Optichromie—BUF

Felipe Pantone’s project for Town Ballroom covers the legendary concert venue’s Washington Street façade with the artist’s signature fusion of mesmerizing black-and-white patterns with bold prismatic forms and oversized fluorescent pixels. For the artist, these and similar elements serve as a set of endlessly reconfigurable building blocks that form the basis of his murals, sculptures, and paintings. While this approach to artmaking speaks to the endless cycles of duplication and transformation characteristic of digital art and culture, Pantone takes a long view of technological progress. He sees the computer modeling programs he uses in developing his designs as part of a continuum of image-making innovations alongside the pencil and oil paint of his studio practice and street art creations. From this vantage point, the artist is at heart an optimist about the positive potential of a digital future to make the world a more dynamic and connected place.