Three collage shows about American horrors (and one that isn't)

How apropos for Halloween: I found three separate art exhibits that feature collage work exploring the horror shows of American prisons and politics. (Seriously, if you’re having trouble sleeping these days, you might want to avoid the following images.)

Chris Santa Maria, “PRESIDENT TRUMP”

If you want one gigantic scare, Chris Santa Maria’s enormous collage should do the job. For four years, the artist collected thousands of Trump and Trump-era-media images to make “PRESIDENT TRUMP.” His Instagram account says he’ll be adding even more to the six-by-six-feet piece during the last weekend before Election Day.

This next collage is only letter-sized, but it might as well be larger-than-life.

James “Yaya” Hough, “Untitled”

Not one, but two exhibits prominently feature collage works about the prison industrial complex. The collage above is part of “Rendering Justice” at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. Curator Jesse Krimes gathered work by incarcerated artists, as well as those whose art practice focuses on the impact of prison on all of us. Krimes and four other artists in this exhibit are also showing work in “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration” at MoMA PS1 in New York.

Gilberto Rivera, “An Institutional Nightmare”

Still with me? This last exhibit has absolutely nothing to do with the previously-mentioned American nightmares: it’s not even in this country.

John Stezaker, “The Trial”

To see “The Trial” and other works in person, you’d have to go London (the one in England) to visit “At the Edge of Pictures: John Stezaker, Works 1975-1990.” As the title suggests, this is old-school artwork that’s closer to the Surrealist movement than the remixing born from hip-hop. Unsurprisingly, these works feature no references to people of color (as if there were no Black Britons before 1990), which brings me right back to the present. Worldwide protests are connecting Black and brown lives in jeopardy to the art world and election-year politics. I can’t think of anything much scarier this Halloween than this kind of oppression and exclusion.

"Flesh and Blood," power and manipulation

I’ll admit it: I’m mostly here for the beheading.

Artemisia Gentileschi, “Judith Slaying Holofernes” at Seattle Art Museum

The experience of seeing “Judith Slaying Holofernes” ranks up there with the first time I saw the Mona Lisa in person. Actually, Artemisia Gentileschi’s painting is a bit more impressive: it’s much larger and dynamic (and bloodier, of course). I definitely got an eyeful at the “Flesh and Blood” exhibit of Renaissance paintings on loan to the Seattle Art Museum.

But besides the color and violence, you can’t miss the underlying themes of power and manipulation. If you know “Judith Slaying Holofernes,” you probably know it’s often linked to Gentileschi’s own rape and trial. There’s another murder scene (of Cain and Abel) in this room, but it looks like a sexual assault.

Lionello Spada, “Cain and Abel”

And although Atalanta is just running a race against Hippomenes, he still overpowers her with the magical golden apples. A princess loses her independence to a cheater tossing around shiny stuff. (Distracted by gold? Aren’t princesses usually SURROUNDED by gold and jewels?)

I know… different time, different place and context. And this traveling exhibit was planned years in advance. But in light of the #metoo movement, it’s even more difficult to separate the pretty pictures from the underlying coercion.

HWT in PDX: "All Things Being Equal..."

Northwesterners: If you want to see the work of an art superstar without getting on a plane, you better hustle. In two days, the Hank Willis Thomas exhibit “All Things Being Equal…” leaves Portland.

Thomas’ work is spectacular in all senses of the word: a ‘spectacle’ in size, subject matter, and beauty. So I was impressed but not surprised by the soaring flag-based piece the Portland Art Museum commissioned for this exhibit.

The stars and the title of “14,719 (2018)” represent a person killed by gun violence in America during 2018. The appalling death count sounds concrete, yet abstract at the same time. I’m not sure if the long banners allow an emotional distancing or if they create an undeniable immediacy.

Hank Willis Thomas, “Bearing Witness: Murder’s Wake” (detail & full-size)

Fortunately, other pieces help to scale down the shock and awe to a more human scale. On the staircase, a photo installation highlights friends and family who grieved after the shooting death of the artist’s cousin. The darkened spaces refer to people who might have met him, but never will.

The more intimate artworks spread a warmth throughout the rest of the exhibit, mostly pop culture pieces for which Thomas is best known. So you see stinging critiques of bling and advertising culture, as well as a heart-breaking short film about Willis’ murdered cousin. If you’d like to see both ends of the Hank Willis Thomas spectrum, like I said, get moving or get a plane ticket. The exhibit heads to Arkansas and then Ohio.