Emerging from his background as a mechanical engineer, Jonathan's artistic work is focused on creation through collaboration. Those bearing witness to his large-scale oil and canvas portraiture are invited to engage with a
synergy of diverse elements embedded within their production.

 

Alongside a team of engineers, Jonathan has developed AI sensory hardware that, when paired with his paintings, causes them to change their composition in response to certain external stimuli, such as motion in their surroundings or the pulse of a nearby body. Apelbaum brings together dancers, sound
artists, fashion designers and engineers to bring his paintings to life and showcase them in their entirety. With nearly 2000 LED lights behind each cognitive painting enacting their inputs through a translucent silk-based
canvas material he develop himself, the colours, images, words and stories they emit are constantly evolving, influencing and being influenced by their peripheral environments to reveal their multitude of layers.

 

As their meditations on gender, intimacy, family, religion and technology appear and reappear, they are in constant conversation with themselves and their audiences.