NinaJohnson

Working across media, conceptual artist Nicolas Lobo produces sculptures, installations, videos, performances, and works on paper through which he aims to represent the unrepresentable. Radiowaves, social networks, no-fly zones, sound, and cyberspace are among the immaterial elements he has translated into physical forms. He has used wooden rods to sculpt an electromagnetic field and crafted an actual (and subtly disproportionate) bench based on a Google SketchUp virtual bench. By making the unseen visible and the immaterial tangible, Lobo wants to alert viewers to the forces—both positive and destructive—that shape contemporary society. “I hope people feel a certain kind of hate during the first moment they encounter [my work],” he says. “Later if they keep dealing with it I want them to feel like they can’t look at other things the same way anymore.”