May 6th, 2025
In this music-heavy show, painter Nick Irzyk brings a banging mixtape ranging from anarcho-punk to Finnish black metal to country.
We discuss his journey from the hardcore and skateboarding scene to zine-making, eventually leading to printmaking in college.
His paintings incorporate diagrammatic abstractions that resemble architectural blueprints or speculative spaces. The grid is a key structural tool, breaking forms into individual "cells" akin to a mirror ball or wireframe model—machines that hint at function but never fully activate.
There is a tension between clarity and ambiguity: in form versus space, scale, and references to industrial or institutional interiors like cockpits and nuclear reactors. These sometimes oppressive spatial compositions, force the viewer into tight confrontations with looming structures.
Underlying much of the work is a meditation on power—its potential energy, withheld force, and the emotional charge that creates a sense of terror through restraint and latent movement.
Complete playlist below; tracks in yellow were cut for time.
- Her Friends the Wolves, Coil, 1992
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Rauch-Haus Song, Ton Steine Scherben, 1972
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Hand of Doomish, Vincebus Eruptum, 2008
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Good Lovin’ Outside, BBC Version, Animal Collective, 2004
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This Ol’Cowboy, Marshall Tucker Band, 1974
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My Head is My Only House Unless It Rains, Captain Beefheart, 1972
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Samurai, Alan Vega, 2021
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Spirit of the God of Fire, Beherit, 2007
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Wrath of Zeus (Original Mix), The Eternals, 2000
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GeekUSA LateNiteTip, Gobby, c. 2012
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I Lied When I Said I Liked Your Zine, Charles Bronson, c. 1994-7
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Speed of Greed? Crass, 1983
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A Cowboy Overflow of the Heart, The Avalances & David Berman, c. 2012
- Spinebender, Godflesh, 1988
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Haunted & Nervous, Sizzla, 1996
- Flowers, Chug, 1992
- Some Came Running, Bane, 2001
- The Knife Song, Milk
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Free, Chakra, 1981
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1471, Babyfather, 2022
- To Hold You, Minimal Man, 1985
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Quin Boys II, Jandek
- Just Your Love, The Antennas
Nick Irzyk was born in 1988 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He received his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2014. Select exhibitions include: Jack Barrett, New York (solo), Martos Gallery, New York (solo); Fall River MoCA, Fall River; KDR, Miami (solo); Nexx Asia, Taipei, TW; PMAM, London, UK (solo); Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ; My Pet Ram, New York; Ruschman, Chicago, IL; Afternoon Projects, Vancouver, Canada; Syracuse University, NY (solo); Critical Path Method, New York/Baltimore (solo); No Place Gallery, Columbus, OH; The Pit, Glendale, CA; 247365, New York, NY; and 106 Green, Brooklyn, NY (solo), among others. He was a Keyholder Resident at the Lower East Side Printshop, New York, NY, in 2019-2020. He has co-run A.D.NYC in the lower Manhattan since 2019. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.