Jake Troyli’s works address the commodification of Black and Brown bodies, confronting and exploring labor capitalism and sweat equity as a demonstration of value. Troyli also injects his paintings with a sense of humor and absurdity through the inclusion of his own self-portrait. His avatar populates the works in Open Season, where Troyli is both the hunter and the hunted as he participates in a variety of physical activities. As a former Division I basketball player, Troyli has a potent understanding of how athletes in America, particularly athletes of color, are simultaneously celebrated and criticized.
About the Artist:
Jake Troyli (b. 1990, Boston, MA) played Division 1 basketball at Presbyterian College, Clinton, SC before receiving his BFA from Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, TN (2013), and his MFA from the University of South Florida, Tampa (2019). He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ME in 2019. Solo exhibitions include moniquemeloche, Chicago, IL (2024, 2022); Tempus Projects, Tampa, FL (2018); and ArtsXchange, Atlanta, GA (2018). Troyli’s work has been featured in group exhibitions at Perrotin Gallery, New York, NY (2024); Galerie Droste, Düsseldorf, DE (2024); Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI (2023-24); Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY (2023); Galerie Droste, Paris, FR (2021); The Ringling Museum, Sarasota, FL (2021); Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL (2019); San Francisco Art Institute, CA (2018). Troyli’s work is in the permanent collections of the Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY; Tampa Art Museum, Tampa, FL; the Ringling Museum, Sarasota, FL; the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS; and Pierce and Hill Harper Arts Foundation, Detroit, MI. He is the recipient of the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship (2019-2020) and the Creative Pinellas Emerging Artist Grant, Largo, FL (2017). Troyli was a 2023 Visual Artist recipient of the Academy of Fine Arts x International City of Arts program in Paris, France. He is currently an artist in residence at Project for Empty Space in Newark, NJ.
Jake Troyli
Open Season, 2025
Oil on canvas, 78 x 78 inches
Everson Museum of Art; Museum purchase, Friends of the Everson, 2025.7
Jake Troyli
Sunday Best for the Martyring, 2024
Oil on canvas, 72 x 48 inches
Image courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery. Photo: Bob
The Everson is supported by the Dorothy and Marshall M. Reisman Foundation; the General Operating Support program, a regrant program of the County of Onondaga with the support of County Executive, J. Ryan McMahon II, and the Onondaga County Legislature, administered by CNY Arts; and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
