Nike shoe designer and innovator from 1988 to 2018, Pam Greene began painting large format sneaker paintings in 1996. The ongoing series, painted in the tradition of Pop Art, is partially a historical chronicle of the evolution of modern athletic footwear, and partly a kind of portraiture capturing the sneaker as a sculptural object, whose character reflects the vision of the designer.

From the unique vantage point as one of Nike’s longtime creatives, Greene’s intent in portraying sneakers as art is to enable a new way of seeing the aesthetic compositions, material and textural choices used to convey both meaning and visual impact in this modern American art form.