Music has always been the thread connecting Nicole Askari’s creative life, immersed in listening, collecting, studying, and sharing music across genres. And certain albums become more than soundtracks – they define moments in people’s lives, influence generations of artists, and leave a visual imprint as powerful as the music itself. Nicole’s work explores that intersection.

Nicole’s artistic practice is informed by more than 20 years as an award-winning designer and creative director. Beginning with studies in interior design and architecture before moving into graphic design, she developed a deep appreciation for proportion, color, rhythm, composition, and materiality. Alongside design, she has drawn continual inspiration from fashion, architecture, modernism, and the visual language of everyday objects. Together, these influences have shaped a practice rooted in structure while leaving room for expression.

Each collection begins with a body of music that has profoundly influenced both Nicole’s own life and the broader cultural landscape. Working primarily in sheetrock, she builds richly tactile surfaces through impasto and bas-relief techniques, creating compositions that invite shifting light, shadow, and perspective. Modernist principles, including Bauhaus design, influence her work, while organic forms show the spontaneity of the music that inspired it.

Nicole’s hope is that her creations offer viewers an experience similar to discovering a favorite record.

Stereolab’s 1997 album Dots and Loops

It opened my ears to the idea that rock, electronic music, jazz, pop, and experimental sounds didn’t have to exist separately. They could blend together into something entirely new. Rather than focusing on a single bold statement, each piece is built through repetition, layering, rhythm, and subtle shifts in form and texture.

I combined geometric forms with organic movement, drawing inspiration from modernist architecture and Bauhaus design. The result is pieces that feel balanced and intentional, but never rigid; where simplicity still leaves room for curiosity and discovery.

Like the album that inspired it, Dots and Loops is about finding beauty in the details. It’s a reminder that the most meaningful experiences aren’t always the loudest…they’re often built one layer at a time.