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Adam MysockReal and Imagined2016
2016
$17,200
£13,208.86
€15,137.19
CA$24,213.35
A$27,124.30
CHF 14,134.24
MX$330,860.54
NOK 179,613.72
SEK 169,362.93
DKK 112,979.85
About the Item
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 (1962)
Framed: 9h x 14w in
Early in the Republican primaries, Donald Trump claimed that Mexican immigrants were bringing with them nothing more than drugs, crime, and rape. I was stunned at his willingness to demonize a whole group in such awful terms. It seems odd, but in 33 years I struggle to recall any other incident when somebody with so much wealth (and therefore power) had publicly denounced an entire branch of our population, especially a group of people who—arguably— face some of the greatest challenges when trying to prosper in our country.
I was taken aback at this strange slight-of-hand I was witnessing. Here was an individual who threatened to dismantle the progress our country has made over the last 50 years via his racist rants, trying to turn our ire toward a hugely innocent scape-goat. It was as if I was watching a bad magician trying to pull his audience’s eyes and fear toward a pocketknife he held in one hand while shooting a child with the automatic weapon he held in his other.
In this piece, I’ve inserted a Martian into the procession of blind men and spot lit his potentially ominous presence. Meanwhile, off to the right, a man with an ax is attacking the head of the parade. While we focus our eyes and anxieties on the easier visual target, we ignore the more immediate and lethal threat we’re blindly moving toward.
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. In 2016, Mysock’s work was 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. His work was also featured in EXCHANGE, an international exhibition at Galerie Jochen Hempel, Berlin. Furthermore, Mysock was recently selected as one of two recipients of the fifth Manifest Artist Residency (MAR) Award upon his return to his hometown. Mysock currently lives and works in Cincinatti, Ohio.
'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."
- Creator:Adam Mysock (1983, American)
- Creation Year:2016
- Dimensions:Height: 6.75 in (17.15 cm)Width: 12 in (30.48 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New Orleans, LA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU10521291693
Adam Mysock
Adam Mysock holds a BFA degree in Painting and Art History from Tulane University and an MFA from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. In collaboration with his studio practice, he has taught at the university level for more than 10 years, most recently as a Senior Professor of Practice at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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After: The Young Beggar by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (c. 1645-50) and Approaching Thunder Storm by Martin Johnson Heade (1859)
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ADAM MYSOCK was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1983 - the son of an elementary school English teacher and a lab technician who specialized in the manufacturing of pigments. On account of a steady stream of folk tales from his mother and his father’s vividly dyed work clothes, he developed an interest in narrative and representative painting from an early age. Mysock earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Art History in 2004 from Tulane University and an MFA from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 2007.
After his studies, Mysock taught at the university level for nearly a decade, including as a Professor of Practice at Tulane University. In 2016, he and his family moved back to Cincinnati, where he currently serves as coordinator for Manifest Drawing Center.
Mysock’s work has been exhibited throughout the country and is in private collections across the US, including the 21c Museum, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Ruslan Yusupov, Thomas Coleman and Michael...
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