At first glance, one might look at the paintings of Dil Hildebrand and surmise that they are driven by a sort of photo-synthesis  -  that while the handling of materials may leave little doubt that these works are painted, an apparent fidelity to photographic representation arrests them upon the line in between.  This conflation of painting with photography can make for fairly peculiar images, particularly where the boundless reverie of the impossible is made to wear the sheep’s clothing of the possible.

Though romantically inspired landscapes figure in nearly every painting and drawing, it becomes gradually more clear while pondering Hildebrand’s entire oeuvre that a concern for the act of representation and of looking is generating these images.  In a sense, his fragments of nature, whether on canvas or paper, serve as backdrops for a painting practice as well as backdrops for a discussion on the self-locating principles of perception.  While in some instances painterly abstraction is used to disrupt a bid for photographic realism, examples in other paintings reveal a clear intent to mime the photograph and to call into question its claim to the real, exposing it as just another trick of the eye.

Through a broad range of techniques, including collage and trompe l'oeil, Hildebrand tinkers with the conventions of landscape imagery with technical ingenuity and conceptual intuition and care.  History and memory trace an oneiric path through his multiple approaches, incorporating various traditions such as Romanticism, Cubism and Surrealism.  The influence of theatrical scenography – a field in which Hildebrand worked for nearly 10 years - infuses his canvases with an enigmatic false reality.  In certain large canvases such as Swamp and Descending, the pictures themselves depict a theatrical stage, of sorts.  To look upon others, such as The View, one cannot help but feel pulled onto an absent metafictional stage.  The surfaces of his works facilitate this fiction; often feigning the ambient reflections of a gallery in which the work ostensibly hangs, or in featuring dollops of thick paint rendered as transparent water droplets, his surfaces openly represent the “fourth wall” of traditional theatre, separating scene from seers.

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Born in Winnipeg and living currently in Montréal, Dil Hildebrand works in a range of media including oil and acrylic paint, and charcoal. Winner of the prestigious Royal Bank of Canada National Painting Competition in 2006, Hildebrand has already gained the reputation of being among the most talented Canadian painters of his generation. His work has been featured in duo exhibitions at Truck Gallery (Calgary), NEXT Chicago and in major group shows including the Beijing Biennale (2010), "Ideas of Landscape 2" (Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal), "Carte Blanche Volume 2: Painting" (MOCCA, Toronto) and "EntreVoir" (Galerie de l’UQAM), curated by Louise Déry. His paintings can be found in important museum, public and corporate collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montreal, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Bank of Montreal, the Royal Bank of Canada, Bennett Jones LLP, Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and McCarthy Tétrault LLP.

In 2010, Anteism Press publised a major catalogue of Hildebrand’s work entitled Long Drop: The Paintings of Dil Hildebrand, with essays by Richard Rhodes (Canadian Art) and Louise Déry (Galerie de l’UQAM). His paintings will also be featured in a solo exhibition at YYZ Artists' Outlet (Toronto) in the fall of 2011.

For more information on Dil HIldebrand please visit his website: www.dilhildebrand.com