Installation view of Towards Eternal Glory, 2018. Photo by Thomas Blanchard

Installation view of you may be a winner, 2016. Oil and acrylic on canvas, Winterstone, wood, steel, and plastic. Installation dimensions vary is approximately 132" x 132" x 114".

Installation view of We found ourselves within a dark forest, 2015. Oil and acrylic on canvas, Mylar, Masonite, digital print on MDF, and ABS pipe.

Detail from We found ourselves within a dark forest, 2015. Oil and acrylic on canvas, Mylar, Masonite, digital print on MDF, and ABS pipe.

Installation view of We found ourselves within a dark forest, 2015. Oil and acrylic on canvas, Mylar with digital projection.

Installation view of You can only get there from here - stacks, 2015 - 2016.
Oil and acrylic on Mylar and photo prints mounted on wood
4" x 6.5" x 8", 4" x 4" x 3", 4" x 4" x 2"

Installation view of You can only get there from here, 2013.
Oil and acrylic on stretched canvas, Winterstone, wood, and projection on cloth.

Installation view of You can only get there from here, 2013.
Oil and acrylic on stretched canvas, Winterstone, wood pigment, and wax
78" x 60" x 78"

Installation view of You can only get there from here - A momentary decision of monumental significance (triptych), 2013.
Oil and acrylic on stretched canvas, and video on CRT TV
78" x 66", 72" x 16", 78" x 54"

You can only get there from here - A combination of nerve and wit (polyptych), 2013
Oil and acrylic on canvas, Winterstone, wood, and pigment.
102" x 116"

You can only get there from here - A combination of cunning, speed and astonishing grace, 2012
Oil and acrylic on canvas
78" x 48"

You can only get there from here - The Cathedral (diptych), 2013
Oil and acrylic on canvas
72" x 120"

You can only get there from here - That’s not how we do things here 05 (diptych), 2012
Oil and acrylic on canvas
70" x 140"

That’s not how we do things here 04, 2011
Oil and acrylic on canvas
54" x 48”

That’s not how we do things here 02, 2011
Oil and acrylic on canvas
40" x 48"

Installation view of All and nothing, 2022.

Click below to see Gillians past exhibitions:
You can only get there from here , 2013
We Found Ourselves Within a Dark Forest , 2015
You may be a winner , 2016
Towards eternal glory , 2018
IF NOT NOW THEN WHEN , 2020
All and nothing , 2022

Gillian Iles

Gillian finds commentary within the existence of social ideals, social orders, idealized lifestyles and beliefs especially as they pertain to colonial Western culture. Their manufactured existence, illusionary value, tenuous persistence and questionable motives are of particular interest.

These canonized ideals present the conflict of undeniable allure and simultaneous visceral threat or repulsion. Present is the primal urge to rebel conflicting with unsettling but implicit desire for that very same thing. The presentation of symbolic imagery draws from reoccurring themes within digital culture and social media, which presents an infinite array of ideals and desires as a sensory collage of fleeting instants.

The inevitability of change as an innate inclination of all systems is imagined as a potential suspended, sublime moment – the figures are enveloped in contexts made up of a myriad of ideals, options, risks and rewards. Infinite potential is present in this moment of choice, challenge and change by the next generation - their intentions complex, conflicted and indecipherable - the obstacles quietly waiting - and the outcome as of yet undefined.

The work references the individual experience, tapping into primal sensations and providing visceral opportunities for the viewer. The series’ combine large-scale paintings, sculpture, video, projection and constructions. The installations are environmental in scope, with both 2-D & 3-D work assembled, staggered and clustered, constructing spaces and incorporating both real and illusionary environments as extensions of each other.

Gillian Iles’ practice consists of painting, sculpture and video/projection. She has exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Brooklyn, Chicago, Miami, Montreal and Toronto in public institutions, university galleries, artist-run centres and commercial galleries. Recent projects include solo exhibitions at the Rosemary Duffy Larson Gallery in Florida and Redhead Gallery in Toronto. Her work has been highlighted in Canadian Art, Mix Magazine, Toronto Life Magazine, as well as the National Post and The Globe and Mail. She is featured in the book Carte Blanche Volume 2: Painting. Gillian was a founding member of two artist-run galleries in Toronto - Propeller and Loop and is currently part of Blunt Collective and Glasshouse Collective, which investigate the role of representation and narrative in visual imagery. Gillian teaches at the Ontario College of Art and Design and Sheridan College in Canada.

Her environmental scale installations include combinations of paintings, sculptures, constructions video and projection, creating installations incorporating both real and illusionary space, transforming exhibition spaces into a composite of alternate realities. The viewer is always considered to be the final element within the installation.