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Adam Mysock
Davie Crockett, Pecos Bill, the Bull Moose Party, and a Man Walking into Frame

2009

About the Item

Framed: 10h x 10w in ABOUT THE ARTIST Adam Mysock was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1983 - the son of an elementary school English teacher and a lab technician who specializes in the manufacturing of pigments. On account of a steady stream of folk tales from his mother, his father's vividly dyed work clothes, and a solid Midwestern work ethic, he developed an interest in painting and drawing all things Americana from a very early age. Mysock earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Art History by 2004 from Tulane University. He then received an MFA from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. After his studies, he became the mural coordinator for the City of Cincinnati's MuralWorks mural program and worked as an adjunct drawing professor at Sinclair Community College in Dayton. In the summer of 2008, Mysock became a Professor of Practice at Tulane University where he currently teaches and maintains a studio. Mysock's work has been exhibited in Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana and is in private collections across the US, including those of Thomas Coleman and Michael Wilkinson. He was a 2009 jury winner in the annual No Dead Artists juried exhibition. On August 4th, 2012 he was awarded first prize “Best in Show” in the Ogden Museum’s Louisiana Contemporary Annual Juried Exhibition. Mysock exhibited at Pulse Miami Art Fair in December 2012 with Jonathan Ferrara Gallery and he was selected for the 2013 Edition of New American Paintings. Mysock was exhibited in a solo project booth at the VOLTA9 Art Fair in Basel, Switzerland where he was acquired by the SØR Rusche Collection. Mysock’s work is currently featured in a Baroque and Contemporary group exhibition from the SØR Rusche Collection, Oelde/Berlin at Kunsthalle Jesuitenkirche as well as in a solo exhibition entitled When Everything Was Wonderful Tomorrow at Galerie Andreas Binder in Munich, Germany. I’m a revisionist history painter. Rather than rewrite the narrative of the past to justify an ideology, I repaint yesterday’s imagery in order to rationalize our present circumstances. Mysock says of his work, “Telling stories is a part of human nature; it’s how we relate to one another. The stories we have in common help us create sincere connections to our neighbors and our surroundings. What’s more, storytelling – for better or worse – typically involves hyperbole. We tend to exaggerate; we tend to lie. Generally, we believe we control our narrative embellishments. What gets exaggerated from one telling to another gets exaggerated to challenge our listeners. What gets repeated gets repeated because it resonates with them. What gets omitted gets left out because it’s lost its meaning. We actively use embellishment to keep our audiences engaged. Given enough distance, however, sources and accuracy fade out and substitutions become the new norms. Quietly, time redefines what is truth and what is fiction. As a painter, I’m preoccupied by the undeniable role that the image plays in creating this acceptance of the fictional. A painting has the authority to make the intangible concrete, and a series of them has the ability to authenticate a fabrication in our collective memory. When I begin a piece, I typically start with preexisting images, artifacts from this collective remembrance. I look for images that shape my pictorial consciousness, that are hard to question because when I first saw them they were presented as the truth. They have to capture my imagination and they have to feel largely descriptive of a greater story. From them, I’m given my task – I have to “disrepair” them. I have to consolidate an earlier world of historical and cultural visual-fact with an evolving understanding of subtlety and gradation. I find that the discrepancies I discover between the absolute and the nuanced inspire me most. The resultant work is largely about storytelling, the ownership and authorship of our culture’s visual narratives, and the parallels between those tales. It’s meant to challenge the truth of “source” and the source of truth. After all, as Franz Kafka once wrote, "It is hard to tell the truth, for although there 'is' one, it is alive and constantly changes its face."
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  • Better Alone than in Bad Company
    By Adam Mysock
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    after: Joseph Shuster’s Action Comics #1 Cover (1938) and #19 Burning Flesh from Wally Wood’s, Bob Powell’s, and Norm Saunders’ Mars Attacks trading cards (1962) Framed: 9h x 9w in Continuing the exploration of Superman’s role as extraterrestrial anomaly – an alien who’s also a friend, I spent time considering how important one’s actions (on a singular occasion, in sum, alone, in collaboration with others, etc.) are in determining overall “goodness” or social value. In literally his first exposure to any reader, on the cover of Action Comics #1, Superman is shown smashing a large car against a rock, while three well-dressed men run away in fear. Taken by itself the image presents a deranged, super-strong vandal. It’s only upon reading the full narrative that we understand Superman’s action to be part of a rescue mission and the men to be gangster villains. When we allow Superman to be considered as an individual, responsible for his own actions, and over a series of events, rather than one incident, we find our hero. But when I offer Superman another alien (this one up to no good), and deny any exposure to a fuller understanding of circumstance, it’s much more difficult to separate Superman’s destructive actions from those of his new companion. Better Alone Than in Bad Company...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Acrylic, Panel

  • Real and Imagined
    By Adam Mysock
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    after: Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Blind Leading the Blind (1568), Akseli Gallen-Kallela’s Building (1903), and #17 Beast and the Beauty from Wally Wood’s, Bob Powell’s, and Norm Saunders’ Mars Attacks trading cards...
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    2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Acrylic, Panel

  • If He Wasn't Handsome, Would He Still be Super?
    By Adam Mysock
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    after: Joseph Shuster’s Superman #1 Cover (1939) and #17 Beast and the Beauty from Wally Wood’s, Bob Powell’s, and Norm Saunders’ Mars Attacks trading cards...
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    2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

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  • Foreseeing Nothing
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    Located in New Orleans, LA
    (after: Henry Fawcett; Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett by Ford Made Brown, 1872) Framed: 8.50h x 10w in On November 7th, 2016, it seemed as if everyone knew how the U.S. presidential...
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    2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Acrylic, Panel

  • Idle Hands
    By Adam Mysock
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    after: "And In His Eyes I Saw Death" by Ejnar Nielsen, 1897 Framed: 10h x 8.50w in Being discontented means being left with choices. We can either accept a current status quo or ch...
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  • Our Legacy of Engagement
    By Adam Mysock
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    after: “La Lutte” by Émile Friant, 1889 Framed: 10h x 8.50w in As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been particularly struck by the staggering number of unintende...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Paintings

    Materials

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