Jules de Balincourt’s paintings are states of mind rather than descriptions of the world around us. The Brooklyn-based artist explores painting as an intuitive process, resulting in fantasy-like worlds in which landscapes and seascapes interplay with more abstract works.

In de Balincourt’s paintings land and sea become sites of possibility and escape, while also containing elements of mysterious unease. Rather than rely on sketch, photography, or direct reference, the artist’s process initially involves him building up many translucent layers of paint, working from abstraction into a figurative depiction. In these ambiguous, evocative spaces, where figures seem to be in perpetual motion, one senses the movement of an ever-changing, volatile world.

Born in Paris in 1972, Jules de Balincourt is currently based in Brooklyn, New York and Malpais, Costa Rica. The artist graduated from the California College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco in 1998 and earned a Master of Fine Arts at Hunter College, New York in 2005. He later ran the Brooklyn–based community and events center Starr Space.

The artist has previously been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel, Germany; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; and elsewhere. His work can be found in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada; the Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy; the Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art, France; and other institutions around the world.