Chicago – the city, its colors, shapes and sounds – shaped young Nick Paciorek’s world and brought him where he is today: a renowned artist whose work is seen from coast to coast.

At age five when other kids were enthralled with the Major League baseball being played at Wrigley Field, Paciorek was awed by the colors and the brightness – in the field, the bleachers, the people.

As a teenager, Paciorek spent countless hours at art exhibits. He continually returned to his favorite, an Impressionism collection at a museum in downtown Chicago, impacted by the ability of an artist to control the world on canvas simply through color choice. It was then that Matisse became Paciorek’s central influence.

As an artist, Paciorek aligns himself with a new generation of Fauvists. He uses broad strokes of brilliant color for their emotional impact.

Each of his pieces is a celebration of light and color, a vivid interpretation of his subjects. For him, choosing the exact combination of hues for each painting is foremost.

Large cities with active skylines, busy streets and hard edges are one of Paciorek’s favorite subjects. He’s influenced by the relationship of one building to another and the immediacy of light hitting a building in a certain way. He finds that a particular street may represent the entire mood of a city.

Originally from Chicago, Paciorek’s education brought him to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. He now maintains a studio in Providence