BIOGRAPHY

Applying technological interferences to an intuitive practice, Nik Shanlin explores the painterly effects inherent in digitization and virtual structures. His compositions take form through mechanic and organic image manipulation of computer scripting languages. Interweaving a deterministic and randomized set of operations, Shanlin uses his canvases to visualize algorithm aesthetics—utilizing code as a medium and vehicle for creation, like painting.

Expanding the historical context of painting—from the earliest manifestations of optics, geometry, and perspective to the calculated and conceptual mathematics of the Cubists, Futurists, and Dadaists—Shanlin analyzes space and form in a post-internet context. Perpendiculars immaculately extend into another dimension. Mapped data, image processing, and the artist’s hand conform into one multifaceted perspective of seamless convergence. In many ways his work’s subject matter is the computer’s language—a world commanded and transformed by digital and virtual technologies. Utilizing the machine’s set functions as a tool for articulation, Shanlin captures an endlessly complex and ever changing network of realities and fiction—a topology of interchangeable states set in strategic tonal nuance.

 EXHIBITIONS / PROJECTS

2021         Commission | Century Plaza Hotel, Beverly Hills CA

2017         Commission | Waldorf Astoria, Beverly Hills CA

2016         Ephemeral, Mondrian Hotel,  Los Angeles CA

2016         The Fort | Converse SXSW, Austin TX

2015         Alchemy, Soze Gallery, Los Angeles CA

2015         RH Modern - curated by Elise Van Middelem, Los Angeles CA