Jules de Balincourt’s Uphill and Downhill, 2020, continues an intuitive approach to image-making, where the world we inhabit is filtered through the artist’s own psychological landscape. Always rich in colour and technique, de Balincourt’s work is a bountiful confluence of reality and fantasy, where references to society, politics, or popular culture are never less than equalled by free association and painterly invention. Often, as in the work on display, de Balincourt’s paintings hinge on utopian/dystopian narratives, structures of power or opposing forces. At the same time, they carve a space of reflection and contemplation against a tide of contemporary media. Speaking about the work, the artist says, ‘Uphill and Downhill is about trying to freeze or pause these ubiquitous moments in history, in a time in which images and information are processed through a scroll of technology. I want this painting to operate as a marker or commemoration for those oppressed fighting for social justice and equality in a world with a collective global anxiety.’

Jules de Balincourt, born in Paris, France in 1972, lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. De Balincourt’s work has been the subject of a number of international solo exhibitions at institutions including The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, USA; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada; Kasseler Kunstverein, Germany; and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. Works by the artist are included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA; and Collezione Maramotti, Italy, among others. A solo exhibition of de Balincourt’s work will open at CAC Málaga, Spain in Spring 2021.