Jeff Gillette examines the aesthetic structures and visual patterns of human settlement, specifically that of shantytown style slums in India and South America. To the artist, there is something ineffable behind the obviously chaotic and desperate appearance of these places — a universality of human spirit and a strange beauty which comes out of the necessity and raw honesty of the will to survive.

Jeff Gillette’s Art History Shacks explore a post-apocalyptic, worst case future scenario where some of contemporary western culture’s most important artists’ works have degenerated into the trash in a landfill and the architectural building materials of a typical third-world shanty.

Accompanying the paintings are a series of unique “iLandfill” prints showcasing popular culture’s most iconic cartoon characters in an endless e-waste landfill.

Image: Jeff Gillette, Art History Shack (Johns), Spray paint, acrylic and collage on canvas, 24 x 24”, 2023