VLAB is pleased to present the solo exhibition titled “APPEARANCES, ASPIRATIONS AND ALLUSIONS” featuring new works by JONATHON DOWNING that have never been shown before in an exhibition. The exhibition features different portraits depicting basketball fans and superstars through a lens of distortion and realistic painting.

Jonathon Downing (b. 1997) is an oil painter whose portraits craft conversations about public image and internal truth through the lens of the professional Basketball fan. He created his unique aesthetic while studying at the University of Michigan; and since graduating in 2020, has continued to refine the process of digital photo montage and realistic painting that he is becoming known for. While Downing was raised and currently resides in the Metro Detroit area, the subjects he paints reside in an alternate reality where human beings are monstrous amalgamations of portraiture.

The portraits, which are surprisingly organic and honest, simultaneously depict the basketball fan and the superstars he idolizes, encouraging deeper observation to fully form a hypothesis about the backstory and present emotions of each character. Downing has exhibited these characters throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, and is in collections nationally and internationally.

The artist's work navigates between the concepts of idol and idolater. He attempts to humanize those who are his idols through a banal vision of normal people.

He first makes these collages inspired by pop culture, music and basketball, his favorite sport. He then turns these collages into oil portraits, mixing elements of his favorite rappers, players and friends, such as tattoos or the t-shirts of basketball superstars.

With his excellent technique, Jonathon presents a parallel dimension in which fans and public images are conveyed together, presenting another reality in which fantasy and the barriers of the real world seem to deceive each other.

Jonathon’s solo exhibition “Appearance, aspirations and allusions” will be on view at VLAB Madrid from April 11th to May 4th, 2024.