About the artwork:
From there, Shake turned to the desert itself as a material. Inspired by the sun-bleached quality of his found objects, he began using the landscape as an open-air darkroom, developing stenciled images on dyed canvases left out in the sun for months. The works exist in a state of slow erosion, stopped at moments Shake considers complete. Their imagery is drawn from roadside advertising- fragmentary slogans, logos, and branding motifs- stripped of original context and reworked into a graphic formalism soaked in warm, luminous dyes. The tension between the verbal associations of the source material and its reduced, glyph-like appearance is central to how the work operates.
About the artist:
Nicolas Shake’s practice is grounded in close observation of his surroundings, capturing fragments of urban life with a heightened sensitivity to light, atmosphere, and time. He is best known for his sunbleached dye works on canvas, created by leaving dyed surfaces exposed to sun and weather for months, allowing the elements to gradually develop and alter the image. Working also in photography, he documents the evolving landscape of Los Angeles through facades, billboards, and signage- fleeting emblems of the city’s visual identity. These instant photographs, marked by color shifts and material imperfections, form an archive of urban transience and underscore the tension between permanence and decay.
Across media, Shake treats light as both destructive and generative, transforming the landscape into an open-air darkroom. Drawing on the sun-bleached remnants of desert materials and the faded optimism of mid-century American mass culture, he revisits utopian imagery to question where its promise unraveled. His work moves between Minimalism, Abstraction, and Conceptualism, grounded in a distinctly Californian sensibility.
Nicolas Shake has presented solo exhibitions at Megan Mulrooney, Los Angeles (2026, forthcoming; 2025); Nino Mier Gallery, Brussels (2024); Galerie Timonier in collaboration with Dylan Brant, New York (2023); Roger’s Office, Los Angeles (2019); Arvia, Los Angeles (2018); Vast Space Projects, Las Vegas (2013); Western Project, Culver City (2013); and Peggy Phelps Gallery, Claremont (2011). Selected group exhibitions include presentations at Galeria Mascota, Mexico City (2023); Brant-Timonier, Palm Beach (2022); Durand Art Associates, Palm Beach (2021); Lamma House, Hong Kong (2021); Maple Street Construct, Los Angeles and Omaha (2020); Gallery Platform, Los Angeles (2020); Serious Topics, Inglewood (2019); Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, Las Vegas (2018, 2017, 2015); The Brand Library and Art Center, Glendale (2018); Noysky Projects, Los Angeles (2017); MOAH, Lancaster (2017, 2014); BBQLA, Los Angeles (2016); CSU Dominguez Hills, Carson (2016); Outside Gallery, Los Angeles (2015); and Cal Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks (2014). He received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2008 and his MFA from Claremont Graduate University in 2011.
