LOLA GIL: FILLING UP ROOMS

Nino Mier Gallery is pleased to present Filling Up Rooms, Lola Gil’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

October 24 – December 18, 2024

At the core of Gil’s painterly practice lies the ubiquity of solitude. Her latest paintings—vivid tapestries of images sourced from childhood memory, stock imagery, and sketches—meld surrealist iconography with nuanced storytelling to examine the delicate tension between seclusion and connection. The works evoke an almost cinematic atmosphere, informed by the art of Douglas Sirk and the aesthetics of classic black-and-white films. In this manner, Gil’s compositions establish a dialogue between opposing forces — past and present, analogue and digital, personal and collective — immersing the viewer in an imagined realm.

A common theme explored in Filling Up Rooms is the struggle between the oft-found comfort of solitude and the deep-seated yearning for attachment, frequently expressed through a metaphor of domesticity. Moved your seat epitomizes this investigation, brimming with strong symbolism and a blending of surreal and realistic elements. The foreground presents a glass-torsoed woman in a mid- century home, pressed against an anonymous male figure, suggesting an unsettling sense of confinement. The woman holds symbolic significance through her central positioning in the composition. Her transparent torso and lifelike head embody a blend of hardness and softness and, thus, communicate a message of humanity’s fragile resilience.

Just as her repeated depictions of glass signify vulnerability and resilience, Gil incorporates depictions of ceramics to suggest a comparable duality. Lamps, similarly appearing frequently throughout the works, symbolize both illumination and self-acceptance. These motifs enhance the layered narrative of each scene and provide visual and theoretical resonance across the series.

Filling Up Rooms serves as a powerful testament to environments of solitude—both mental and physical—that navigate a fine line between liberation and confinement. “Isolation can be comforting,” Gil notes. “But there is always a need to reach out and connect, even within our private spaces.” Her imaginative scenes encourage contemplation on the universal experience of solitude, in effect bridging the divide between the individual and the collective.