Pictogram Paintings

Michael Ziga’s recent series Pictogram Paintings extracts advertising iconography from cities around the world ( New York, Paris, Tokyo, Istanbul, Lisbon, and Athens ) to create a syntax of graphic signs, subverting their original messages by recomposing the designs in opposition. Pictograms are the foundation of written language, generating meaning without words to provoke our subconscious emotions. These works find new narratives within branding by placing pictures in violation of their intended reading to reveal the syntactics of vectorized messaging.

The paintings implement digital inkjet printing combined with traditional painting techniques, weaving intricate layers of stenciled paint on the printed canvas, contrasting thickly painted graphics with soft digital brushstrokes. This apartment exhibition experiments with presentation external to the accepted hierarchy of the walled garden art world by mingling art and life, proposing a different focus and an intimacy in the presentation.