Airplane Mode
Alexandar Nolan
August 21 - October 18, 2025
FEATURED ARTIST
ARTIST STATEMENT
When starting a painting, I usually first have an idea. The idea might come from something funny that pops in my head, a dream, a domestic experience, or it might come from a narrative inspired by a book or movie. I transform the idea into a picture by drawing from my memory and imagination.
Often objects repeat themselves in my work. I use objects as symbols to create a pictorial narrative.
I find humor in humanity and create paintings about people’s relationships to each other, to animals, and to nature. In my paintings, I explore our human basic needs and need nots in life such as food, sex, love, joy, violence, vice, agony, greed, spirituality, and death.
Some of my paintings are painted with monochromatic color and some of my paintings are painted with a full range of color. When I work monochromatically it feels more somber and nostalgic, like old films or photographs. Working monochromatic also relates to drawing in the sense that it is more direct. When I work with color, I am engaged in the painting in a different way. It feels more joyous and is inspired from colors in nature and impressionist painting.
Music has inspired one branch of my painting. In these paintings, I start with abstract color forms that are like a chord progression. I then paint a figuration over the abstract color forms, or “chords.” The figuration is like a melody or improvisation. The colors and shapes from the initial abstract forms integrate into the figuration creating a surprising new pictorial harmony.
The themes and technical approach in my paintings are inspired by masters from western painting (Greek vases, the Italian Renaissance, the Dutch golden age, Poussin, Bruegel, French Impressionism, and modern painting are a few I admire). I use art history as a springboard to create my own pictures that have their own life in our contemporary world.
Preview the Exhibition
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