ALEC NICHOLSON

MICROS (2018)

A certain quality of light is uniquely produced on days where there are no clouds in the sky. I hadn't realized this until one Chicago summer day back in 2018 when I was walking with my camera. I had recently begun abstract painting, and it occurred to me looking at the bright city around me, that millions of tiny abstract paintings exist all around us. It's with the pure sunlight and the rectangular frame of a photograph that I'm able to construct compositions the same way one might construct an abstract painting: through shapes, form, color, and texture. Where abstract paintings are the expressions of the painter's own psyche, the content of these abstractions are the result of human industry's battle with the forces of change. My own psyche is only involved in the choosing of these scenes.