While browsing in the men's section of Bloomingdale's downtown, I kept feeling like someone was watching me. I turned around and found myself eye to eye with this odd, bearded sailor fellow. Next to him was another bearded man whose thatch of brown hair was offset by a seasick green visage. They stared me down as I approached. When I got close enough to touch--their eery open-eyed gazes unwavering--I realized that they were, in fact, made out of paper. Lots and lots of paper. I couldn't really comprehend what I was seeing; moreover, I couldn't believe that what I was looking was some seriously AWESOME artwork right there in the basement of Bloomingdale's.
This is the work of Nick Georgiou, a Tucson-based visual artist who is inspired by "the death of the printed word." Nick makes sculpture out of books and newspapers in an attempt to convey our shift towards digital domination. A former New Yorker, Nick also draws inspiration from the surroundings in his new desert Southwest home. His sculptures run the gamut from portraits and still life tableaus to spooked looking animal creatures. It's weirdly wonderful work, subversively genius. You know what's also weird and wonderful? That Bloomingdale's is exposing the masses to such interesting art. Bravo.
