Nick D’Alessandro (b. 2000) is a Chicago-based artist focusing on industry and subsequent disposal practices. His work draws from the events of planned obsolescence, collecting the objects of its disregard. In approaching a fiber context, the materiality of the objects studied becomes centered and honored in light of their exhausted utility. Investigating extraction systems as a catalyst for land destruction, digital colonialism, and material reuse within the textile industries, he asks what the aesthetics of these essential materials offer a throwaway society, and looks for the point at which an object becomes waste.

His work explores group identities, signaling through dress, and a garment’s associative flux. Often dependent on the site, the work is informed by sifting through thrift stores, alleys, and curbsides, looking for objects with visible use, and synthesizing these materializations. Questioning how material origin, permanence, and external forces affect an object’s value, Nick’s work explores the connection between maker, user, and re-user. Intercepting material to assign new context reintegrates them into discussions of class, longevity, and labor.

D'Alessandro received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a focus on Sculpture, Fiber and Material Studies, and Fashion. He is the director of the fashion brand WWWYRED. His work has been exhibited in Chicago at; LVL3, Sawhorse, EXPO, and in NYC at NADA and Gern En Regalia. His work has been published in Document Journal, Graphite, and Like a Field.

Image: Nick D’Alessandro, Jasper, 2025, lint + aluminum zip ties, 40" x 43" x 33"