Abstraction by Design (AbD)

Abstraction by Design is more than a technique. It is a visual language developed and refined over decades by Michael Shemchuk. It represents the intersection of disciplined structure and intuitive expression, offering artists a framework for creative exploration that is both rigorous and liberating.

The structure of AbD began with Shemchuk's early work, built on the square frame of a Hasselblad camera. Rather than seeing the frame as a limitation, Shem saw possibility. Within that boundary, he introduced elements that evoke the passage of time: layering, pressure, erosion, corrosion, and gravity. These physical forces shape the surface of each work, compressing materials, wearing away edges, oxidizing pigments, and pulling elements downward. Through a structured technique, each added or removed layer becomes a discovery, a decision about what should come forward or be obscured. This becomes an entry point into abstraction. In essence, each work becomes a visual record of choices, accidents, and the tension between them.

A signature element of Shemchuk's work is what he calls Subtraction by Design. AbD unfolds as a visual narrative layer by layer of paper adding and subtracting paper, paint, marks, peeling, scraping and sanding. Shem finds beauty in what Leonard Cohen called "the cracks where the light gets in," and in the textures and colors that emerge as upper layers are worn away, exposing what lies beneath.

This physical act of removal uncovers unexpected combinations of color and form. Each new layer applied creates another opportunity. The work accumulates depth not just through addition, but through the deliberate act of subtraction.