Untitled (Nightscape)

Portlock blends the historical romanticism of landscape painting with the social and material conditions of modern cities. This body of work uses 3-D gaming technology to simulate real and imagined spaces based on the abandoned factories and foreclosed buildings within biking distance of his Philadelphia home. In Untitled (Nightscape), a hazy setting sun casts an orange glow across an apocalyptic-looking scene. Bags of trash spill into the city’s sparsely populated streets and rubble and debris litter the sidewalks. Despite the apparent destruction and abandonment, red and yellow flowers grow in an empty lot.

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