Jesús Carles de Vilallonga was a Spanish/Canadian figurative artist who worked primarily in the medium of egg tempera. He is best known for his richly textured paintings in an intricate, highly colored style that is not easy even though everything is readily intelligible: male and female characters, beasts, forests, architectural structures and artifacts. Vilallonga's iconography draws from a broad and complex painting tradition ranging from Romanesque art, the Renaissance, and Surrealism, while maintaining his own contemporary style. His work is sometimes related to Symbolism and his production is always enhanced by the contributions of abstraction. He works with the "inner eye" which Freud described as the most profound and the most intelligent, in a sojourn through nature and man's hidden interior.
Vilallonga exhibited widely in Europe, Canada, and the United States and his oeuvre includes bronze and resin sculpture, watercolor paintings, design objects, and different print mediums including screen print, etching, lithography, and digital art. He was awarded the National Order of Québec in 2011 and Fill Predilecte in Santa Coloma de Farners, Spain in 2015.
Selected Exhibitions:
· 2020 • Vilallonga, The Inner Eye, Espai Volart, Barcelona, Spain
· 2015 • Painting Retrospective/Recent Drawings - Museu Centre Cultural Casa de la Paraula, Santa Coloma de Farners, Spain
· 2009 • Galeria Article, Barcelona, Spain •Sala Joan Vinyoli, Santa Coloma de Farners
· 2007 • Galerie Gala, Montréal, Canada
· 2006 • Parisian Laundry, Montréal, Canada
· 2005 • Installation Ceremony: Imaginary Portrait of 24 Universal Geniuses of Today, Concordia University, Montréal, Canada •Galeria Uranga, Bilbao, Spain
· 2004 • Galerie Gala, Montréal, Canada
· 2003 • Galeria Uranga, Bilbao, Spain •Galeria Article 26, Barcelona, Spain
· 2002 • Photokina, Cologne, Germany •Galerie Gala, Montréal, Canada •Galeria Expoart, Girona, Spain
· 2001 • Galerie Madeleine Lacerte, Québec, Canada
· 2000 • Retrospective Exhibition: Poetic Symbolism from Barcelona, Civic Arts Plaza, Thousand Oaks, California •Galeria Article 26, Barcelona, Spain
· 1999 • Galeria Article 26, Barcelona •Galerie d’Art du Mont-Sainte-Anne, Beaupré, Canada •Galerie Sous Le Passe-Partout, Montréal, Canada
· 1998 • Galerie Gala, Trois-Rivières, Canada •Château Laurier, Ottawa
· 1997 • Galeria d’Art Farners, Santa Coloma de Farners, Spain
· 1996 • Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montréal, Canada •Galeria Ferlandina, Barcelona •Galeria Expoart, Girona, Spain
· 1995 • Galerie d'art Jean-Claude Bergeron, Ottawa •Galerie d'art Vincent, Château Laurier, Ottawa •Fundació Vilallonga, Sant Marti Sapresa, Spain •Galerie d’Art du Mont-Sainte-Anne, Beaupré, Canada •Galerie Gala, Trois-Rivières
Museums and public collections:
· Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Canada
· Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montréal
· Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris, France
· Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid, Spain
· Université de Montréal
· Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec[19]
· Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
· Fundació Vila Casas, Barcelona
· Syracuse University Art Collection, New York
· University of Toronto Art Center, Toronto
· Bibliothèque Nationale du Canada, Ottawa
· Fundació La Caixa, Col.lecció Testimoni, Barcelona
· Musée de l’Université de Sherbrooke, Québec
· Château Saint Fargeau, Yonne, France
· Richards Gallery, Northeastern University, Boston
· Art Gallery of Hamilton, Canada
· Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Canada
· Edmonton Art Gallery, Canada
· Palau Fontana d’Or, Girona, Spain
· Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Canada
· Museu de Cadaqués, Spain
· Concordia University, Montréal
· Bronfman Collection, Montréal
