Jacob Vilató
“SAHD”, “Stay At Home Dad”
17 NOV — 1 DEC
In his life, as in his paintings, Jacob Vilató (Barcelona, 1979) is not about blank canvases, but about constructing a story in layers with characters who would never have met elsewhere. As his works progresses, he discovers among strokes and colours the personas that will ultimately inhabit them, and a single artwork becomes the result of several merged stories. It is these stories, born from Vilatós limitless imagination, that we will get to immerse ourselves in as Vilató opens for the first time in an art gallery in his hometown, after a tour in prestigious galleries and museums in the US, China and Mexico.
The upcoming exhibition, presenting his series SAHD (Stay At Home Dad), explores the recurring analogy that equates artistic production with parenthood. In this case, it is stretched to include the transitional process and the sacrifices made to carry it out, as all aspects of this new life blend into a single territory that becomes a whole new world: home.
Vilató himself describes the analogy between artistic pursuits and parenthood as:
“SAHD, Stay At Home Dad, just like the one who doesn’t work. Because painting isn’t a job, is it? It’s one of those hobbies pursued out of passion, not requiring you to wake up every day of the week to go to the office. It’s also therapeutic and helps channel emotions, as ‘artists’ are usually seen as individuals who maintain an attitude of acceptance towards life. Leaving behind the respected job that extracts sweat from one’s brow and that others can understand, all for the sake of an allegedly greater good, a child.”
A child makes one more aware of the passage of time and demonstrates constant evolution. Parenthood injects a shift from the role of a child to that of a father, which enhances, or brings, contemplation and analysis, which will be necessary to pass on the cultural heritage.
The pieces of this family, the SAHD family, share the same essence but stick together like the best of siblings. Although most are conceived during the night, their characters are quite different. There are larger, brightly colored pieces in contrast to minimalistic formats that dwell in the monochromatic. The colors arederived from the Suite Assise, an intimate, serene, contemplative, and biographical series. The darkness of To Repel Ghosts is immediate, lazy, daring, and free.
From this point on, the viewer is free to take the metaphor of art and child-rearing as far as their patience and reflection allow.
For each work in the SAHD series, Vilató partakes in a highly self-destructive creative process, spending hours, days or even months exploring, revisiting and taking apart each obsession until he fully captures its essence. Paintings are vandalised, and old family photographs are defaced and reborn as layers in his
creations. His work is bold and intense, taking you straight to the heart of the subject, yet at the same time imbued with a lighthearted humorous, child-like quality – reflecting his belief that art should be free from snobbery.
Jacob Vilatós works have been displayed at Art Basel, Miami & Iris Art Museum in Suzhou, China, to mention a few, as well as being acquired in significant collections across the world. His works will now be available at NoHo House Gallery here in Barcelona between the 17th of November and 1st of December.
Previous exhibitions:
Solo shows
2023 - Iris Art Museum. Suzhou, China
2023 - Antropología. Consulado de México en Barcelona, España
2023 - Residencia artística. The social Hub Madrid, España.
2022 - Meninas Feas. Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara, México
2022 - Une Suite. MITTE Projects. Art Basel. Miami, USA
2021 - Meninas Feas. Palacio Clavijero, Morelia México
Group exhibitions
2023 - Musing by the riverbank. Caelis, Shanghai, China
2022 - Arte Vivo. Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo. Ciudad de México, México.
2022 - Misonny Art Festival. Barcelona, España
2021 - Art House, Lincoln Road Gallery. Art Basel. Miami, USA
2021 - Arte Vivo. Maia Contemporary Gallery. Ciudad de México, México
2019 - Painting Bridges, Fundación Scholas Occurrentes. Arte Surfside Miami, USA
Art fairs
2023 - Dic. Art Miami. Florida, USA
2023 - Nov. FIABCN. Barcelona, España
2023 - Nov. West Bund. Shanghai, China
2023 - Beijing Contemporary. Beijing, China
