It takes a special eye to see beauty in the ordinary, especially when the ordinary is made up of dirty coffee cups, late nights in front of the computer screen, and endless piles of paperwork. In a style reminiscent of Kid Pix graphs, Ukraine-based artist Oleksiy Say seeks to find an escape from what he calls the "horror of the office." As someone who admits he was completely computer illiterate before working in the advertising industry for over a decade, the contemporary artist creates a new genre of ‘data pointillism’ with his Excel Art digital prints.Say's art reflects the drone of cubicle work life by using the same software that it feeds on–Microsoft Excel. Instead of creating budget sheets, time logs and TPS reports, Say reinterprets the potential of the utilitarian program by designing flowers, landscapes, and portraits, flipping the functional nature of the program into a creative one. His images depict glimpses of 9-to-5 life—whether it's a sacred smoke break or a headache-inducing morning commute.Some images explicitly show scenes from the office world, like in his piece, "Fired," a suited man sporting a wedding ring looks back at his colleagues as he holds a box of books and a coffee mug. Others illustrate more abstract—and universal—experiences, like the fizz of aspirin in a glass of water. With a closer look, the pictures are composed of colored cells filled with random data. Say’s perspective definitely wanders beyond the office corner window.
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