Russell Tovey on Rachel Jones lick your teeth, they so clutch 2021

Rachel Jones’s paintings are effervescent. They vibrate. Looking at them, you zip around from place to place, like a kind of painting pinball. At this very moment, I’m drawn to an outlined area near the middle, and then my eye goes to a red, orange and green patch, which shouldn’t really work but does.Then my eye moves to the bottom, where it’s all phased and hazy, and then it bounces up again to the top left, to a section of orange with yellow markings and neon green. Suddenly, I love hanging out there for a while. Her paintings give you moments to hang out in. I can’t get enough of them.

When someone tells you to look for the teeth, the gums, the lips, the work unravels. A door opens and the work becomes figurative. I look again, and I’m drawn to an outlined tooth that is just off centre. The titles give hints of how to see a Rachel Jones. There was her show SMIIILLLLEEEE in 2021 and say cheeeeese in 2022.

This painting is called lick your teeth, they so clutch and there is a saucy, cheeky, flirty feeling about it: You’re going into summer, you’re feeling good about yourself, you’ve been down the gym, you’re eating well – it’s a vibrant excitement for life. It has a real confident – but not arrogant – intoxicating energy that you want to be around. Rachel is the kind of person that you meet and go: ‘Let’s go get drunk, let’s hang out, let’s see where this weekend takes us.’

Rachel is one of those artists that you see, and instantly feel that she’s the real deal. I watch people in front of her works and they always pause. Like a Rothko effect, Rachel’s art allows feelings to pass through you. If you put a bench in front of this painting, I think people would sit there for a long time. That’s the generosity of her art: it gives you an emotional rush.

^{lick your teeth, they so clutch was purchased with funds provided by the Joe and Marie Donnelly Acquisition Fund in 2021.}

^{Russell Tovey is an actor and art collector who lives in London. He is co-host of the podcast Talk Art.}

^{To read more of our special feature celebrating Tate Britain's rehang, visit www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-58-summer-2023/alex-farquharson-tate-britain-the-state-were-in}