Nicolas Sassoon

Nicolas Sassoon is a Franco-Canadian artist using early computer graphics to create a wide array of pixelated forms & figures, moiré patterns & architectural structures. His work has long been concerned with the tensions between the pixel and the screen, reflecting on their entanglement and materiality by constraining himself to experiment with pixelated patterns and figures as his sole visual language. This focus on early computer graphics is driven by the sculptural, material and pictorial qualities of this imagery, as well as its limitations and its poetics. A basis of Sassoon’s research centres on digital animations created using a moiré patterning technique; consisting in the overlap of two images to generate optical illusions. This body of work often features abstract animations informed by atmospheric and natural forces. The animations appear on screen as endless hypnotic surfaces, similar to all-over paintings or wallpapers in their composition. The optical properties of these works generate tensions and oscillations in the perception of depth and flatness within the space of the screen. Sassoon’s work also manifests in physical space as sculptures, prints, and monumental projections scaled to the architecture in context, generating experiences adjusted to the human body. At large, Sassoon’s practice relates to many histories of abstraction in painting, optical art, moving image and computer graphics.

Nicolas Sassoon currently lives between Montreal, Canada and Biarritz, France. He is a founder of the collaborative projects SIGNALS and WALLPAPERS. His work has been exhibited at The Whitney Museum of American Art (US), Eyebeam (US), Current Museum (US), Vancouver Art Gallery (CA), Plugin ICA (CA), Contemporary Art Gallery (CA), Charles H.Scott Gallery (CA), Western Front (CA), PRETEEN Gallery (MX), Victoria & Albert Museum (UK), the Centre d’Art Bastille (FR), House of Electronic Arts Basel (SW), Kunsthalle Langenthal (SW), Arti et Amicitiae (NL), MU Eindhoven (NL) , Today Art Museum (CN), Chronus art Center (CN), the Berlin Fashion Week (DE) and the New-York Fashion Week (US).