Jan Pieter Fokkens

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Chicago-based artist Jan Pieter Fokkens uses his work as a means of processing the incomprehensible. Navigating the relationship between algorithmic abstraction and the tangible qualities of pattern and color, Fokkens meditates on how reality is mediated by digital image. 

Image: Entitled "VFTS682," this vibrant drawing offers a representation of the Wolf-Rayet star VFTS 682, one of the largest and most luminous stars known. Using optical data from the European Southern Observatory, Fokkens extracts the average color of each coordinate, and uses archival markers to represent it as a single line upon the photo paper. The result is a reductionist account of an unimaginable sight. Acrylic on canvas. Unframed.