Jamian Juliano-Villani creates often-gigantic paintings on canvas—she works with brush and airbrush to render scenes that are surreal hodgepodges, reminiscent of James Rosenquist or Peter Saul’s bizarre compositions. Through research and spontaneous discovery, she seeks out images with a “subliminal cultural power” within an extensive range—comics, nature photographs, 3D computer graphic, graffiti, and Eastern symbols have made their way into her complex, dense works. Earlier in her career, she assisted artists including Dana Schutz and Eric Parker. Inspired furthermore by Mike Kelley, George Ault, and Mort Drucker, Juliano-Villani continues to embrace innovations in her own formal technique that arise intuitively. She forces the viewer to think beyond the self-referential painting that nourishes the history of painting and strives to recombine images in a way that confounds.

Juliano-Villani has exhibited at institutions including Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, SculptureCenter, New York, MOSTYN, Wales, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and Jewish Museum, New York, among other international galleries.