Thea Jones is a PhD candidate in the Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies program at York University in Toronto, Ontario. She holds a SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship for her research on the impact of systematic breastfeeding mandates and global policies on non-conforming parenting bodies. Jones is a queer, feminist, post-mastectomy cis person who takes up a combination of autoethnography, critical queer, feminist and trans theory methods to look at the medicalized conceptions of bodyfeeding.

Jones’ visual work is interdisciplinary, working in video and textiles. She maintains a lifelong performance project which started while on residency at PlugIn Institute for Contemporary Art in Winnipeg MB in 2013 called I will save the world by mending. Jones completed her MFA at York University, her thesis focused on repetition in language, video, and textiles as a way to re-imagine, re-invent, and re-member. She received her BFA from Concordia University and worked at Hexagram Institute for Research/Creation in Media Arts and Technologies. Jones has exhibited at PlugIn (Winnipeg MB), Cambridge Galleries (Cambridge ON), InterAccess (Toronto ON), Anna Leonowns Gallery (Halifax NS), and at the Amnua Nanjing Biennial (Nanjing China).

Jones lives in Hamilton Ontario with her family.

Thea Jones

Contact me.

EDUCATION

2022 ongoing PhD Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies, York University, Toronto ON

2010-2012 MFA, York University, Toronto ON

2005-2009 BFA, w/ Minor in Art History (w/ distinction), Concordia University, Montréal QC

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

“My Zaddy Bodyfeeds”For Your Own Good: Dismantling Un/Healthy Expert Advice, edited by Thea Cacchioni and Katelin Albert, McGill/Queens University Press (upcoming).

“The Liminal Space of Illness” Till Death do Us Part, edited by Margot R. Challborn, University of Regina Press, Regina SK (upcoming)

“Water, Oil, Breast Milk: natural resources from mother (earth)” Mothers, Mothering, and Climate Change, edited by Carolina Toscano and Sarah Marie Weibe, Demeter Press, Toronto ON, 2026.

“The Outlawed Nipple: Breastless parents and the desire to conform to normative motherhood” Critical Femininities Conference: Irreverence, Centre for Feminist Research, Toronto ON, 2024.

“The Outlawed Nipple: Breastless parents and the desire to conform to normative motherhood” Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, vol. 14 iss. 2, Toronto ON, 2024.

“Invisible Boundaries: finding the right ground to remember Paradise Valley in Detroit, Michigan”. Concordia Undergraduate Journal of Art History, Montréal QC, 2009.

CONFERENCES, LECTURES & ARTIST TALKS

2026/02         Reproductive Justice and Control, Guest Lecturer, YorkU, Toronto ON

2024/07         (Re)Producing Mothering, Motherwork, and Motherhood, IAMAS, Boston MA

2023/10         Imagined Bodies, Media Studies Graduate Conference, Concordia University, Montréal QC                       

2023/08         Critical Femininities Conference: Irreverence, Centre for Feminist Research, York University, Toronto ON

2023/05         Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (92nd), York University, Toronto ON

2023/04         Motherhood to motherhoods: Ideologies of the Feminine, Chapman University, Orange CA

2018/09 Factory Media Centre, Art & Social Strata Conference, Hamilton ON

2013/07 Plug-In Institute of Contemporary Art, Summer Institute Resident Artist, Winnipeg MB

2013/08 University of Windsor, Emerging Artist Research Residency, Windsor ON

2011/03 Université du Québec à Montréal, MFA artist talk, Montréal QC

AWARDS, GRANTS & SCHOLARSHIPS

2023              SSHRC-CRSH Doctoral Scholarship (3 year), York University, Toronto ON

2023              Franc and Mary Joubin, Academic Bursary, York University, Toronto ON

2015              Toronto Arts Council, Individual Media Artist, Toronto ON

2014              Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance (rec. interAccess) Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto ON

2014              Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance (rec. Artcite, Windsor) Factory Media Centre, Hamilton ON

2013              Canada Council, Travel Grant, Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg MB

2011              SSHRC-CRSH Graduate Scholarship, York University, Toronto ON

2010              York University, full MFA Scholarship, Toronto ON

2007              Helen McNicoll Art Prize, Concordia University Scholarship, Montréal QC

2008              Buddy Shizgal Abrams Memorial Bursary, Concordia University, Montréal QC

2008              Travel Grant, Banff New Media Institute (BNMI), awarded by FASA Concordia, Montréal QC

2007-09        Special Project Grants, Concordia University, Montréal QC

2004              Struts Gallery & Faucet Media Arts Center, Production Grant, Faucet Online, Sackville NB

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2022-2026    Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Gender Studies (GWST 1501), Gender and Women’s Studies, York University, Toronto ON

2025              Sessional Professor, Thinking Through Objects (CROS 3030), Faculty of Art, Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto ON

2024              Teaching Assistant, Drawing Through Objects (CROS 3030), Faculty of Art, Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto ON

2012              Sessional Professor, Drawing Perception, Experience, Memory (VISA 205), Faculty of Art and Science, University of Toronto, Toronto ON

2012              Teaching Assistant, Performance Art and the Everyday (4th year), Faculty of Fine Art, York University, Toronto ON

2012              Instructor, Visual Arts, TAIE International Institute, Toronto ON

2011              Teaching Assistant, Crossing Boundaries (interdisciplinary digital: video, photography), Faculty of Fine Art, York University, Toronto ON

RESEARCH & RESIDENCIES

2024              Research Assistant, Professor Michelle Forsyth, OCADU, Toronto ON

2023              Research Assistant, Dr Cavanagh, York University, Toronto ON

2021              Artist in Residence, Struts Gallery, Sackville NB

2016              Artist in Residence, Thunder & Lightening, Sackville NB

2013              Artist in Residence, Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art, Summer Institute, Winnipeg MB

2013              Artist in Residence, University of Windsor, Artist Research Residency, Windsor ON

2011              Vtape, Research and Recovery Internship, Toronto ON

2010              Artist in Residence, Broken City Lab, Storefront Residency for Social Innovation (SRSI), Windsor ON

2010              Artist in Residence, Oboro, Artist Residency, Montréal QC

2009              Research Assistant, Emily Carr UAD, Intersections Digital Studio, Research Residency, Vancouver BC

2009              Research Assistant, McCord Museum, Archives and Documentation Centre, Research, Montréal QC 

2008              Research Assistant, Banff Centre New Media Institute, Co-Production Residency, Banff AB

2006-10         Research Assistant, Hexagram Institute for Research/Creation in Media Arts and Technologies, Montréal QC

PROFESSIONAL INDUSTRY WORK EXPERIENCE

2016-22         Program Manager, Everyone Rides Initiative (ERI), Hamilton Bike Share, Hamilton ON

2016              Private Screenings Assistant, Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto ON

2015              Artist Mentor & Project Lead, Rendezvous with Madness, Workman Arts Centre, Toronto ON

2012-15         Technical Representative, Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival, Toronto ON

2012-15         Technical Representative, Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto ON

2013-15         Program Coordinator, Charlie’s FreeWheels (non-profit), Regent Park, Toronto ON

2012-13          Program Manager & Instructor, ArtStarts, Toronto ON

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2022/11         Remote Possibilities, group exhibition, Struts Gallery, Sackville NB

2022/07        Shushing, video screening, Billboard, Hamilton ON

2018/08         Living Room Fall, (selected), video screening, Photophobia, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton ON

2018/07         Summer in Salem, (invite), film screening, Super 8 Hotel, Struts Gallery, Sackville NB

2018/07         Sails, (selected), video screening, Art Spin Hamilton, Cotton Factory, Hamilton ON

2018/06         Lookout, 13’ billboard w/paillettes, permanent public install, Hamilton ON

2018/03         Glamour & War, (invite) video screening, Art & Social Strata, Factory Media Centre, Hamilton ON

2018/03         I will save the world by mending, Art & Social Strata, Workers Art & Heritage Centre, Hamilton ON

2017/09         Lookout, (selected), 13’ billboard w/paillettes, Supercrawl, Hamilton ON

2015/11         we now return you…, (invite, artist mentor), Workman Arts Centre, Toronto ON

2015/03         Bobby, (invite), video install, Long Winter Year Three Volume Five, Toronto ON 

2014/12         Flotsam, (invite), video install, Amnua Nanjing Biennial, Nanjing CN

2014/05         Living Room Fall, (invite), video screening, Trinity Square Video, Toronto ON

2014/02         The Unfortunate Issues of the Patriarch, (selected solo show) Factory Media Centre, Hamilton ON

2014/01         COMMYTAPES, (selected) Long Winter, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto ON

2013/09         Restitching III, (selected/curated) Coming to Terms, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Toronto ON

2013/08         Lost Found Mended, (invite), Don’t Get Your Hopes Up, Sappy Fest, Sackville NB

2013/07         A Video Novel for Winnipeg, Plug In ICA, Winnipeg MB

2013/07         You Me Us, ReLoCate Performance Festival (juried), Calgary AB

2013/07         You Me Us, We are all here, Love In Dance Festival, Toronto ON

2013/05         A Video Novel for Windsor, Windsor Issues V.4, Broken City Lab, Windsor ON

2013/01         All the parties…, Come up to my Room (invite), Gladstone Gallery, Toronto ON

2012/12         Standing and Walking, .gif (curated), mMOCCA, London UK

2012/10         Glamour & War, Remix, //The ANNUAL// (juried) Gladstone Gallery, Toronto ON

2012/09         Restitching III, Fibreworks 2012 (curated), Cambridge Galleries, London ON        

2012/04         Play Rewind, MFA thesis exhibition, VMAC Gallery 401 Richmond (solo show), Toronto ON

2011/12         Restitching II, CON, 30 Years, Temporary (curated), Loop Gallery, Toronto ON

2011/09         Book of Revelations, Gales Gallery (group show), Toronto ON

2011/06         Knox Pilgrimage, Digital Alterities (curated), InterAccess, Toronto ON

2011/04         I want to sew with you all day, (solo show), Toronto ON

2011/04         China Beach, A little bit of country…(curated), Glendon Gallery, Toronto ON

2011/02         ms monument, China Beach, Art Suite 500, TD Towers, Toronto ON

2010/11         Ambiguous kernel, assured shell—again, curator/producer, SPG, Toronto ON

2010/09         Chick Flick, Emergence (curated), Oboro, Montréal QC

2010/09         (lynn), Gales Gallery, Toronto ON

2010/08         Store Front Residency for Social Innovation, Broken City Lab, (solo show) , Windsor ON

2010/07         (lynn), Within This Body (curated), Propeller Center for the Visual Arts, Toronto ON

2010/07         signage, Canadian Landscape Juried Exhibition, Agnes Jamieson Gallery, Minden ON

2009/09        Chick Flick, Feminism Now (curated), Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax NS

2009/07         Chick Flick, 35 Days of Unorganized Art, Eye Level Gallery (solo show), Halifax NS

2009/04        at·trac·tion, Night Vision Nocturne (curated), Galerie Artefacto, Montréal QC

2008/06        estuary, Galerie VAV Gallery (solo show), Montréal QC

2008/02        A Gift for Faye, Intersecting Memory (curated), Art Matters, Montréal, QC

2008/08        (lynn), OK. Quoi?! Contemporary Arts Festival, Struts Gallery, Sackville NB

2008/07         tonal archive, Duo Tone Arts Festival V (curated), Kelowna, BC

2005/09         read to me, Hey Cinnamon, Struts Gallery, Sackville NB

2005/04         Violette, Image is God, The Lift, Montréal QC

2004/07         Chasing Indentidum, faucetOnline (juried), Faucet Media Arts Center (solo show), Sackville NB

2004/07         and so she said, Duo Tone Arts Festival II, Kelowna BC

2004/06        Serenity, Bratwurst (screening), Victoria, BC