Felipe Pantone

Pantone, also known as Pant1, is renowned for his glitchy abstract patterns which draw from digital culture of past and present. Combining monochrome geometry and pixelated multicoloured neons, the works reference early video games, 80s Synth Pop and noughties Emo and Scene Kid subcultures. This nostalgic retro futurism is central to Pantone’s practice, exploring notions of futurity in a post-internet age. The artist is not only influenced by the internet, but he also uses it as a material. The 2018 online project, Configurable Art, enables the viewer to build their own work. A sidebar holds a selection of Pantone’s designs which the user can drag and drop to create their own unique compositions. By transforming viewers into creators, Pantone destabilises a singular artist-artwork relationship, and instead creates a platform for collaboration powered by technology. By sharing his practice to whom-ever may choose to use the website, the work performs an act of democratisation which calls back to the libertarian and anarchist origins of the internet itself.

Movement is essential to the works. While most of the 2D works are hand-painted, the fuzzy edges and dissolving rainbow hues have a palpable sense of speed. Murals like Chromadynamica for Monterrey (2017) and Ultra-Plasticism (2016) for example, evoke the relentless transience of our phone screens with dizzying clusters of vertical and horizontal stripes recalling the endless downward scroll of a newsfeed, or the left and right swipes of a shameless Friday night Tinder-binge. In an electric study of our ever-changing world, Pantone’s oeuvre is locked in constant motion: a relentless shift between time and technology, monochrome and technicolour.