Nick Smith’s compositions rest comfortably between abstraction and figuration, appearing from afar to be pixelated versions of famous paintings from Western art history. Each is a collage of hundreds of paint swatches Smith has assembled to form images of iconic paintings. Smith began reconstructing paintings in 2014, when he recreate Andy Warhol’s portrait of Marilyn Monroe. While best known for his replicas of museum masterpieces, Smith also uses colour chips to reproduce movie posters, nude portraits, and still lives of condiments. He also incorporates text into his pieces by replacing paint names on swatches with evocative words, adding a narrative layer to the work.
Roy Lichtenstein
