Jules de Balincourt’s first solo exhibition in the UK, Itinerant Ones, is now on view at Victoria Miro Gallery.
Given his restless and eventful background (born in Paris, de Balincourt moved to Los Angeles at the age of 10 and is now New York-based), it comes with no surprise that also his art has experience with fluidity, moving from one concept to another, one art form to another. As the Franco-American artist himself declares, his work is always changing, and different nuances of his artistic expression and sensibility are celebrated in Itinerant Ones.
At Victoria Miro Gallery, one is faced with paintings such as BBQ sur l’herbe, Firepeople, and Itinerant Ones which depict a very serene world, resembling a pastoral happiness. The feeling is that of nostalgia for a realm of positive small communities living in colourful, innocent, and natural scenarios, where the line between mythical and real, private and universal becomes blurred.
This is the – so to say- “new” Balincourt, who has steered away from typical and direct references to current social and political issues. However, a democratic gusto is undeniably and still palpable: one should look at the cityscape depicted in High and Low, a painting filled with the kind of modern- and somehow uncanny-architecture you find everywhere, or at Trash Man, which shows a vague man sticking something (or perhaps his identity?) in a bin. Instead of peaceful, almost magic scenes, these works offer a subtle social critique and thought-provoking questioning of our modern way of life.
This juxtaposition of themes, figures, realities, as well as techniques (stencilling, masking, abrading and watercolour-like oil washes) is what makes Itinerant Ones an engaging and must see show. Truly, this cultural voyage embraces all De Balincourt’s variegated art, and leaves visitors themselves feeling like the itinerant ones of the show’s title.
Jules de Balincourt’s Itinerant Ones is on view until December 20th at Victoria Miro Gallery (16 Wharf Road, London N1 7RW). A major solo exhibition Painting 2013-2014 will open at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts on November 26th.
