Using the covers of old encyclopedias, law books and African American reference books, Samuel Levi Jones makes collages on canvas that question what changes as time passes. Jones employs books as symbols of obsolescence to further represent how the ideas expressed therein can also run their course. (At Chelsea’s Galerie Lelong through Jan 28th).
An epic battle between divine beings – scrawny-armed ‘Undom Engle’ on the left and the pink, wolf-like creature ‘Repaint’ to the right – vividly kicks off Trenton Doyle Hancock’s intense new show at James Cohan Gallery. Though it helps to know the language of Hancock’s invented mythology and his recurring characters, each new work is its own richly imagined tale. (At James Cohan Gallery’s Lower East Side location through Nov 27th).
Lorna Simpson’s understated, monochrome images employ collaged fragments from magazines like Ebony and Jet in a powerful, poetic mediation on race in America. (At Salon94 Bowery on the Lower East Side through Oct 22nd).
From obsolete reference books, New York artist Brian Dettmer creates found poetry, collages and sculpture that literally manipulate knowledge into fascinating new forms. (At Chelsea’s PPOW Gallery through Oct 15th).
Without cell phones at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers had to make do with paintings made after the fact. Not so in Mark Wagner’s imaginatively collaged ‘Wish You Were Here,’ in which he collages a scene from the back of the $2 bill with myriad fragments of $1 bills to portray George Washington through a different lens. (At Pavel Zoubok Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 15th).
