Jacob Futhey is a Chicago-based visual artist who uses his photographs as a foundation for abstract, mixed-media works made with paint, pastels, colored pencils, and grommets. His practice explores altered states of perception: the shifts in how we interpret and find meaning in our visual environment.

Jacob is drawn to the abstract visual connections that emerge when the mind lets go of the literal. This fascination extends to zoning out and daydreaming: the way a view from a moving train blurs into a stream of pure color and shape, or how music generates colors and feelings in the imagination.

Jacob’s work is influenced by Eva Hesse's journey with absurdity, the experiments of László Moholy-Nagy, and the ambitions of Suprematism to move people through form and color alone. Each piece functions as a visual portal, with layered objects as much as images, each one entirely original. They invite presence over interpretation, bringing a sense of airiness and quiet to the spaces they inhabit.