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My works – images of ruins, architectonic landscapes, and dreamlike places where the ancient meets the modern, all frequently populated by pairs of curious, sensuous figures – are fanciful distortions of the real; they are sense impressions degraded and puzzled by memory’s lapsing nature. I think about these paintings as eídola (εἴδωλα), an Ancient Greek word in the nominative plural which can have many meanings: in Homer or Herodotus, a phantom, a likeness; in Aeschylus, any unsubstantial form; In Plato, an image reflected in a mirror or on the face of water; In Xenophon, an image in the mind, an idea; in Epicurean Atomism, a film given off by any object to convey an impression to the eye. My work is about capturing things not as they truly are, but as they are impressed on me in the mind, and in turn, as they are reconstituted and eroded through dream, and afterthought.

A.T.Fickel

April, 2023

Note: I am extremely grateful to the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation for awarding to me my first Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant on July 6th, 2022. Their generosity and support is truly remarkable, and I will be forever thankful

-A.T. Fickel July 8th, 2022

Solo Exhibitions:

2021 – Shining in Dreams, the Memories Pass, The Cooper Union, 7 E 7th St, New York, NY