Nick Peña

SPINNING PLATES - Circular Landscape Abstract Painting w/ Mid-Century Modern

2017

Peña’s works range from painting to multimedia installations that question the ever-changing psychological landscape of America; asking the viewer to re-examine their perceptions of the “American Dream” and the affects that pursuit has on our environment. In "The Buble", Peña takes a more traditional approach to representing a house in the phase of construction with bold and vivid colors and contrasts the image with cut Sintra board slowly pulsating downward from underneath the house. The light blue of the sky contrasts with a deep orange hue for the house. The work is framed with a 1 inch white border. Nick Peña...

In "Holes and Slices", Peña creates a silhouette of house and fills it with bubbly curved shapes and contrasts them with sharpe-edged shapes that contain gradients and muted tones of aqueous colors such as teal and light blue. He balances these colors with muted tones of pink and violet. The viewer can create a house that is yet to be built in between the gaps here. In "Holes and Slices", Peña remarks on a house and landscape that has yet to be built. The aquatic nature seems to hint at the possibility of a house and landscape under water. The painting is created with watercolor and acrylic paint on paper. In the foreground we see Sintra board or flattened PVC that has been CNC routed. In the "soil" beneath the house are small bubble-like cut outs where the viewer can see through to the pattern created with watercolor and acrylic paint. Peña’s works range from painting to multimedia installations that question the ever-changing psychological landscape of America; asking the viewer to re-examine their perceptions of the “American Dream” and the affects that pursuit has on our environment and national psyche. The realization that both the idealistic pursuit of happiness and the relevance of painting in a technologically driven world informs his practice. With each composition the labor begins with digital composites of a fragmented American landscape in peril —where tension lies in the contrasts between past and present, analog and digital, representation and abstraction, and stability and instability. In his most recent series the American home (stability) and fragmented and shifting landscape (instability) are veiled by a digitally produced mat. Traditionally a mat is, by definition, a flat, thin piece of paper based material included within the picture frame and serves as additional decoration when framing artwork. He activates this commonly overlooked material by using a non-traditional material, Sintra (flattened sheet of PVC), that has a negative digitally drawn image cut-out. This cut-out might, at first glance, look hand cut however, a more astute viewer would realize the precision is mechanical. The mat has been transformed from inactive decoration to digitally produced veil that represents the technologically anxious precision we surround ourselves with. Nick Peña...

Peña’s works range from painting to multimedia installations that question the ever-changing psychological landscape of America; asking the viewer to re-examine their perceptions of the “American Dream” and the affects that pursuit has on our environment. In "From the Bottom Up", Peña takes a more traditional approach to representing a landscape with bold and vivid colors and contrasts the image with a more abstracted and chaotic foreground consisting of arrows and cut Sintra board to act simultaneously as an obstruction and window into the image. The work is framed with a 1 inch white border. Nick...

Peña’s works range from painting to multimedia installations that question the ever-changing psychological landscape of America; asking the viewer to re-examine their perceptions of the “American Dream” and the affects that pursuit has on our environment. In "From Sea to Shining Sea" Peña takes a traditional approach to representing a house with modern architecture in what is seemingly the suburbs and contrasts the image with a more abstracted and chaotic foreground consisting of Sintra or PVC. The image is framed with a 1 inch white border. Nick Peña...

Untitled painting/collage 2022 acrylic and painted silkscreen mesh on 140 lb. cold press paper 30x22” unframed blue, green, transparent yellow on bright red irregular texture surface...

Walter Darby Bannard Ammersee #2, 1975 Watercolor and acrylic painting on paper Signed, titled and dated lower recto This is a unique work Frame included: elegantly floated and frame...

Moody Abstract Urban Landscape watercolor/gouache painting on artist paper painting: 12.75 x 9.75 inches provenance: private collection, England condition: very good and sound condit...

This is a minimalist watercolor painting depicting abstracted architectural features (windows & doorway) in red and blue with the landscape and ocean of Rhodes, Greece visible. The watercolor itself measures 9.5"x6.5" and is floated in a double-mat 16.5" x 13" narrow, contemporary wood (maple) frame. Signed, titled, and dated on the back of the watercolor paper. Diego Esposito...