Jacopo Pagin b. 1988, Italy

Jacopo Pagin’s (b. 1988, Italy) works both pay homage to historical artistic techniques, and present a contemporary perspective on everyday life and its mysteries. His dream-like, luminous canvases transport viewers on a temporal voyage through his imagination, and a journey through art from the Renaissance to the contemporary era. 

In his painting, Pagin transforms domestic or decorative objects into hypnotic devices that open up to unexpected dreamlike dimensions. Pagin’s fascination with creating real object portraits in the vein of De Chirico can be observed throughout his work, in which he often anthropomorphizes such quotidian objects as glass goblets and vases. His use of elongated forms and rich tonalities embody the melancholic beauty of Mannerism, recalling the work of Giulio Romano. In sum, Pagin’s rendered objects represent mysterious doors into different kinds of perception, highlighting his psychedelic tendencies and inviting philosophical inquiry. His art explores the possibility of traveling through time, of merging different centuries, folklore, and pop culture into landscapes pervaded by emptiness and mystery.

Pagin has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Make Room in Los Angeles, CA, USA and the Pavillon Southway in Marseille, France. Recent selected solo exhibitions include: Hidden Place (2024), Public Gallery, London, UK; Strategies Against Time (2022), Pond Society, Singapore; Roaring Shelters (2022), and Fata Morgana (2022), Make Room , Los Angeles, CA. 

Recent selected group exhibitions include: The Descendants (2023), K11 Foundation, Hong Kong, Evening Shadow (2023), Make Room, Los Angeles, Your mind is a mirror (2023), Pangée, Montreal, Canada; Uncanny Depths (2022) Centre d'art de la Cité Radieuse (MAMO), Marseille, France; Machines of Desire (2022) at Simon Lee Gallery, London, UK;The Views (2022), Moskowitz Bayse in Los Angeles, CA; I Dwell in Possibility, SPURS Gallery, Beijing, China; Manta Rei (2022), Materia Gallery, Rome, Italy;Anima Mundi, Abbaye de Saint-Victor, Manifesta XIII, Marseille, France;  and Art Brussels 2022 with Make Room, among others. Pagin’s work is a part of the public collection of the Zhi Art Museum in Chengdu, and Pond Society in Shanghai, China. His work has been written about in such publications as Artnet, Office Magazine, and Art Viewer, among others. Pagin lives and works in Brussels.