Reach Out
Jaime Sancorlo — Online Exhibition
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Jaime Sancorlo
Madrid, 1980. Graduated in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw on an Erasmus scholarship. In mid-2018, after attending a painting workshop by Alejandro Carpintero, he fell in love again with oil painting. Meticulous in his style, Sancorlo appreciates oil's long drying time, versatility, and ability to create both soft melts and razor-sharp edges.
Jaime Sancorlo's paintings begin with black-and-white archival photographs from the First and Second World Wars. Through a process of intuitive selection, he transforms these documents of historical trauma into oil paintings that are at once hyper-realistic and disquietingly altered. The meticulous realism of each canvas — with its varying degrees of detail — serves as a substrate for something far stranger.
Into these solemn, monochromatic scenes, Sancorlo introduces flashes of vivid color: cartoon characters, references to pop culture, video games and American cinema. The juxtaposition is deliberate and ironic. By colliding the grotesque reality of war with the visual language of childhood play, his work stages a confrontation between innocence and the "adult world" — one marked by military rigor, discipline, and the absurdity of armed conflict. The result is a body of work that is simultaneously a joke and a requiem: recognizable, even humorous at first glance, but anchored in the harsh reality of times defined by war.
In Conversation with Jaime Sancorlo
Your paintings often combine realistic war imagery with colourful and playful elements. Why this contrast?
I'm interested in disrupting the solemnity of historical war imagery. By introducing colourful elements—often inspired by cartoons, pop culture, video games or American cinema—I create surreal and sometimes ironic situations inside otherwise rigid military scenes. These playful intrusions represent traces of childhood: fragments of innocence entering spaces shaped entirely by the adult world and by war. The contrast creates tension between discipline and absurdity, seriousness and humour, innocence and violence.
Childhood and the loss of innocence seem to be recurring themes in your work.
What fascinates me is imagining who these individuals were before all of this—before discipline, before violence, before ideology. They were once children too. The colourful objects and characters I introduce into the compositions allude to that forgotten childhood. Through them, I reflect on the abrupt transition into adulthood and on how innocence disappears when confronted with the tragic dimensions of war.
What do you hope viewers experience when they encounter your work?
I hope the works invite reflection rather than provide direct answers. By juxtaposing animated, playful imagery with scenes from some of history's darkest periods, I try to create unexpected connections. Ultimately, I want viewers to question how innocence is lost, how war shapes identity, and why humanity continues to repeat these cycles.
Bearbecue
2022 · Oil on canvas · 73 × 100 cm
Color Exercise
2020 · Oil on canvas · 89 × 114 cm
Hail to the Bus Driver
2023 · Oil on canvas · 89 × 116 cm
Lying in Wait
2023 · Oil on canvas · 70 × 50 cm
The Nap
2023 · Oil on canvas · 73 × 100 cm
No Parking
2023 · Oil on canvas · 100 × 81 cm
Of Course You Realize This Means War!!
2023 · Oil on canvas · 73 × 100 cm
Born into a family with a military tradition, Sancorlo holds deeply ambivalent feelings toward the military world. His paintings contrast the monochromatic solemnity of military rigour with the rebellious, colourful intrusion of play — a visual manifestation of the tension between obligation and imagination, discipline and freedom.
The characters who appear in the scenes he paints belong to difficult times. They are immersed in situations of war or in the military sphere, all of which is the result of an adult world. Aside from the fascination he feels for the scenes, he is deeply intrigued by the way in which the metamorphosis these individuals must have undergone since the innocent childhood they once had takes place. By incorporating playful and colourful elements into the scene, he alludes to that world of forgotten childhood, seeking to reflect on the circumstances and reasons behind the loss of innocence that comes with leaving childhood behind.
On Ice
2023 · Oil on canvas · 89 × 130 cm
Qué Será Será
2023 · Oil on canvas · 89 × 116 cm
Reach Out
2023 · Oil on canvas · 65 × 92 cm
Storyteller
2023 · Oil on canvas · 89 × 130 cm
But Sancorlo's work is not merely a joke. By juxtaposing that animated world with scenes from those terrible periods, he creates connections that invite reflection on those harsh times — and on the absurdity of armed conflict itself. The colourful elements, with their underlying references to pop culture, cartoons, video games, and American films, bring a touch of humour and a certain lightness to the harsh reality of war.
The Rescue
2023 · Oil on canvas · 120 × 120 cm
Yeah, But You Should See the Other Truck!
2023 · Oil on wood panel · 100 × 73 cm
With their vivid colours, these playful intrusions become subjects in their own right — carving out a space for themselves within the scenes, distorting the solemnity of what they touch. The duality is deliberate: the irony does not mask the tragedy, but rather frames it differently. Sancorlo asks us to consider how innocence survives — or doesn't — in the face of history's playground of real dimensions and tragic consequences.
Jaime Sancorlo (Madrid, 1980) graduated in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid and trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw on an Erasmus scholarship. In mid-2018, after attending a painting workshop by Alejandro Carpintero, he fell in love again with oil painting — a medium whose long drying time, versatility, and capacity for both soft melts and razor-sharp edges continue to define his practice today.