For these beautiful, dreamlike portraits, artist Nick Criscuolo takes inkjet printouts of existing images, then modifies them to his liking. Water “melts” the ink, new pigments are added, and scratches contrast the bleeding, amorphous pools of color with sharply-defined lines. The highly physical process combined with the emphasis on widely available consumer technology makes for painting that even the most jaded avant-gardist may be able to get behind.
Above are three riffs on a portrait of Charles Darwin, and in the gallery, there are a few of American astronauts as well. See a timelapse of the artist’s process below.
