| Jaime Gili | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1972 Caracas, Venezuela |
| Education | Royal College of Art, London. Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona. Prodiseño, Caracas |
| Occupation | visual artist |
Jaime Gili (born 7-8-1972, Caracas from Catalan parents) is an artist based in London since 1996.
Since 2002 his work has been contextualised as continuing a tradition of Latinamerican abstract art, especially the Venezuelan optical and kinetic work of artists such as Carlos Cruz-Diez and Alejandro Otero, with an input from popular art and London's energy. Critic Fisun Guner wrote in 2003 about his show at the Jerwood Space: "What do you get when you mix Pop, Minimalism, Vorticism, Futurism and graffiti art? The answer may well resemble the work of (...) Jaime Gili." Venezuelan Curator Jesús Fuenmayor wrote in 2006 for the catalogue of Gili's show at Periférico Caracas [1] that his paintings were "as if someone had thrown a bomb at a work by Cruz-Diez".
Gili received his MA in painting from the Royal College of Art [2] in 1998, after studying in Caracas and Barcelona. He completed a PhD at the University of Barcelona in 2001 with a thesis on "Repetition and Seriality in Painting since the 1960's". He has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including ‘6 Bienal do Mercosul’ [3] in Porto Alegre, curated by Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, ‘Expander’ at the Royal Academy of Arts [4] in London, curated by Mustafa Hulusi, ‘Las tres calaveras’ at Periferico Caracas in Caracas, curated by Jesús Fuenmayor, ‘Jump Cuts’ at CIFO [5] in Miami, ‘The Complex of Respect’ at Kunsthalle Bern [6], curated by Philippe Pirotte and "Bill t Pittier" at Kunsthalle Winterthur [7]. He is represented by Riflemaker [8] in London.
He recently won an international competition for one of the world's largest public art project 25,000 square metres (270,000 sq ft). The tops and sides of 16 large oil tanks along the Fore River in South Portland, Maine will be painted with a site-specific design by Gili. Works started in 2009 and will take a few years.