Nicholas Sistler

Gallery Affiliations: Packer Schopf Gallery

Region: Midwest

I am interestd in the irony of creating a deep space and/or a monumental scale within a very small area. This paradox of a diminutive realm encourages the viewer to leave the everyday world behind.

The figurative image illustrate power and relationships within the world of particular painting. To keep the diminutive scenes open for the viewer to "enter," the figures don't occupy the space, but appear in pictures on the walls, floors, or tabletops. These images of figures are in dialogue with the domestic interiors they inhabit, each adding to the story of the other.

A power relationsihp also exists between the viewer and my paintings. The brillant color and intricate detail seduces, and invites intimacy with the painting. The size relationship between the viewer's bodyand the small scale of the painting allows the viewer physical dominance over the paintings as an object, while a low perspective contradicts this supremacy, persuading the viewer to be submissive to the image. The physcal/psychological tension is an additional irony; the heart of what holds the viewer's attention, questioning the viewer's power and his or her very physicality.