Lucky coin

Bilik’s coin paintings simultaneously embody and interrogate the meaning and measurement of “value”—economically, aesthetically, personally. A gold coin from the artist’s home country of Argentina shimmers in its painted light, a nostalgic remembrance created by Bilik’s hand, now in New York. These objects have little economic value in today’s globalized economy; in fact, the material investment to make them costs more than each object is worth in our financial systems of exchange, an irony explored by the artist. Here, the coin exists as an aesthetic subject, appreciated for its light and color, its lines and patina. Bilik’s coin paintings consider the objects’ worth threefold: as capital, as a memento, and as an image.

2023

oil on canvas

6in x 6in x 1.5in