Jules De Balincourt "Malpais" Solo Exhibition

Colorful map of France, oil on canvas, 2008. Jules De Balincourt "Malpais" solo exhibition: on view from June 11 to July 26 at Thaddaeus Ropac gallery. Born in Paris in 1972, Jules De Balincourt is a rising young painter in the United States. Drawing on his dual cultural experience as a French immigrant in America, he questions: "Careful observation reveals an undeniable sense of being a lifelong outsider (…), which is my particular perspective as an American immigrant. Suddenly I see this country through the eyes of a French boy; my first question to my mother was: 'Where are the cowboys and Indians in the American West?'" Against this dual cultural backdrop, De Balincourt develops a distinctive style, navigating between figuration and abstraction, narrative and imagination, reality and magic. Heavily influenced by American Pop culture, he presents local political, economic, and social landscapes marked by absurdity. Through narrative imagery and simple written phrases such as "Living Together" or "Your Technology Makes Me Lose," text introduces a contradictory visual and logical quality, or a resolution, to his direct expression and pure formal qualities. Ultimately, these utopian social and urban dreamscapes, rendered in vibrant colors, evoke our extraordinary imagination.