Skye Gwilliam
Polka Dot Tramp
October 21 - November 14, 2021

My Pet Ram is pleased to present Polka Dot Tramp, a solo exhibition by artist Skye Gwilliam. The first solo show in New York by Gwilliam, the exhibit features a variety of Gwilliam’s ongoing series of blue oil paintings as well as his watercolors on paper. Born in Ojai, California to artistic parents, Gwilliam now resides in St. Girons in South West France, a quiet place that lends much solace and inspiration in his work.

Early in his life, Gwilliam was diagnosed with an inner-ear disorder, which led him to have limited mobility and balance, as well as an innate sensitivity to over-stimulated environments. From this, he began painting as a way to cope with this loss and eventually found peace in the night, as it’s sensory demand was far less than the day.

His nighttime paintings reflect his emotional journey through time, as manifested through a central character, unidentifiable except for his slender frame and barely-lit cigarette. Poised in a variety of nocturnal environments, Gwilliam’s mystery man floats through French alleyways, stares through moonlight windows, or hides under the wide brim of his big black hat. Melancholy personified, this figure stands in for the artist's own experiences and traumas of his past. Varying levels of representation present themselves in Gwilliam’s work, at once there’s a man, in another instant, just a suggestion of one, effectively luring viewers into an obscure, dreamlike state, not unlike the one his figures inhabit. One is reminded of the lonesome paintings of some of art history’s greats- Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso and Munch, all of which were sorting through a myriad of emotional and mental states. Culling inspiration from the deep prolific artistic history of France and building upon it in a new contemporary way, Gwilliam merely nods and continues adding onto his own rich artistic language.

Deep monochromatic shades of blue sweep through his work, blanketing his compositions in a surreal, heavy atmosphere. Through a unique process, the artist doesn’t employ a brush, rather exacting his compositions right out of the tube. The result is a textural, line-forward approach that contours around all form in a repeating vibrational outline. In contrast to his oil paintings, Gwilliam’s watercolors have a much more simplified, direct process. He allows the watercolor paint to navigate his compositions, staining and blotching into various forms, allowing for more improvisation and immediacy, a much needed break from the more laborious oils.

Polka Dot Tramp is an exploration into Gwilliam’s past, his learnings and losses and the journeys that led him across the world to the small village of St. Girons, France. Surreal from start to finish, the exhibition pays homage to the beauty of the night, giving space to the thoughts and feelings that can only come to us in those late hours, when the world has gone to bed and true solitude presents itself the stillness, providing comfort in the calm. Polka Dot Tramp opens at My Pet Ram on Thursday, October 21 and will be on view through November 14, 2021.