As if seeing Picasso’s exhibition wasn’t enough, my experience at the Pace gallery was taken to a whole new level as I walked up the spiral staircase to the second floor. What I saw immediately intrigued me to explore the pixelated art of Chuck Close. From a distance, the portraits looked like snapshots taken by a digital camera. As I got closer, I realized it was a trick of perception – The images were comprised of mini thumbprint-like paint spots. To make it even more interesting, the spots each had different patterns and colors within them. The grid-like spots made me wonder how the artist plotted the points so perfectly to make the portraits come to life. As I researched the artist, I found it even more incredible that although Close was paralyzed, he continued to paint by using a brush holding device strapped to his wrist and forearm. His punch-card painting technique is inventive and makes his the works enjoyable to study.

The paintings were captivating – each individual square was an art form in itself made of concentric circles and squares. Each of these broken brush strokes were vibrant colors that made intricate designs. The pixels were a psychedelic abstraction. Hundreds of these segments were indiscernible at close range, but made up precise portraits from afar. Examining the art from different angles and distances was like a game of perception – the small pixels were greatly contrasted by the image of a human face visible when taking a few steps back.

The illusion that each individual thumbprint is connected hints at the idea that everything is not always what it seems. If you think you know something, taking a closer look may give you a completely different idea than the one you started with. In this sense, viewing Close’s art made me more attentive as my experience of the art changed just by taking a few steps closer.