In the hands of Jeffrey Czum, the mundane becomes magical. A deserted parking lot, a rusted motel sign, or a faded suburban house — these everyday scenes are transformed into surreal, cinematic moments, rich with color, humor, and nostalgia. Based in Buffalo, New York, Czum is a digital artist and photographer whose work feels like stepping into a daydream set in small-town America.

Growing up in Buffalo, a city marked by gray skies and old industrial bones, Czum found early inspiration in the stillness around him. He started out with a disposable camera, taking snapshots of his surroundings — but it wasn’t long before he was pushing beyond documentation into imagination. “I always wanted to make the world look the way it felt in my head,” he’s said in interviews. That urge led him toward digital collage, where he could combine photography with graphic design to shape a style that’s uniquely his.

Czum’s compositions are clean, clever, and instantly recognizable. His skies are always an impossible shade of blue, his architecture stripped down to pure form, and his text overlays — whether they read “KILL ME” in neon or rename a strip mall “CHANEL” — are equal parts satire and sincerity. His work speaks to the influence of pop artists like Andy Warhol and David Hockney, but with a distinctly 21st-century twist. You might think of it as Americana meets vaporwave, or Wes Anderson with a darker sense of humor.

There’s a cinematic quality to it all, as though each image is a still from a movie you’ve never seen but somehow remember. That visual storytelling has earned him features in The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar España, HBO, and more. He’s also a frequent collaborator with Accidentally Wes Anderson, where his taste for pastel buildings and symmetrical frames fits right in.

Yet beneath the crisp aesthetic, there’s always a deeper current — something slightly off-kilter, a moment of melancholy, or a joke that hits a little too close to home. That’s part of what makes his work resonate. He’s not just beautifying the overlooked; he’s interrogating it. Czum invites us to look again at the world we think we know, and to find poetry in the parking lot.

His most recent series explores the charm and contradictions of American roadside culture — a love letter to neon signs, rundown motels, and dusty cars left baking in the sun. Whether it's a street corner rebranded with designer logos or a pastel-hued diner accompanied by ironic text, each piece captures a fleeting moment somewhere between nostalgia and imagination.

At 1905 Contemporary, we’re proud to showcase Jeffrey Czum’s work — pieces that speak to a deep understanding of how visual storytelling can transform the familiar into something fantastical. His ability to turn quiet, often-overlooked places into surreal compositions invites viewers to pause and reconsider the spaces around them.

Czum’s world is one where the surreal feels grounded and the ordinary becomes poetic. His art isn’t just something you look at — it’s something you feel, like déjà vu wrapped in sunlight and static. Through his lens, every roadside becomes a stage, every silence a story waiting to be told.