Felipe Pantone worked with Albright-Knox Gallery's Public Art Initiative for his newest work, Optichromie, at the Town Ballroom in Buffalo, New York, and the façade of the legendary concert venue is covered with the artist's signature fusion. Black-and-white patterns, bold prismatic forms and oversized fluorescent pixels, provide the familiar elements that serve as a set of endlessly reconfigurable building blocks that form the basis of his murals, sculptures, and paintings.

While this approach to art-making speaks to the endless cycle of duplication and the transformative characteristics of digital art and culture, Pantone takes a long view of technological progress. He views the computer-modeling programs, which he uses to develop his designs, as part of a larger continuum of image-making innovations that, alongside the pencil and oil-painting, comprise his studio practices and street art creations. From this vantage point, the artist is an optimist who positively views a digital future that could potentially make the world a more dynamic and connected place.

When he was twelve-years-old, Pantone began illicitly painting on the streets in his hometown of Valencia, Spain. After experimenting with numerous graffiti styles as a teenager and young adult, he found himself drawn to the 'Op and Kinetic' art of the 1960s. Pantone was especially inspired by the work of Carlos Cruz-Diez, Julio Le Parc, Luis Tomasello, and Victor Vasarely. Although he generally creates his work in a dedicated studio space, Pantone continues finding himself fascinated by the unique energy of the street and the challenge of working in public.

The Albright-Knox's Public Art Initiative aims to enhance a shared sense of place and cultural identity in the urban and suburban landscapes of Western New York. The goal of the Initiative is to create spaces of dialogue where diverse communities can socially engage, actively respond, and cooperatively produce great public art that is capable of empowering individuals, creating stronger neighborhoods, and establishing Western New York as a critical cultural center.

The AK Public Art Initiative engages the diversity of the region's artistic energies by integrating a wide range of artwork into accessible spaces that allow for public interaction with local artists, who work in varied forms of media, from traditional to forward-thinking interactions, sculpture to performance, and the permanent to the ephemeral.