"Tiger" - by Jonathan Paul Jackson - Kimono Zulu Reimagined Vintage Kimono Artist Collaboration

Tiger Kimono by Jonathan Paul Jackson, as seen at Foltz Gallery (2025) and MFAH Trunk Show (2026)

A striking one-of-a-kind wearable artwork, this kimono transforms a traditional floral textile into a bold, contemporary meditation on nature, instinct, and transformation. Across the back, artist Jonathan Paul Jackson places a powerful tiger-like face in expressive layers of black, white, red, and pale blue, creating an image that feels both ancient and alive. The mark-making is raw and gestural, hovering between animal spirit, mask, and fossilized memory.

The base kimono features a warm sand-gold ground with delicate woven floral motifs, soft blossoms, and red botanical accents that move across the sleeves and hem. Jackson’s painted imagery interrupts and reawakens the garment’s surface, allowing the original flowers and the new composition to coexist. The result is a conversation between refinement and wildness, fragility and force, beauty and survival.

With its open sleeves, flowing silhouette, and richly layered surface, this piece feels ceremonial yet intimate. It invites the wearer to embody both elegance and instinct: the quiet grace of the garden and the untamed presence of the animal within.

Hand-painted and deeply expressive, this kimono is ideal as a collectible wearable art garment, statement piece, or displayable textile artwork.

One-of-a-kind, unisex, handpainted silk. One size fits most. Approximately a womenś size Medium/Large or men's Small.

Artist Bio: Jonathan Paul Jackson

Jonathan Paul Jackson was born in 1984 and grew up in remote far West Texas before moving to Houston, where he continues to live and work. From an early age, Jackson developed a deep love of nature, a passion that continues to shape his artistic practice. Though he has some formal art education and worked as a studio assistant to several prominent Houston-based artists during his formative years, Jackson is largely self-taught and holds experimentation at the center of his work.

Jackson is known for nature-inspired imagery on non-traditional surfaces, drawing influence from renowned Houston artist Jesse Lott (1943–2023), who used found materials as the foundation of his practice. Jackson’s inspiration ranges from flowers seen on walks through his East Houston neighborhood to the vast geological forces that shaped the planet billions of years ago.

Recently, Jackson has been developing a process of recycling paper into thick, textured surfaces that can reach up to half an inch in depth, evoking walls, frescoes, or archeological remains. Through this environmentally conscious practice, he creates works rich in color, texture, and material history. His arcadian imagery exists between optimism and sorrow: optimism in nature’s power to renew, and sorrow for the animals and ecosystems affected by modern ideas of progress.