Jeremiah Palecek writes, “Almost from birth, babies are able to identify familiar faces and mimic emotions. The recognition of certain faces arouses our emotions. Disgust, love, lust and fear can all be triggered by looking at a face. And a face is something which I’d like to distinguish from a head. Heads are anatomical and more like medical instruments which hold our psyche. I paint heads in the process of looking and recognizing other people. Muscles, tendons, veins, and nerves intertwined with electrical energy and spirit. These heads aren’t meant to be recognized by you, the viewer, they are looking at you.

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I arrived at portraiture after years of painting video games, television stills, and digital media. From here I began exploring profile pics and facial recognition software, or as it is commonly called, bio-metrics. However, with these portraits I do not wish to duplicate how a computer or robot looks at a face, which is similar to how many artists have approached portraiture in the past. Measuring the distance between nose and mouth, or brow and eyeball. But Instead I strive to illuminate the ghost within the machine which is concerned primarily with recognition and reaction.”

Jeremiah Palecek was born and raised in Bismarck, North Dakota. He studied at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, The Glasgow School of Art, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Upon graduation Jeremiah moved to Prague, Czech Republic where he is now a permanent resident and lives with his wife and daughter. He is currently a Principle Lecturer in the Fine Arts Experimental Media program at Prague College.