Seeing Beyond: Luc Sokolowski on Color, Chance, and Perception

Houston-based painter Luc Sokolowski’s latest exhibition, Tetrachromacy, invites viewers to explore the boundaries of perception through geometric abstraction. On view at the Brazos Gallery of Dallas College Richland Campus from January to February 2025, the show references tetrachromacy — the ability of some species to perceive four dimensions of color — as a metaphor for expanding our understanding of the world. Through the interplay of structured randomness and controlled compositions, Sokolowski crafts a visual language that challenges conventional ways of seeing.

With a background in geographic information science and a deep engagement with traditions of abstract art, Sokolowski integrates elements of chance and precision to create hypothetical spaces on canvas. His work draws from movements such as American Minimalism, Op Art, and concrete art, while also engaging in a broader philosophical dialogue about perception and meaning.

In this interview, we discuss the inspirations behind Tetrachromacy, his approach to randomness in geometric abstraction, and how his academic and artistic journey has shaped his practice. From early explorations of expanded perception in gestural painting to his current investigations into optical illusions and color interaction, Sokolowski’s work is a testament to the evolving nature of abstraction. Join us as we delve into the thought process behind his latest body of work and the broader implications of seeing beyond the familiar.

Sofia Penny (SP): Your exhibition, Tetrachromacy, explores the concept of expanded perception. What initially drew you to this idea, and how did it influence the development of your work?

Luc Sokolowski (LS): The concept of expanded perception has been an interest of mine since art school. I made some of my first abstract paintings, which were calligraphic in the vein of Cy Twombly, by using both hands to paint gesturally on different parts of the canvas at the same time in the hope that I would access some unconscious part of myself. I also scribbled on these paintings made-up words that combined two real words in order to make connections between ideas and maybe arrive at some insight about reality. In these early approaches to painting, I understood the concept of expanded perception as a kind of seeing more deeply into the nature of things. In the context of my current geometric abstract work, the concept is more about seeing things in many different ways for many different purposes. So the paintings in my exhibition, Tetrachromacy, are investigations into how we might see beyond the horizons of our familiar paradigms in order to achieve our goals, whatever they may be. 

SP: Can you walk us through your process of creating these geometric abstractions? How do you balance randomness with intentionality in your compositions to arrive at these hypothetical spaces? I would love to hear more about these hypothetical spaces and the environments you are building on the canvas.

LS: I like the idea of combining the element of chance with the seeming necessity of mathematical shapes to create hypothetical spaces, spaces that can only exist within the context of the image. The paintings in my exhibition, Tetrachromacy, tell the story of how I ended up incorporating randomness in my work. I feel my use of randomness developed naturally. One day when I was trying to decide which direction a particular painting’s design should go, I became frustrated that there were too many options to consider. Then it hit me that any possible arrangement would work. This experience was a kind of paradigm shift for me. I realized that I could have a flexible hard-edge style by intentionally being open to contingency. So in my most recent work, I devise algorithms that leave certain decisions up to chance. Randomly generated odd and even numbers determine whether a line goes up or down or whether a color is dark or light. As a result, my paintings have become a way to visualize randomness or to map chance, which relates to my career in geographic information science. In my ‘Randomodular’ series, I overlay randomized diagonal lines and colors on top of a checkerboard grid to give some sense of the geography of chaos. Geometric shapes of various dimensions appear out of the static, and yet the image could always have been otherwise, just as our perspectives could be different. 

SP: Your approach to randomness is fascinating, especially in the way it intersects with your background in geographic information science. Do you see your work as a kind of mapping—perhaps not just of chance, but also of perception or experience? How do you see the metaphor of tetrachromacy translating into broader themes of perception and understanding in today’s world?

LS: The issues of perception and understanding are indeed being addressed these days by various disciplines, including philosophy and neuroscience, which I like to read about. I think I am exploring in an aesthetic way what these fields investigate analytically, such as paradigm shifts and gestalt switches. For example, ambiguous figure-ground relationships can lead to an experience of a gestalt switch. A key aspect of my geometric paintings is the complication of figure-ground relationships, and especially the painting’s feeling of flatness or depth, through illusions of transparency, light, and shadow caused by particular color interactions. I have found that all I need are four different shades of colors to achieve these effects, so that is where the idea of tetrachromacy came in for the exhibition. Humans are generally trichromatic whereas many other animal species can see four dimensions of color. Like the concepts of paradigm shift and gestalt switch, I am using the concept of tetrachromacy as a metaphor for the possibility of considering more perspectives about the world.

SP: You mention using information science in your approach to painting. Could you elaborate on how this discipline informs your creative process? And, what led you to adopt the constraints of your four-color palette? 

LS: Yes, geographic information science has been very influential on my art practice. Years of drawing polygons on the computer to depict land parcels and making maps for business purposes gave me an appreciation for the use of geometric forms to communicate ideas with clarity and precision. So over time, my painting style has evolved from the expressionism of my college days to a non-objectivism that has a topographical vibe. As for my four-color palette, I first noticed this formula in some of Max Bill’s mathematically derived paintings, and I also noticed that sometimes Bill’s colors would produce optical effects such as the illusion of transparency. These effects reminded me of the work of Josef Albers, in which the interaction between colors can give a sense of light and space. Albers also made art using just four colors, and I can see why. This approach offers a myriad of possibilities, and like Donald Judd, I want to make art that can develop and grow. By using a tetradic color system, I can easily mix and match a variety of color schemes with multiple geometric designs.

SP: Your work is in dialogue with movements like American Minimalism, Op Art, and concrete art. What aspects of these traditions resonate most with you, and how do you reinterpret them in your own way? Are there any specific artists or works that have been particularly influential in shaping your approach to abstraction? 

LS: Yes, my artistic journey led me to build on the accomplishments of these traditions of abstraction, in particular Donald Judd’s seriality, the optical investigations of Josef Albers, and the mathematics of Max Bill, which I previously mentioned. Their works’ logic and order attracted me during a very stressful and uncertain time in my life. Working with their rational ideas gave me solace and stability, and yet I want to engage critically with the solutions they offer because from my experience life is not as clear-cut as their art suggests. For instance, my work is an ambivalent response to the tendency of a lot of Western abstraction to eliminate depth in the name of the purity of the medium. In fact, I like the irony of using flat areas of color to create the illusion of pictorial space. I even consider the technique of optical transparency to be one of geometric abstraction’s loopholes. One can’t just randomly put colored shapes next to each other and expect formal pictorial flatness to be preserved, as we can see in Ellsworth Kelly’s grid paintings in which the colors were arranged by chance. Eventually color will do what it wants to do, and I believe one of those things is to suggest depth. As for randomness itself, I think it was on my radar because, for a long time, I’ve admired the nearly limitless permutations of Lygia Clark’s Bichos. Clark invites the audience to physically manipulate these objects into various orientations, so there’s a level of undecidability regarding their form, and I consider my work as also open to change as if my paintings are just different versions of one concept. Plus, around the time of my paradigm shift, which I described earlier, I had seen a show of Anni Albers’ work of patterns that seem random but are not, as far as I understand, but I didn’t make the connection with my art until months after my experience. So I imagine that Anni Albers’ prints of grids of diagonally bisected squares, for instance, must have made an impression on my unconscious because my ‘Randomodular’ series seems obviously related to them, in hindsight. I think it is fitting that this influence from Albers emerged unintentionally, that is, randomly in the flow of life. 

SP: I enjoy this idea of a loophole within geometric abstraction in order to balance form with depth. How has your academic training, particularly your M.A. in Aesthetic Studies and M.F.A. in Studio Painting, shaped your approach to making and thinking about art?

LS: I still think back to lessons I learned in art school. In particular, I keep in mind the emphasis my professors put on making art that is relevant to contemporary culture. For me, this means not only being a mirror reflecting back the frameworks of the current moment, which is important if I want to make art that is meaningful to people today. It also means pushing boundaries and inventing new vocabularies because times change, and the idea of the future is as interesting to me as the present. Another great lesson was one professor’s comment that the meaning should emerge out of the art rather than the other way around. So most of the stuff I’ve been saying about my work really came to me after the fact, rather than as a deliberate plan. I didn’t set out to make hard-edge geometric abstraction. I just followed my muse one step at a time, and sometimes two steps back, to arrive at where I am today. I’m excited about where my work will go from here because it is a bit of a mystery even to me. 

SP: I love this idea of letting the art inform you, and not the other way around. Have audience reactions to your work ever surprised you or shifted your perspective on what you create?

LS: Someone once told me that my geometric art looks like ‘controlled chaos’, and I am often told that my color choices are unusual. I appreciate both of these responses. Although geometric art can seem cool and calculated, my work is actually the product of an anxious and circuitous endeavor to understand the world and my place in it, so it is not surprising to me that my paintings sometimes appear all too human. What does surprise me is when people tell me that they find motivation and encouragement in my work. It feels good to hear that a painting of mine has improved someone’s mood. But as validating as this is, I try not to be too affected by audience reactions to my work because I am an artist out of personal necessity, because particular ideas come to me that I need to explore and express for myself more than for others. 

SP: If there is one message or idea you hope visitors take away from Tetrachromacy, what would it be? And, where can audiences follow your work and stay updated on future projects?

LS: Instead of wanting visitors to understand a particular idea or receive a specific message about the way I see the world, I hope that in viewing my art, in which I play with concepts and experiment with colors, they are inspired to play with concepts on their own and experiment with how the world appears to them. Maybe their own paradigm shift is right around the corner. People can follow my work on Instagram and on my website, lucsokolowskiart.com. Thank you very much for the opportunity to share my thoughts and feelings about my art. 

 

Tetrachromacy is on view at Dallas College’s Brazos Gallery through February 28th. On February 12, from 12-2 pm, the Brazos Gallery (Room C140) welcomes Luc Sokolowski for a special reception celebrating his latest work.