pedestal changes the apparent size of the thing above it. These questions leave room for disagreement without requiring specialist terminology. His contribution to Ternform's programme is a habit of looking at supports, coverings and intervals with the same care normally reserved for a central object. Visitors can begin at the base of an arrangement and work upward, noticing which part first acquires the status of a monument.

Looking studies

Short exercises for a slower look. Open a study to read the full note; its original accompanying illustration is forthcoming.

An original geometric artwork of balanced intervals and asymmetric forms.View study ↗

Still-image study

The covering takes the lead

A bright covering hides familiar features and gives a small fold unusual prominence. Look at the edge where wrapper and sculptural form change their visual roles.

The covering takes the lead

An original geometric artwork of balanced intervals and asymmetric forms.
Original code-authored artwork for this fictional gallery edition.

A bright pink covering makes a familiar white bust seem newly difficult to read. The shape of the head remains available while much of the facial information is withheld. Look at the edge where the covering meets the form beneath it: a small fold can become more conspicuous than the large sculptural contour. This reversal offers a concrete starting point for the questions of hierarchy and display explored in Jonas Pell's practice.

The image is an illustrative reference, not an authenticated work by Pell. Describe the covering through its visible colour and translucency; its appearance is insufficient evidence for a precise material or environmental claim.

Read this note in the looking room
An original abstract painting of irregular ochre, coral, chalk and blue bands.View study ↗

Still-image study

What the pedestal changes

A blue-covered head rests on a base that changes its apparent status. Compare the arrangement with and without its lower support in view.

What the pedestal changes

An original abstract painting of irregular ochre, coral, chalk and blue bands.
Original artwork for the fictional exhibition Afterlight Hours.

The blue-covered head sits above a supporting base. The base might seem secondary, but it establishes an important interval between the object and everything below it. Cover the lower part of the image with your hand for a moment, then reveal it again. The change can make it easier to notice how display gives an object a different apparent weight and status without altering the object itself.

This exercise belongs to Soft Monument's question about the practical parts of an arrangement. The pedestal is not merely where looking stops after the main subject has been identified; it is one of the conditions that makes that subject prominent.

Read this note in the looking room
An original grey-blue abstract painting with a pale passage bending beside a dark fold.View study ↗

Still-image study

Two kinds of hand

One hand holds another, sculpted hand. Examine the point of support and distinguish a visible impression of delicacy from an unverified claim about weight or material.

Two kinds of hand

An original grey-blue abstract painting with a pale passage bending beside a dark fold.
Original artwork for the fictional exhibition Drift Instructions.

A real hand holds a white sculpted hand above a wooden floor. The two forms share a recognisable structure but have different surfaces, weights and roles within the photograph. One supports; the other is supported. Begin with the contact between them, then compare what the image lets you infer about pressure. An impression of delicacy does not establish the actual weight or material of the sculpted object.

The still is used here as a comparison for Jonas Pell's interest in handling and display. It does not document a transaction, a collaborative project or the ownership of the pictured object by Ternform.

Read this note in the looking room
An original mixed-media abstract work in graphite, chalk, coral and deep green.View study ↗

Still-image study

Contact at a wrapped surface

A hand meets a bust through a translucent covering. Follow three boundaries at the point of contact and test how each changes the reading of the arrangement.

Contact at a wrapped surface

An original mixed-media abstract work in graphite, chalk, coral and deep green.
Original generated artwork for this fictional gallery edition.

A hand meets a bust through a translucent covering. The point of contact brings together three different kinds of boundary: the outline of the hand, the fold of the covering and the harder-looking sculptural form beneath it. Look for the places where those boundaries coincide and where they separate. Small differences can change whether the covering seems to protect, conceal or draw attention to the object.

No single interpretation has to describe every part of the image. The purpose of the study is to make an initial reading more specific by connecting it to a visible contact, fold or change of surface.

Read this note in the looking room

From the journal

Three editorial recommendations with related questions. Artist subjects are identified in each story; a recommendation does not imply the artist appears in it.

In the programme

Dates and status use the edition date, 8 September 2026.

Upcoming in this edition

Soft Monument

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Jonas Pell considers the quiet authority of a bust, a base and an ordinary covering. Wrapping becomes the centre of attention in an exhibition that asks which part of an arrangement turns an object into a monument.

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