Glenn Ligon at Luhring Augustine Gallery

Glenn Ligon turns his well-worn copy of James Baldwin’s 1953 essay, ‘Stranger in the Village,’ into a suite of prints, each more or less obscured by paint and fingerprints left behind by years of reference use in Ligon’s studio. Ligon’s marks testify to the personal importance of Baldwin’s text, while the parts that remain visible leap out as a kind of charged concrete poetry. (At Luhring Augustine through April 2nd).

Glenn Ligon, Untitled, from a suite of 17 archival pigment prints, 71 x 49 inches, 2016.
Glenn Ligon, Untitled, from a suite of 17 archival pigment prints, 71 x 49 inches, 2016.

Glenn Ligon at Luhring Augustine Gallery

Glenn Ligon, Double America, neon & paint, 2012.
Glenn Ligon, Double America, neon & paint, 2012.

Glenn Ligon’s ‘Double America’ occupies its own room at a show of the artist’s text-based neon artworks made since ’05, enhancing the impact of a high-wattage piece that brings to the fore division and binary oppositions in this country. (At Chelsea’s Luhring Augustine Gallery through December 8th).