City Cars

Jackson Lamme

16 x 12″

Oil on canvas

Lamme’s “City Cars” is a moody, atmospheric study of urban chaos and fleeting moments, where the interplay of light, reflection, and motion transforms a familiar street scene into an almost cinematic experience. A dense layering of blurry headlights, slick reflections, and shadowy figures immerses the viewer in the sensory overload of a bustling city night—where cars, people, and architecture dissolve into an intricate tapestry of movement and light.

The composition feels almost fractured and transient, as if capturing a single moment in the perpetual flow of urban life. The gleaming surfaces of the cars, distorted and fragmented, pulse with neon glows and the flickering of city lights, suggesting both the grit and allure of the metropolis. The figures in the foreground, loosely defined yet vibrant in their color patches, move through the scene like fleeting ghosts of modern existence—present, yet ephemeral.

Lamme’s painterly technique blurs the boundary between abstraction and realism, evoking the gritty energy of street photography while embracing a tactile, almost expressionist approach to texture. His deep blacks, electric yellows, and muted reds capture the pulse of the city after dark, recalling the nocturnal dynamism of artists like George Bellows or Edward Hopper—yet infused with a distinctly contemporary urgency. Lamme invites the viewer to lose themselves in the hypnotic repetition of headlights and faceless movement, reminding us that the city is alive, relentless, and ever in motion.