Victor Castillo: We Were All To Be Kings

We Were All
To Be Kings
VICTOR CASTILLO
AT JONATHAN LEVINE PROJECTS
APRIL 1 – 29, 2017..

VICTOR CASTILLO
We Were All To Be Kings
Centerfolds:
We Were All To Be Kings, 2017
Acrylic on canvas
80 x 100 in (200 x 250 cm)
Untitled, 2017
Acrylic on canvas
80 x 100 in (200 x 250 cm)
Back cover:
Let’s Get Out of Here, 2017
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 60 in (150 x 150 cm)
Jonathan Levine Projects presents We
Were All To Be Kings, a solo exhibition by
Chilean-born, Los Angeles-based artist
Victor Castillo, featuring a bold new series
of big and small paintings on canvas
and paper inspired by vintage American
animations.
In a quadtych installation of wall-sized
paintings in the exhibition, Castillo
seamlessly appropriates Technicolor
imagery and characters from the
classic animation studios Van Beuren
and Walt Disney, notably from the Silly
Symphony series produced in the 1930s.
Through a process of collaging collected
images, mixing backgrounds and comic
characters to create new compositions
and situations, Castillo reconstructs the
given narratives like a puzzle, to formulate
his distinctive style of storytelling with a
punch line.
The artist describes the painting titled We
Were All To Be Kings: a king eating alone …
a table with a feast … all around animals
watching; the animals are angry because
they have realized that they are food for
slaughter. In each of the large paintings,
Castillo notes that the protagonists are
stealing from each other. Evoking George
Orwell’s Animal Farm, it is class war
between rich and poor and a criticism
of capitalism that Castillo’s vibrant and
comic painting ultimately portrays.
Opposite from the multilayered acrylic
paintings in the gallery, a series of
small works made of gouache on found
paper brings us to another delightful
dimension and time. Painted on vintage
book reproductions of popular Currier
& Ives prints chronicling America in the
nineteenth century, Castillo adds to and
thus changes the meaning of each scene
with an ongoing theme of resistance. “The
subjects are fighting back,” he says.
The title of the exhibition is also a
reference to Castillo’s roots. In “We Were
All To Be Queens,” Chilean poet Gabriela
Mistral follows the dreams and hopes
of childhood as they are thwarted and
destroyed by the realities of adult life.
Similarly, Castillo follows dreams of
riches to a surprising end in We Were All
To Be Kings, offering medieval fables and
a humorous reflection about the current
state of society.
A multicultural perspective informs
Castillo’s vision as an artist from Latin
America: “I grew with a fascination with
American pop culture. In the Disney
productions that arrived in Chile, you would
see Uncle Scrooge traveling the world
in search of wealth; they would arrive in
a place with lots of gold, and he and his
nephews would take it and be happy. I
feel with the right to appropriate because
I grew up with all this in my face.” Castillo
was born the same year that a US-backed
military dictatorship was established in
Chile. “My paintings come from dreams.”
We Were All To Be Kings is Victor Castillo’s
second solo exhibition with Jonathan
Levine following The Jungle in 2012. The
new series is a departure from previous
work that portrays children as the primary
cast of characters.
Opening reception with Victor Castillo on
Saturday, April 1, 6–8pm, Suite 415

Above, clockwise:
The Life of a Fireman, 2017
The Home of Evangeline, 2017
American Field Sports, 2017
Indians Attacking the Grizzly Bear,
2017
Gouache on found paper
Framed: 13 1/4 x 16 in
(33.6 x 40.6 cm)
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Victor Castillo was born in Santiago, Chile
in 1973. He began drawing obsessively at
the age of five, inspired by the animations
he saw on television, science fiction
movies, and the illustrations on record
covers such as Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”.
Following studies at the University of
Art and Social Sciences (ARCIS) and the
Catholic University of Chile, Victor joined
Caja Negra, an independent experimental
art collective in Santiago. In 2004 Victor
moved to Barcelona, Spain, where
he dedicated himself to painting and
established his style with references to
comics, graffiti, and old master paintings.
In 2010 Victor moved to Los Angeles, CA,
where he is currently based.
Victor has created murals for the National
Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA) and Centro
Gabriela Mistral (GAM) in Santiago, Chile;
Museum of Modern Art in Chiloe; and the
Center for Contemporary Culture Barcelona
(CCCB), Spain among other installations.
www.victor-castillo.com
ABOUT THE GALLERY
Jonathan Levine Projects is committed
to new and cutting edge art. Our roots
go back to 1995 when LeVine’s life-long
participation in punk and underground
music grew into a curatorial experiment
with the visual culture that surrounded
him. In 2005, he opened Jonathan LeVine
Gallery in the Chelsea district of New York
City and had great success nurturing the
careers of many celebrated artists.
In 2017, the gallery relocated to Jersey City
with a newfound focus on community and
collaboration. The newly named Jonathan
LeVine Projects is located within Mana
Contemporary, a leading arts organization
dedicated to celebrating the creative process.
We aim to create engaging programs
and interesting partnerships beyond our
gallery space, such as public murals and
pop-up exhibitions. With an eye towards
honoring and connecting with the history
and context of Post War art, Jonathan
LeVine Projects explores the terrain of the
high/low and everything in between.
www.jonathanlevineprojects.com

JONATHAN LEVINE PROJECTS
Mana Contemporary
Suite 415 and 344
888 Newark Avenue
Jersey City, NJ 07306
(201) 763-6998
info@jonathanlevinegallery.com
Open Tuesday through Saturday,
11am to 6pm
Victor Castillo
We Were All To Be Kings
David Choong Lee
Gravity
April 1–29, 2017
Newsprint design by Ethel Seno, Edition of 500
DIRECTIONS
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From any Manhattan PATH station, take
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By car from the Holland Tunnel:
Keep to the left and follow signs for
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which will be Kennedy Boulevard. Turn
left onto Kennedy Boulevard, then right
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next traffic light and down the hill. Mana
is located at 888 Newark Avenue on the
right-hand side of the street.
By car from the Lincoln Tunnel:
Merge onto 3 East toward 1 and 9 South/
US 9 South. Continue on 1 and 9. Take the
ramp toward Route 7 West / US 1 and 9
Truck / Tonnelle Avenue – Jersey City.
Turn right onto Tonnelle Avenue, then right
onto Newark Avenue. Mana is located at
888 Newark Avenue on the right-hand side
of the street.
By car from the New Jersey Turnpike:
Take Exit 15E and keep to the right for the
Jersey City exit. Follow signs for 1 and
9 North; follow this route until Newark
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Mana is located at 888 Newark Avenue on
the right-hand side of the street.