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Jon Pylypchuk — I will help you dress this in plain irony
Jon Pylypchuk

I will help you dress this in plain irony

2019

Jon Pylypchuk's 2019 work "I will help you dress this in plain irony" arrives as a sprawling, materially generous tableau that collapses the distance between painting and sculpture. Measuring over two meters tall, the piece layers fabric, watercolor, glitter, and wood glue across linen mounted on panel, while black cue balls and a polyurethane finish push the surface into assertively physical territory. The result is an object that refuses easy categorization, oscillating between the flat logic of painting and the insistent presence of constructed three-dimensional form. Pylypchuk's signature vocabulary of raw emotional exposure and darkly comic sensibility runs throughout, with the title itself performing a kind of knowing wink at the viewer, promising irony while delivering something considerably more earnest beneath the glittering surface. The material choices here are far from incidental. Fabric introduces softness and domesticity into what might otherwise read as an aggressive, textured field, while the cue balls carry associations of leisure, geometry, and a certain blue-collar elegance. Glitter, long recuperated from its craft-supply associations into the language of serious contemporary art, catches light and transforms depending on viewing conditions, making the work subtly different at each encounter. The depth of 8.3 centimeters is modest but meaningful, enough to cast shadows and remind the collector that this work claims space in a room rather than simply occupying a wall. Signed by the artist and currently available through Petzel Gallery, this is a fully resolved and physically commanding example of Pylypchuk at a confident, mature moment in his practice.

Medium
Fabric, wood glue, watercolor,glitter,black cue balls, polyurethane, wood, on linen on panel
Overall
Signed
Yes
Location
Petzel Gallery, New York, NY

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About this work

Jon Pylypchuk, I will help you dress this in plain irony, 2019

Jon Pylypchuk's 2019 work "I will help you dress this in plain irony" arrives as a sprawling, materially generous tableau that collapses the distance between painting and sculpture. Measuring over two meters tall, the piece layers fabric, watercolor, glitter, and wood glue across linen mounted on panel, while black cue balls and a polyurethane finish push the surface into assertively physical territory. The result is an object that refuses easy categorization, oscillating between the flat logic of painting and the insistent presence of constructed three-dimensional form. Pylypchuk's signature vocabulary of raw emotional exposure and darkly comic sensibility runs throughout, with the title itself performing a kind of knowing wink at the viewer, promising irony while delivering something considerably more earnest beneath the glittering surface. The material choices here are far from incidental. Fabric introduces softness and domesticity into what might otherwise read as an aggressive, textured field, while the cue balls carry associations of leisure, geometry, and a certain blue-collar elegance. Glitter, long recuperated from its craft-supply associations into the language of serious contemporary art, catches light and transforms depending on viewing conditions, making the work subtly different at each encounter. The depth of 8.3 centimeters is modest but meaningful, enough to cast shadows and remind the collector that this work claims space in a room rather than simply occupying a wall. Signed by the artist and currently available through Petzel Gallery, this is a fully resolved and physically commanding example of Pylypchuk at a confident, mature moment in his practice.

Medium
Fabric, wood glue, watercolor,glitter,black cue balls, polyurethane, wood, on linen on panel
Dimensions
overall: 237.5 x 161.3 x 8.3 cm
Year
2019
Signed
Hand-signed by the artist
Seen at
Petzel Gallery, New York, USA

Related themes

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