Jake Santos
Don
Painting
2026
Acrylic Ink on Wood Panel
48" x 36"
In depicting this particular armour, I explore formal concerns with the subject of Western history (specifically an object of the Middle Ages), as access to understanding an underlying relationship between myself and Western thought. In grappling with both the subject of Western history, and contemporary masculine identity, I work in a manner of ambiguity, abstracting the figure of the armour from its context as an ode to explore the implicit desires contained in in the armour chest plate. The intentionality of isolating the armour from its surrounding figure, is meant to mimic the engagement of history through a vitrine-like atmosphere. Fixating on the sublime experience of viewing these objects at a distance.
Work by
Jake Santos
Drawing and Painting
“Heavy Metal explores painting and the parasocial, by using images as a mediator between myself and the work. Images are blurred and cropped as a way to abstract detail, isolating how colour, values...” [More]