Andrew Jilka

Galería Tiro al Blanco presentd Pinturas Románticas, the most recent work by American artist Andrew Jilka and his second solo exhibition with the gallery.

Playing with the themes of 18th & 19th century romantic painting, Jilka’s work explores the sublime and the drama of anxiety, stability, and fantastical dread. He captures the essence of existential uncertainty, portraying solitary figures suspended in otherworldly voids.

In ‘Romantic Painting (Mirrored End)’, a cartoon man rendered in thick, juicy oil paint is depicted choking on his dinner, his mirror image doubling his demise. With ‘Implied Infinity (Sea Monster)’, we see an enraged creature swimming off the left side of the canvas, only to reappear on the right. These enigmatic spaces, reminiscent of distant landscapes and turbulent seascapes, echo the precariousness of existence. Forms and figures are separated or torn apart in ways that challenge reality, further emphasizing their fragility.

Jilka’s compositions emphasize the physicality of paint while remaining simple, direct and clean. In ‘Romantic Painting (Candles)’, a common still-life arrangement is cut at an impossible angle, disrupting its repetitive pattern. This type of gesture highlights the schism that exists between tangible material and our perceptions of the imagery.

Other works introduce disembodied hands, Picasso paintings, and imagery based on a healthy mix of fact, fiction, and ignorance. These elements are sliced, mirrored, and separated, colliding the earthly with the ethereal. Jilka’s use of a consistent void or background hints at a certain type of infinity, a never ending system, broken by a split in a gliding bird of prey, as in ‘Romantic Painting (Eagle).’

In Pinturas Románticas, Jilka invites audiences to experience the clash of mythologies, the questioning of foundations, and the unexpected turns that shape our perception of truth.

— Galería Tiro al Blanco