moniquemeloche is pleased to present Jake Troyli: Collision Course, the artist’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. Taking cues from the technical and compositional elements of Northern Renaissance paintings, Troyli’s self-portraiture fuses comic language with social critique as he explores the performance of identity and the commodification of the Black/Brown body. Collision Course centralizes the artist’s ongoing investigations within a larger context of the battle, posing questions around the spectacle through micro and macro examinations of conflict.

This new series was initiated during a year-long residency as an inaugural Visual Artist Fellow at the Académie des beaux-arts x Cité Internationale des arts program in Paris, France. During this time abroad, Troyli became heavily inspired by the compositions of epic battle and martyr paintings present throughout European museums. In a timely presentation, the works in Collision Course subvert humanity’s fixation on conflict and the need to create narratives based on heroism and villainy to define ourselves. This notion of code-switching has been a central theme within the artist’s practice, rendered through the steady use of his own avatar engaged in constant cycles of performance. Collision Course presents an expanded cast of characters and symbols to extend further beyond the self-portrait, complicating this hero-villain dynamic and the elasticity of these roles, whereby the figures function as both subject and sacrifice.

Grounding the exhibition, a two-part painting analogous to a theatrical backdrop provides a plethora of choreographed chaos. Multiple “Troyli” figures appear manifold–engaged in a congressional assembly hall, rejoicing in church, protesting near a tent community, manufacturing AR-15 rifles blindfolded, serving champagne at a private Dior party, or voting on whether Kendrick or Drake won, while new figures donning “Troyli” masks complicate our ability to discern which role is being played. These figures are both police and policed, shooter and target, leader and follower, persecutor and persecuted. Part combative, part cannibalistic, the figures are defined by their opposition. Across moments of martyring throughout the show, questions around what it means to self-mythologize and self-valorize come to light. While we are unsure what is being fought for, it becomes more important that they are fighting. This perpetual collision course speaks to the anxiety of it all. Upon entering the gallery, viewers are greeted by a singular “Troyli”, nude and exhausted blowing on a bugle, as if to say he’s doing this for the thousandth time. Nearby, multiple “Troylis” are engaged in battle on horseback. Apathetic expressions abound, we wonder who is really at war as our eyes greet the mad gaze of two horses in an enraged clash. Warhorses, and the bugler for that matter, become metaphors for participants in this never-ending confrontation who are neither actively involved nor invested, but whose lives are nevertheless on the line. This idea of impassivity or complicit participation echoes throughout, as we see that no matter which role they’re playing, all the figures in the compositions are in their own way implicated in the Orwellian unending battle at the center of the show.

Jake Troyli is also on view in Chicago featuring a new permanent mural in Chicago’s West Side commissioned by the nonprofit SkyART, as well as a billboard in collaboration with For Freedomsleading up to the election. His work is included in the recently opened group exhibition Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture, curated by Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, Seph Rodney, and Katy Siegel, at SFMoMA, which travels to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and is accompanied by a scholarly publication.

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