by Robina Riccitiello

Fans of San Francisco’s Dolby Chadwick Gallery have seen some familiar artwork on TV in recent weeks. One of the gallery’s artists have been featured in popular TV show – Billions.

Jaq Chartier’s work showed up in Showtime’s Billions, on the office wall of the hyper-intelligent Taylor Mason. 

For the artists, it’s a fun and unexpected detour from their usual work in the studio.

“I was excited when they picked my work, but was bracing for it to end up on the cutting room floor,” says Chartier, a Seattle-based painter whose experiments with color resemble ethereal DNA strands. “I’m sure they select a range of images so they can edit and see what works best once they’re shooting scenes. A friend of mine was the first to spot my work in the trailer for the upcoming season and sent me a screenshot. Wow, I couldn’t believe how prominent it was. What a thrill!”

The Billions set designers found Chartier through an art consultant, who has put a lot of blue-chip art (think Robert Motherwell and Ellsworth Kelly) in the show. “For this season, they wanted some more contemporary work with the development of Taylor’s character – a younger vibe and more tech-oriented,” Chartier says.

Chartier’s piece in Billions, BG, Blue, PB (w/lots of new formulas) is a digital reproduction, not the original painting.