6th Floor
moniquemeloche is pleased to present a series of new and recent paintings by Jake Troyli for Independent 2025.
Taking cues from the technical and compositional elements of Northern Renaissance paintings, Jake Troyli's self-portraiture fuses comic language with social critique as he explores the performance of self and the commodification of the Black/Brown body. In his latest suite of paintings, Troyli expands his surreal, self-referential universe—a vibrant, incisive body of work that 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—to explore the absurdity of identity in America and our obsession with conflict. Troylipopulates his canvases with repeated avatars of himself—often nude, always watchful—caught mid-scene in uncanny tableaux that draw from art history, cartoon logic, and personal mythology. Vignettes unfold across pristine, utopian landscapes as near-identical figures engage in acts of violence, ritual, and spectacle, echoing the strange choreography of modern life. With references to Americana, classical composition, and deadpan humor, Troyli constructs a world that is both sharply satirical and deeply introspective. His characters—rigid, costumed, and poised like dolls—suggest a theater of survival, where the boundaries between selfhood, history, and performance blur. The result is a captivating, kaleidoscopic vision that is as politically charged as it is playfully surreal.
This special presentation precedes the artist’s highly anticipated first museum solo exhibition, opening early 2027 at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL.
Taking cues from the technical and compositional elements of Northern Renaissance paintings, Jake Troyli's self-portraiture fuses comic language with social critique as he explores the performance of self and the commodification of the Black/Brown body. In his latest suite of paintings, Troyli expands his surreal, self-referential universe—a vibrant, incisive body of work that 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—to explore the absurdity of identity in America and our obsession with conflict. Troylipopulates his canvases with repeated avatars of himself—often nude, always watchful—caught mid-scene in uncanny tableaux that draw from art history, cartoon logic, and personal mythology. Vignettes unfold across pristine, utopian landscapes as near-identical figures engage in acts of violence, ritual, and spectacle, echoing the strange choreography of modern life. With references to Americana, classical composition, and deadpan humor, Troyli constructs a world that is both sharply satirical and deeply introspective. His characters—rigid, costumed, and poised like dolls—suggest a theater of survival, where the boundaries between selfhood, history, and performance blur. The result is a captivating, kaleidoscopic vision that is as politically charged as it is playfully surreal.
This special presentation precedes the artist’s highly anticipated first museum solo exhibition, opening early 2027 at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL.
