Nick Albertson: One Hundred Count

Nick Albertson: One Hundred Count

Nick Albertson’s work draws focus on the mass-produced objects that occupy the corners of our daily lives. Working with single-use materials, Albertson produces photographs that borrow from the language of abstraction. Straws, napkins, rubber bands, and other items—often consigned to the edges of our desks or the depths of our kitchen drawers—are repurposed and foregrounded in his large-scale images.     

“In my work, I strip utilitarian objects of their functions, repurposing them to create visceral experiences,” Albertson explains. His photographs flicker between the objects they depict and the dizzying tessellations they create. At first glance, the images are defined by a multiplicity of reoccurring geometric forms, where color and shape disorient and mesmerize. On closer inspection, the clarity afforded by the artist’s large-format camera reveals the identity of the materials in use, asking us to reconsider the aesthetic potential of objects that often fade into the background of everyday life.

Nick Albertson is a Chicago-based artist and photographer. Originally from Boston, Albertson earned his BA in photography from Bard College in 2006, and his MFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago in 2013. His work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Pingyao International Photography Festival, the Center for Creative Photography at Woodstock, NY; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; and Photographic Center Northwest in Seattle, WA. Albertson’s work has been featured by a number of publications including PDN, Urbanautica, Hyperallergic, and the Huffington Post.

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