It's quite a return to form, not so much as a painter but as a matter of location. Former Juxtapoz cover artist Jules de Balincourt is back in NYC, with Midnight Movers at Pace Gallery, his first show in his home city in over a decade. And what is interesting is that the nomadic nature of his work, how he plays with humans in an amongst both nature and a distant urban center, seems to be more harmonious in the context of New York. Jules once told us in his interview with Marcel Dzama, he another nomadic creative spirit, "I like the idea of not being so anchored down with one studio and being more mobile and nomadic."
And in Midnight Movers, as much as he might be talking about his own universe, his own relationship between NYC and his life in nature, de Balincourt paints with a loose intensity that speaks to alienation, migration, and ambiguity. It's not just about his own movement, but a global conversation of movement. The paintings feel like dreams of change, evolution both personally and objectively. There is a care for others, an almost protection for those who move in each work. In a time when migration is at the topic of so much of what we see in the world, de Balincourt seems to be creating a safe space for those on the move, a powerful gesture at a time when we are most vulnerable. —Evan Pricco
