Jobelle Quijano
Jobelle Quijano is an artist based in Toronto, Ontario. She graduated from Queen’s University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honors) and a minor in Art History. Primarily working in oil paint, she creates a vivid and honest image of her inner world by exploring themes of intimacy, vulnerability, desire, angst, nostalgia, subculture, and girlhood through the lens of fantasy, horror, and religion. She uses feminine and kitsch imagery alongside a moody color palette to bring a seriousness to the lowbrow and intertwines reality and fiction to convey emotional catharsis.
Jobelle’s work has been exhibited in Toronto and Kingston at the Joseph D. Carrier Art Gallery, Northern Contemporary Gallery, Only One Gallery, Union Gallery, and Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre. She received the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant and the Murray and Marvelle Koffler Founder’s Award in 2022.
Collect Bean: What role does color play in your practice?
Jobelle Quijano: In my practice, color plays a very important role. I use a moody color palette that includes many purples, pinks, and blues. Even when I try to make a warmer piece in its tones, I always have to add a bit of these hues to keep a sort of element of fantasy/the unnatural through color. I like making paintings that feel like there is a color filter on them; it puts them all into the same world and creates an intimate/nostalgic visual narrative. I have recently been experimenting with a lighter and more washed-out color palette that creates this pastel hue, which has been a fun shift since I have done much darker/higher contrast pieces prior.
Collect Bean: Are there any recurring themes or motifs in your art, and if so, what do they represent to you?
Jobelle Quijano: I like to use very feminine and kitschy objects and symbols, such as hearts and sparkles, in my work, as well as fantasy-like ornamentation layered on top of figurative/representational images. I think these motifs are a way for me to add a sense of play into my practice and a way to uplift frivolous yet true-to-life aspects of girlhood by representing them through a traditional mode of oil painting. The ornamentation I use re-contextualizes images in a way that I think communicates a sort of ominous sincerity in its storytelling and adds a sense of whimsy/imagination to an image of realism.
Collect Bean: What is the kindest thing someone can tell you about your work?
Jobelle Quijano: I was told once by a few artists I had met years ago at my first art fair that my work was very honest and not to lose that honesty. I think that is the kindest thing I have ever been told about my work for sure, and I think about it every time I make a new piece!
