COLLECTIONS

METANARRATIVES

Metanarrative is a mixed-media painting series by Jônatas Chimen that investigates the structures and fluidity of storytelling itself. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, the works draw from the artist’s ongoing studio practice and written essays, recontextualizing recurring motifs through an experimental and process-driven approach. Each composition begins as a monotype on paper, pressed from etched copper plates, then collaged onto canvas in an intentionally unscripted, aleatory manner. The resulting visual narratives are open-ended and deliberately ambiguous, referencing folklore, allegory, and myth not as fixed accounts but as evolving frameworks for meaning-making. Through the layered movement from plate to paper to canvas, Chimen emphasizes the shifting nature of identity and the constructed nature of personal and collective histories. By drawing attention to both technique and subject, Metanarrative reflects on storytelling as an act of invention—one that shapes how individuals and cultures understand themselves through layers of truth, imagination, and memory.