Art by City: Chicago | Zack Zublena
Gold Fine Art Photography for Chicago Collectors and Interiors
Explore Zack Zublena's gold fine art photography through a Chicago perspective. The French-American artist brings together the human form, sculptural composition and carefully shaped light, creating photographs with a distinctive presence for private collections and thoughtfully designed interiors.
From the residential character of the Gold Coast to the industrial textures of West Loop lofts and the contemporary interiors of River North, Chicago offers varied settings for living with art. This city guide explores the relationship between photography and architecture, considering how scale, materials and placement shape our experience of an image.
Discover stories on photography, collecting and interior design, curated for Chicago readers. Explore the Golden Souls collection, or contact Zack Zublena to discuss an artwork for your collection, home or professional project.
Featured Story · Chicago
Paralympic Athletes in Gold: A Chicago Perspective on Resilience and the Human Figure
Golden Warrior by Zack Zublena, shown in an interior visualization with emerald velvet, dark wood and warm brass accents. Discover the Golden Warrior artwork.
In a city where architecture gives shape to everyday experience, the human figure offers a different measure of strength. A gesture, a posture or a moment of stillness can hold attention as powerfully as a monumental space. Zack Zublena's artistic project celebrating Paralympic athletes in gold for Los Angeles 2028 invites Chicago audiences to explore that relationship between presence and scale.
The project will honor sporting achievement alongside the personal journeys that make it possible. For collectors, designers and art lovers in Chicago, these portraits open a conversation about resilience, recognition and the victories that belong to life as well as competition.
Gold, Resilience, and Victories Beyond the Games
Gold draws attention, but its role in this project extends beyond visual brilliance. It becomes a language of recognition, honoring the individual and the effort behind an extraordinary achievement.
Through composition, gesture and carefully shaped light, Zack will create portraits that allow strength and vulnerability to coexist. The aim is to give each athlete room to express a distinct personality: contemplative, joyful, determined or quietly self-assured.
Together, these images will carry a message of hope for humanity. The athletes are heroes of the Games and of everyday life, shaped by daily decisions and unseen efforts as well as moments of public recognition.
A Chicago Perspective on Photography and Form
The Art Institute of Chicago offers a setting for exploring photography alongside other artistic traditions, encouraging comparisons between the photographed body, painted portraiture and sculptural form. The Museum of Contemporary Photography provides a more focused point of reference for considering how photographic images communicate identity and experience.
The contemporary perspectives presented through the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Smart Museum of Art offer further opportunities to consider the human figure, while the Chicago Architecture Center offers an architectural perspective on proportion, materials and movement.
These organizations are cultural resources for Chicago readers; they are not announced partners or confirmed exhibition venues for Zack's project.
A Portrait Begins with a Person
A French-American fine art photographer and multidisciplinary artist, Zack Zublena began exploring golden human figures in Los Angeles in 2016. His practice brings together the physical presence of a person, the expressive possibilities of a pose and the structure of light.
For the Paralympic project, portrait sessions will be collaborative, with attention to each participant's expression and presence. A viewer might first notice the sculptural form, then discover a quieter expression, a moment of balance or the tension of a gesture. That gradual recognition gives the photograph its human depth.
Living with Gold Fine Art Photography in Chicago
A Chicago interior can present very different conditions for displaying photography. In a West Loop loft, exposed brick and generous wall space may support a bold composition. In a Gold Coast residence, a photograph can introduce contemporary contrast among more traditional furnishings. In a River North apartment, a carefully chosen vertical work can establish a focal point within an open living area.
The interior visualization accompanying this story explores a rich, darker palette: Golden Warrior above an emerald velvet sofa, surrounded by dark wood paneling, black marble and brass accents. The setting is a mockup, rather than a documented Chicago installation.
Consider the finished framed dimensions, the viewing distance and the first sightline from the doorway, and review the placement in daylight and under evening lighting with a professional framer.
The Golden Warrior artwork illustrating this story belongs to Zack's existing photographic practice. It evokes strength and resilience; it is not a portrait of a participating Paralympic athlete.
A Two-Year International Journey
Following the Los Angeles 2028 chapter, the project is planned to travel internationally for two years. The ambition is to bring the portraits into galleries, museums and spaces open to the public, reaching dedicated art audiences and people who encounter the images in passing.
Its wider purpose is to invite a different view of these extraordinary individuals: as competitors, as people with distinct experiences and ambitions, and as heroes of everyday life. Confirmed exhibition venues and dates will be announced as arrangements are finalized.
This is an independent artistic initiative; no official affiliation with LA28 or the Paralympic Games is implied.
Artist & Vision · Chicago
Zack Zublena, the Gold Master: A Golden Vision for Chicago and Beyond
If you believe that everything is frequency, energy and vibration, imagine what art might contribute to the spaces we inhabit. A golden figure within a Lincoln Park home. A photograph that brings warmth to a West Loop interior. An artwork in a hotel reception area that invites someone to pause and recognize a human presence.
This is part of Zack Zublena's vision: gold traveling across the planet through art, celebrating individuality, resilience and connection. For the French-American fine art photographer and multidisciplinary artist, each photograph contributes to a wider purpose: bringing beauty and recognition into the places where people live, gather and encounter one another.
Chicago offers a particular way into that vision through the relationship between art and architecture. The proportions of a room, the rhythm of its windows and the materials surrounding an artwork shape how it is experienced. Zack's golden figures introduce another kind of structure: the human body, transformed into a luminous presence while remaining unmistakably alive.
Gold as a Language of Human Value
Gold attracts attention. Zack gives that attention a human purpose.
His photographs begin with real people, painted by hand in reflective gold-colored body paint. The image develops through a physical creative process, bringing painting, direction and photography together. Faces are often concealed, shifting attention toward posture, form and presence, another way of expressing strength, freedom, connection or stillness.
For Zack, gold can be imagined as emerging from within, revealing an extraordinary worth already present in the person. It becomes a language of recognition shared across his collections.
Discover the real people and physical artistry behind the photographs, or watch Zack Zublena painting people in gold.
Different Collections, One Golden Thread
- Golden Souls explores individual presence and the expressive possibilities of the human figure.
- The Golden Bond gives space to intimacy, connection and togetherness.
- Golden Balance brings balance and contemplation into compositions shaped by yogic forms.
- Dark Elegance explores the contrast between luminous figures and dark backgrounds.
- Women Are the Soul of the World celebrates feminine power, creation and renewal.
A Vision for Hospitality and Shared Environments
For a Chicago hotel, private club or wellness setting, photography can contribute to the character of a shared environment. Zack's photography has been selected and installed as part of the interior decoration of more than 120 David Lloyd Clubs across the United Kingdom and continental Europe, making art part of an environment people return to. Read the story of Zack Zublena's photography in David Lloyd Club interiors.
The Gold Master: Giving Form to a Lasting Vision
Zack began exploring golden human figures in Los Angeles in 2016. "The Gold Master" expresses the creative identity he has developed through this continuing practice. His book, The Sacred Frequency of Gold, offers another way into the ideas behind his photographs.
Explore The Vision, discover the best-selling photographs at ZackZublena.com, or contact Zack Zublena to discuss an artwork for your collection, home, hotel or interior project.
From the Journal
Stories from Zack Zublena's Art by City series in Chicago
Latest story · Hotels, Residences & Collectors
Gold Fine Art Photography for Chicago Hotels, Residences and Collectors
From the Gold Coast to the North Shore: how gold figurative photography brings warmth and presence to Magnificent Mile hotels, Fulton Market clubs and Lake Shore Drive residences.
Contemporary Art
Contemporary Art Chicago: No More Monkey Mind
Chicago's contemporary art scene, explored through gold-on-black fine art photography and the NO MORE MONKEY MIND collection.
Animal Fusion
Gold, the Lion and the Leopard on the Gold Coast
In a city where lions guard the Art Institute, the gold-painted human body merges with lions and leopards photographed in the wild.
Luxury Interiors
Gold Fine Art Photography for Luxury Interiors in Chicago
From Gold Coast homes and Lincoln Park residences to River North lofts, Streeterville penthouses and West Loop spaces.
Art & Interiors
Art for Large Walls in Chicago
Diptychs, triptychs and ideas for choosing fine art photography for Gold Coast residences, West Loop lofts and River North apartments.
Diptychs & Triptychs
The Stories Behind the Golden Diptychs and Triptychs
The personal stories behind Zack Zublena's multi-panel works, with inspiration for Chicago homes, hotels and wellness spaces.
Collecting · Seven Works
Seven Energies of Gold for a Chicago Home
Seven gold fine art photographs, with practical guidance from architectural details and framing to light and personal meaning.
Golden Heroes · Los Angeles 2028
Celebrating Paralympic Athletes in Gold
The full introduction to the Los Angeles 2028 project: portraits of Paralympic athletes in gold, and a two-year international journey.
Every photograph is crafted by hand, with real people, real gold body paint and real light. Discover how each work is made, by hand, not AI.
Latest story
Zack Zublena Interview by Singulart: Gold Photographer, Chicago Illinois
An interview by Singulart with Zack Zublena, the French-American photographer who paints the body in gold: leopard art, lion art, diptychs and triptychs for Chicago, Illinois.
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