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Across the Surface

What do bands and repeated marks hold together?

24 works · 5 chapters · AI curator · Owned subset

Chapter 1 of 5 · 3 works

Grid Against Face

Three works open the gallery by placing a recognizable head inside or against a system of repeated marks, where face and pattern compete for the same space.

NNOTB #229 by nnxyz

NNOTB #229

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

A yellow oval grid maps the face like a mesh, flattening and exposing it simultaneously; the face is present but held inside a pattern.

NNOTB #291 by nnxyz

NNOTB #291

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

A three-quarter head on warm brown, its interior packed with zigzag bands and looping zones that replace anatomy with competing mark systems.

NNOTB #164 by nnxyz

NNOTB #164

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

A frontal rectangular head on cyan, its spiral eyes and grid of yellow blocks pulling against free-running colored lines that ignore the structure entirely.

Where the grid in the first work sits over the face as a transparent layer, here the marks have moved inside the head, filling it from within.

The three-quarter profile gives way to a blunt frontal rectangle; internal marks shift from organic loops to a hard yellow grid competing with loose scatter.

Chapter 2 of 5 · 5 works

Frontal Forms, Stacked Zones

These works build confrontational frontal structures from horizontal bands and stacked rectangular zones, where pattern takes on the density of architecture.

NNOTB #157 by nnxyz

NNOTB #157

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

Stacked horizontal zones carry zigzag rows, rounded bumps, and spiral discs; the symmetry reads as confrontational, the marginal lines as restless noise around a blunt signal.

The rectangular head dissolves into pure zone-stacking — no face survives, only the stacked band logic carried to its limit.

NNOTB #72 by nnxyz

NNOTB #72

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

A flat-fronted form framed by gold border stripes and a magenta-black banded header; scattered yellow circles ring the whole, holding a patterned center in loose enclosure.

NNOTB #216 by nnxyz

NNOTB #216

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

A circular form whose rectangular band of subdivided cells reads as teeth or keyboard; stacked mechanical panels suggest a face without confirming one.

The purple field and tight symmetry give way to a gold-bordered form whose enclosing circles feel festive rather than confrontational.

The scattered circles at the edges become a single dominant circular form here, and the banded zones tighten into something more mechanical and ambiguous.

NNOTB #273 by nnxyz

NNOTB #273

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

An assembled stacked form on a wheeled base, every zone packed with saw-tooth and zigzag lines; the thin blue wheels ground the visual noise with an odd stillness.

NNOTB #187 by nnxyz

NNOTB #187

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

A machine-like central mass on magenta, bordered by coiled shapes; repeated spiral eye motifs create a watchful rhythm against yellow zigzag bands locking the lower section.

The circular form gains a body and a base — the stacked zone logic extends downward into something that reads as a constructed object.

The wheeled form is replaced by a denser, borderless mass; zigzag bands migrate to the lower half and the wheeled base becomes a coiled, unwinding edge.

Chapter 3 of 5 · 5 works

Marks Without a Figure

Here the figure recedes or disappears entirely. Bands, grids, and crossing lines take over the full surface, and the question becomes whether any structure holds.

NNOTB #37 by nnxyz

NNOTB #37

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

An irregular black grid holds warm yellows and burnt reds; white gaps open between strokes, giving the surface a feeling of pressure and release in roughly equal measure.

After the magenta figure-field, the figure drops away entirely; what remains is the grid itself, now the sole subject.

NNOTB #41 by nnxyz

NNOTB #41

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

Rectangular outlines in yellow, magenta, and purple spread across black without locking into a stable grid; a wound central zone and a narrow column suggest containment that keeps slipping.

NNOTB #11 by nnxyz

NNOTB #11

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

Amber fills every corner; white cross-shapes surface and sink across a field of vertical and horizontal marks that never resolve into a scene.

The warm grid gives way to a cooler black ground; the grid loosens further, its corners open, containment becoming a question rather than a fact.

The black ground flips to saturated amber; rectangular outlines dissolve into individual crossing marks, and structure becomes intermittent.

NNOTB #205 by nnxyz

NNOTB #205

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

Yellow outline-rectangles stack and overlap like misaligned frames; a red horizontal band cuts across the middle while surrounding loops push toward overflow.

NNOTB #154 by nnxyz

NNOTB #154

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

Yellow presses outward while a black mass anchors center-right; a red-outlined box packed with crossing lines reads as something sealed off from the looser activity around it.

Scattered marks begin to cohere into stacked frames here, but the frames never align — accumulation on the edge of overflow rather than resolution.

Stacked frames give way to a two-force composition — warm field versus dark mass — with one sealed zone of dense crossing lines holding its own against the pressure.

Chapter 4 of 5 · 4 works

Borders, Rings, and Enclosures

Four works use borders, rings, and enclosing lines as their primary device — the mark that travels around a form rather than across it.

NNOTB #4 by nnxyz

NNOTB #4

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

A wavy border of alternating colored lines frames the whole composition; two ring forms pull toward opposite corners while magenta X-shapes and yellow bands break apart between them.

The internal sealed box becomes an external frame here; the enclosing line moves to the perimeter and the interior fills with competing marks.

NNOTB #175 by nnxyz

NNOTB #175

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

A circular mass on sky-blue, its border repeating magenta dot-flowers and zigzag bands; a single eye anchors the left while spoke-wheels pull attention right, giving watchful imbalance.

NNOTB #174 by nnxyz

NNOTB #174

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

A rounded form on teal, red rectangles tightening toward a white core; a row of white rectangles at the bottom anchors the structure with a blunt horizontal pause.

The rectangular wavy border becomes a circular one here; the interior gains a single eye, reintroducing the figure the previous works had set aside.

The festive circular border gives way to a compressed teal mass; the dot-flower ring is replaced by inward-tightening rectangles, and the mood shifts from watchful to dense.

NNOTB #8 by nnxyz

NNOTB #8

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

A looping white outline corrals organic color masses — rust, purple, olive, dark teal — while grey hatching outside the boundary reads as noise held back by that single channel.

Multiple competing outlines collapse into one looping white channel here — the enclosing line reduced to its most essential form against a field of grey scribble.

Chapter 5 of 5 · 7 works

Rhythm and Interruption

The final group tests what happens when bands meet open space or when a repeating mark is cut short, leaving the surface question unresolved.

NNOTB #141 by nnxyz

NNOTB #141

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

A white zigzag and yellow waves slice the middle; two distinct zones above give way to scattered ovals below — high charge meeting sudden open space.

The continuous outline gives way to a horizontal cut; the enclosing logic breaks open and the surface splits into distinct above-and-below zones.

NNOTB #215 by nnxyz

NNOTB #215

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

Black ground packed with layered yellow, red, and blue zones; spirals recur at all four corners while a magenta stepped form drops through the lower center as a hinge.

NNOTB #105 by nnxyz

NNOTB #105

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

Two matching corner forms face each other across competing line types — tight zigzags, open loops, stacked rectangles — that never settle into a single rhythm.

The horizontal split becomes a vertical drop here; the stepped magenta form replaces the zigzag cut as the image's organizing interruption.

Four-corner spirals become two mirrored forms at two corners; the internal field between them is now the site of unresolved competition.

NNOTB #124 by nnxyz

NNOTB #124

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

Two mismatched eye-forms anchor a frontal figure against amber; beaded blue columns contain the edges while a lower lattice of triangles and hatching reads as armored.

NNOTB #232 by nnxyz

NNOTB #232

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

Horizontal golden bands fill the plane; descending rust discs slow the sweep while a row of blunt yellow bars at the bottom introduces a different, percussive rhythm.

Abstract corner forms become recognizable eyes here, returning the figure to the surface; the competing line types below consolidate into a structured lower body.

The frontal figure dissolves back into pure banding; the face is gone and only the horizontal mark remains, now the whole subject.

NNOTB #150 by nnxyz

NNOTB #150

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

Competing zones — dark arch above, zigzag band across the middle, scattered color patches below — resist settling; no single zone holds the eye.

NNOTB #81 by nnxyz

NNOTB #81

nnxyz

View & watch drawing

A boxy central structure of crossed circles and sawtooth borders sits in a field of restless scribbled marks; the warm gold ground holds everything loosely without resolving it.

The calm horizontal sweep breaks apart into three zones that refuse to unify, returning the gallery's opening tension between structure and scatter.

Three competing zones compress into a single central structure here, but the surrounding scatter refuses to become background — the tension remains unresolved to the end.

One more look

Choose one repeated unit and follow it across an image. Where does a change in its shape, spacing or color redirect your attention?