News — Jerome Tiunayan

Jerome Tiunayan’s spirited, narrative-driven paintings bring to life the semi-autobiographical misadventures of his signature character and the boy’s faithful canine sidekick — a Hero’s Journey for our postmodern age. 

The Brooklyn-born, Chicago-based painter, one of 13 artists exhibiting with Vertical Gallery at Aqua Art Miami 2025 (December 3-7), first appeared in our space as part of 2024’s Summer Group Show, and resurfaced at year’s end for our annual Holiday Group Show. Jerome returned this spring for the gallery’s 12-Year Anniversary Show, and in September, he co-headlined ‘The Scenic Route’ opposite Joseph Renda Jr. and Laura Catherwood. Discover what’s next for Jerome in the latest installment of our Artist Spotlight series. 

Vertical Gallery: Tell us about the work you’re exhibiting at Aqua Art Miami 2025.

Jerome Tiunayan: After ‘The Scenic Route,’ I wanted to do something more lighthearted — something where I could experiment, and let loose a little bit. This is my first time showing in Miami, and I wanted to capture the audience’s attention. 

The overall title I’m working with is ‘Main Character Syndrome.’ I’m an only child, and each of these six paintings [depicts] a different scenario that I daydreamed about as a kid to pass the time and have fun — for example, imagining myself as a samurai. 

I made a conscious effort to strip away the environments, because I didn’t want the character doing stuff in the real world. I wanted to see how compelling I could make the work when he’s not doing anything other than sleeping, which is why in one piece he’s drooling, and in another he looks kind of like a cherub. It's all about restraint, and how far I can go with that restraint.

How has growing up an only child impacted your body of work as a whole?

It is everything. I say that not trying to be dramatic about it — I tacked on the title ‘Main Character Syndrome’ because I feel you can’t take yourself too seriously. But I like to think that I was preparing my whole life to be able to do this work, and being an only child has definitely helped that. I have very vivid memories of spending most of the day alone on the floor with my drawing utensils and paper, just locked in. What I do now is a lot more elegant and cleaned up, but it’s the same shit, really. 

Most of my work is autobiographical to a degree, especially the work that I did prior to the paintings I’ve shown at Vertical — the more macabre, black and white shit. I used myself as the model for all of it, not only because it was easier to not have to scour the internet for references, but because I knew what I wanted it to look like, so I could just pose however I wanted it to be.

I like making work that has me in it, because I know what went into it, what it means to me and what I'm trying to say. Being an only child lends itself perfectly to that, because I've had my whole life to just ruminate and sit in my own thoughts and figure things out. It makes approaching the work — this type of work, at least — that much easier. 

Why did you leave behind the “more macabre, black and white shit” in the first place, and why did you decide to incorporate these elements back into your practice?

I moved away from it because it didn't feel authentic to the life that I was living anymore. I started working in that way when I was in college, because I thought it would be fun to confine myself to only working in pen, which translated into ideas in line with this dark, monochromatic sort of look. Eventually I got to a place where it felt less like what I wanted to do and more like what I thought people expected from me, which is a recipe for a slow death. 

At that time, I was super afraid of painting backgrounds. It was always too hard, so I just avoided it. But that got boring after a while, so I decided “I'm just gonna do all backgrounds now. Let's see what happens.” That’s when I started introducing color, to make it as lively and vibrant and as accurate to the real world as possible.

[The black and white imagery] found its way back because it worked perfectly with how vibrant I wanted the Miami pieces to be. I thought “Okay, I can go as crazy as I want with black and white. It won't be visually overwhelming because it's just grayscale, and it'll contrast nicely with the flat colors.” The black and white also allowed me to pull in all the references from old movies. It all just put itself together. 

Is your character maturing in tandem with the maturation of your work? Or is he more in line with a character like Charlie Brown, who’s stuck forever at eight years old?

I don't like the idea of him getting older as I get older. I don't even have a specific age for him. I just like the idea of me figuring out better, different ways of communicating the things I think and the ideas I have as I get older. I want to retain the innocence of a young kid and his dog, you know? I think he’d lose a little bit of that if I was to portray him as a teen. 

How do you hope the Miami audience responds to this body of work?

I hope it resonates with what they daydream about. I also hope It's evident that I put a lot of care into it, and a lot of love and attention into it. 

Really, though, I hope they just feel something, even if they hate it. Obviously, who doesn't want people to love their stuff, or at least like it? But it can be just as useful and just as beneficial for a creator to have somebody not like your stuff, because that says just as much. You can learn a lot. The worst thing is apathy. That’s a dead end.

Don’t miss the opportunity to add work by Jerome Tiunayan (@gohomejerome) to your collection! Email sales@verticalgallery.com to receive our Aqua Art Miami 2025 collector preview. 

Jerome Tiunayan synthesizes personal storytelling, comics-inspired illustration and gallows humor to recast the Hero’s Journey for our postmodern age. His spirited, narrative-driven paintings depict the semi-autobiographical misadventures of his signature character and the boy’s faithful canine sidekick (inspired by Jerome’s dog Mochi) — a radical, career-redefining break from the bleak, inky catharsis of the artist’s previous professional work. 

Jerome (IG: @gohomejerome) first appeared at Vertical Gallery as part of 2024’s Summer Group Show. He resurfaced at year’s end for our annual Holiday Group Show, and most recently appeared at the gallery’s 12-Year Anniversary Show in April 2025. Jerome also joined the Vertical staff part-time in October 2024, soon after relocating from his native Brooklyn.  

From Sept. 5-27, Jerome will co-headline the Vertical group show ‘The Scenic Route’ alongside fellow Chicago-based painters/Vertical teammates Joseph Renda Jr. and Laura Catherwood. In the latest installment of Vertical’s Artist Spotlight series, Jerome previews his contributions to ‘The Scenic Route,’ shares the mindset behind the work and explains why death is only the beginning.

Vertical Gallery: ‘The Scenic Route’ represents your fourth appearance in a Vertical Gallery group show. How is this new work different from what you’ve exhibited here in the past?

Jerome Tiunayan: I don’t know if I would use the word “different.” In my previous work, there was no real throughline: it was just my character and his dog in different places. This time, I wanted a more focused, cohesive story, and I didn’t want to rely on the environment to tell the story. I relied on the character. 

It’s a very deeply personal story. If people want to ask about it, I’m not going to pull any punches — I’ll tell them everything they want to know, and everything that went into it. But I want the work to be enigmatic, and I want to keep it mysterious.

‘The Scenic Route’ pairs you opposite two other Vertical fixtures. Take us behind the scenes — what goes into a group show like this one, especially when you’re working with close colleagues?

One half of me — the one I leaned into most — didn’t want to be the weak link. The more people there are in a group show, the easier it is to get away with shittiness. But with only three people, you’ve really got to be on point, or else the whole show suffers. I’m very aware there’s a hierarchy: Joe and Laura are much further along in their careers, and they’ve achieved much greater success than I have. I respect them a lot, and admire their work ethic. I just wanted to be good enough that my work didn’t take anything away from theirs. 

The other half of me was like “I’m going to smoke these fools” [laughter]. I really want the work to be good, and I want people to come into the gallery and think “Damn, he held his own” or “I like this stuff more than the other stuff.” It’s a balance between wanting to be invisible and make [Joe and Laura] look good, and wanting to separate myself a little bit. 

The last time we saw your character, in April’s 12-Year Anniversary Show, he died. Now here he is back again, the picture of health. What meaning does death have in your world?

It’s a chance to start over. I like that idea. I also like the idea of leaning into cartoon reality, where characters die but reappear in the next episode. Things just keep going. I like that suspension of disbelief. 

I can’t be too precious about where I am, the work I’m making and the story I’m telling, because there’s always room for another one. If a part of me has to die for things to continue or live on, I’ll lean into that. That’s the whole impetus for making this work [with my character]: I had to leave part of me behind to lean into this stuff. 

Your paintings tell a classic boy-and-his-dog story. Why does that narrative trope continue to work after all this time, and across so many different mediums?

Because longing for companionship doesn’t go away. We’re all hardwired for community, and we want to go on adventures with others, instead of just doing things by ourselves. 

Have you ever read Into the Wild [Jon Krakauer’s 1996 non-fiction book about Christopher McCandless’ ill-fated hike across North America into remote Alaska]? Just before he died, Chris McCandless wrote “Happiness is only real when shared.” I never forgot that. He fancied himself this vagabond, but in the end, he wanted someone there with him. People always want someone to lean on, now more than ever.

What’s next for you after ‘The Scenic Route’?  

I’m exhibiting with Vertical at Aqua Art Miami 2025 in December. I’ll have six pieces there. I’m keeping the concept close to the chest, but I’m very excited about it. 

Vertical Gallery, Chicago’s premier urban-contemporary art gallery, is very proud to present ‘The Scenic Route,’ a special group show celebrating the talents of Joseph Renda Jr., Laura Catherwood and Jerome Tiunayan.

‘The Scenic Route,’ on display Sept. 5-27, commemorates Vertical’s steadfast commitment to creativity and camaraderie: Renda, Catherwood and Tiunayan are not only mainstays of the gallery’s programming slate, but all three Chicago painters play significant roles in its day-to-day operations. Renda began assisting visiting artists and supporting show installs in May 2016; Catherwood signed on as gallery manager in January 2021; and Tiunayan joined the team part-time in October 2024, soon after relocating from his native Brooklyn.  

“It is an absolute pleasure having these incredibly talented, trustworthy artists in shows and working with them at the gallery,” says Vertical owner and curator Patrick Hull. “Some galleries would call ‘The Scenic Route’ three solo shows, but we call it what it is — a group show allowing these three to exhibit their strongest work to date.” 

About each artist: 

• Joe Renda juxtaposes realistic images with audacious surrealistic flourishes to illuminate the interconnectedness of all living things. In addition to headlining two solo gallery shows, 2020’s ‘Biophilia’ and 2022’s ‘Larger Than Life,’ he curated Vertical group shows including ‘Water the Plants!’ and both installments of ‘Atomic Number 13.’ 
  
  Renda’s contributions to ‘The Scenic Route’ explore themes of visual perception via arch-shaped panels painted like windows. “There’s a bird in each painting, and the bird represents the story each painting tells,” he says. “There’s a trompe-l'œil aspect to the windows. It feels like you could fall through them.” 
  
  

• Laura Catherwood’s mysterious, often mournful images unpack her inner world, where fauna, flora and the fantastic coalesce. A series of group show appearances predated her 2022 Vertical Gallery solo debut ‘Book of Yielding.’ ‘Hearsay’ followed in late 2023, and six months later, Catherwood returned with ‘All Things Stirring.’ Her contributions to ‘The Scenic Route’ summon energy and inspiration from the golden hour — the interval between sunrise and sunset. 

• Jerome Tiunayan synthesizes personal storytelling, comics-inspired illustration and gallows humor to recast the Hero’s Journey for our postmodern age. Tiunayan first appeared at Vertical as part of 2024’s Summer Group Show, and resurfaced at year’s end for the annual Holiday Group Show. He was most recently featured in the gallery’s 12-Year Anniversary Show. Tiunayan’s contributions to ‘The Scenic Route’ continue the misadventures of his irrepressible signature character and the boy’s trusted canine sidekick. 

Credit Renda for giving ‘The Scenic Route’ its title. “Nature draws the three of us together,” he explains. “We all tell stories we want viewers to stop and look at, and that’s what a scenic route is about — taking the long road to stop and look at things, and experience things.”   

All three artists featured in ‘The Scenic Route’ will be in attendance for Friday, Sept. 5’s opening-night reception, running from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Vertical’s flagship West Town location (2006 W. Chicago Ave. #1R; enter via the alley off Damen Avenue). This December, Vertical will showcase Renda, Catherwood and Tiunayan alongside seven other acclaimed artists at Aqua Art Miami 2025; stay tuned for more details.