Trenton Doyle Hancock

"Pandemic Pentameter"

James Cohan Gallery

October 21—November 28, 2016

Trenton Doyle Hancock was the subject of a highly acclaimed solo exhibition at The Studio Museum of Harlem in 2015. Houston based artist, known for his comic-inspired witty drawings and mixed-media assemblages, is bringing his irony-charged humorous visual language back to New York. Borrowing elements from a wide range of sources including the Bible, Americana and art history itself, Hancock settles on pertinent depictions of American identity and its inherent elements through his vibrant practice.

Mounds, protagonists in most of Hancock’s stories depicting the never-ending battle between the good and the bad, frequently reappear in his persistent depiction of the human condition. Nourishing from tales the artist heard as a child as well as real life stories surrounding him as an adult, Texan-raised artist appropriates accounts from the heart of America, molding them into narratives on race, history and torment. His fascination for agony as depicted in the paintings of Bosch, Bacon or Beckmann—painters generations apart yet sharing the similar understanding of suffering—counterbalance the whimsical elements he incorporates.