Jordan Jones and the ArtCube Effect

Pat Greene

Since opening in 2023, ArtCube has given Orlando artists a platform to stretch their practice and experiment with light, scale, and storytelling. We’re looking back at how those experiences continue to shape their journeys.

Jordan Jones  Virtuoso, Opened in ArtCube on June 20, 2024

With Virtuoso, JJ the Artist filled ArtCube with glowing portraits of Black cultural icons. The work commanded attention on the street and affirmed his role as a rising voice in Florida’s art scene.

Inside ArtCube, his portraits of Black cultural icons—Tupac, Erykah Badu, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and others—didn’t simply hang, they glowed. They confronted each other. They radiated power. Framed by the Cube’s walls and lit from within, each image became almost holographic, suspended in space like a devotional object. The subjects—already towering in influence—feel even more monumental when seen illuminated against the night sky.

But what made Virtuoso truly effective in this setting was motion. Behind the static portraits, Jones projected a looped video of himself painting, fully engaged in the act of creation. By adding rhythm, urgency, and vulnerability, the viewer didn’t just see the finished work—they knew the labor that went into it. 

This pairing of video and portrait made powerful use of ArtCube’s architecture. In daylight, the forms held their own; at night, they came alive as color leaked into the street, and gestures were amplified. The intimate scale of the Cube paradoxically made the work feel bigger, because you couldn’t walk by without engaging.

Jones’s decision to focus Virtuoso on musical and cultural icons tied directly to the installation’s debut during African American Music Appreciation Month. But the piece doesn’t rely on nostalgia. These are not passive tributes. There’s something active—almost confrontational—in the way each figure is rendered. These are artists who shaped culture from the margins, who changed the tone of entire eras. Jones mirrored that force in his mark-making: fast, expressive, intentional. In that context, Virtuoso isn’t just an installation—it’s a declaration, a visual manifesto.

JJ the Artist Beyond the Cube

ArtCube, with its glowing frame and street-level intimacy, heightens the contrast between public visibility and personal reverence, making the work impossible to ignore. Jones has a similar effect; his work consistently lifts figures who resisted, persisted, and created under pressure. Rather than diluting his voice to fit the space, he uses whatever space and medium he has to project his ideas even further.

The installation didn’t just represent others’ virtuosity; it demonstrated his own growth as an artist. Over the past year, Jones has been steadily establishing himself as a vital visual voice in Florida. He painted murals at Nash Walls and JaxWall, won top honors at the Daytona Beach Arts Fest, and completed a private series of paintings at the sold-out Health Con. He also recently painted a mural for a school in New York, honoring the Mirabal Sisters, Dominican revolutionaries assassinated in 1960. He also has a series of baseball-card style small prints called Culture Cards, which spotlight Black musicians like Biggie Smalls and Rick Ross, as well as riffs on card games using items prominent in hip-hop culture. 

Check out the original post and event photos from JJ’s Virtuoso Opening in ArtCube

Through September 19, 2024, “Virtuoso” fine artist, Jordan Jones (also known as JJ The Artist) transforms the ArtCube Gallery into an exhibition showcasing a powerful tribute to cultural icons and Black Musicians that has inspired the artist over the years. Curated by Mariah Roman and Lafayette Bradford of Collab Studios, in partnership with Parramore Arts.
See Opening Night Photos: June 2024
See Closing Reception Photos: September 2024

Read about the seven artists who’ve established ArtCube’s place in Orlando’s Creative Community

This post is adapted from the original by Pat Greene, published at artcube-gallery.com/blog — our new site to bring ArtCube to market for city planners, urban designers, architects and developers. Read the full post here.