SHERRY MARKOVITZ MARRIAGE, 2006 Gouache and ribbon on silk 45 x 58 inches $11,000		SHERRY MARKOVITZ POCAHONTAS, 2005—06 Gouache and foil on paper 30 x 30 inches $10,000 SOLD

"I use historical references and images of dolls to explore issues of propaganda, will, and identity. In the early 18th century, at the time of the King Phillips wars in the US (King Phillip being a rebellious native chief) there existed relationships between white women and native men as well as native women and white men. In order to discourage these popular liaisons the government came out with what is known as "captivity literature." Captivity literature is a genre which contains inflamed descriptions about the degradation of white women by native men. The purpose of these accounts was to create fear against the native people which helped fuel the wars. Here, the white woman and native man (or dolls) make a choice to defy these influences and stay together."

“I use historical references and dolls to explore issues of propaganda, will, and identity.

The only known portrait of Pocahontas is a print showing her dressed in an English outfit for presentation to the court of England. Pocahontas died shortly thereafter, perhaps because of a lack of immunity to white man’s diseases. I use the iconic image (doll) to represent the idea of making someone into someone they are not, only to suffer death. With the use of dolls, I hope to disarm the viewer by giving life to what is normally lifeless."

— Sherry Markovitz

KERRY JAMES MARSHALL
BLACK POWER PRINTS, 1998
relief print
25.5 x 40 (5)
Edition of 5
POR

In the "Black Power" prints, Kerry James Marshall features popular 1960s slogans that trace the civil rights movement printed in the red, black and green colors symbolic of black nationalism. These relief prints were printed as if from oversized rubber stamps, suggesting the power of rhetoric and words for mobilizing people during the Civil Rights Movement with incendiary rally cries that would soon become clichés. The slogans vary from "We Shall Overcome," the name of a hymn associated with the non—violent strategies of Martin Luther King Jr., to "Black Power," the title of the late Stokely Carmichael's black nationalistic manifesto. It is doubtful that these phrases could regain the potency they once had, especially now that they have been co—opted by popular culture and now turned into blue—chip works of art, widely desired by collectors and museums.

MARK NEWPORT
ARGYLEMAN, 2007
Hand knit acrylic and buttons
80 x 23 x 6 inches
$7,000

"ARGYLEMAN is one of a series of hand knit superhero costumes whose identity is based on knitting traditions. These invented heroes combine the process of knitting and its traditions, generally associated with women, with the hyper—masculine world of the comic book superhero. Argyle in these colors reminds me of my preppy high school years in western Massachusetts. So ARGYLEMAN could be the embodiment of my outsider intellectual past made into a macho superhero costume through the dynamic process of hand knitting. He also explores my current role as a father in response to my children’s developing independence and the dangers posed by bullies, pedophiles, terrorists, and fanatical messianic characters."

— Mark Newport

Oropallo
The images in this body of work were initially borrowed from Internet sites for sexy costume. Women in revealing pirate, soldier, and other outfits are posed in photographs that recall, in Oropallo's words, "the formal portraiture male power stance with elaborate costume." The artist deconstructs and enhances the images to investigate the seduction and power that are evoked by gesture and pose. In the related series of prints, Oropallo further explores the concept by layering the images of men from 17th and 18th century portrait paintings.

MARC QUINN
SELF (red), 2006
Hand—colored pigment print on gessoed aluminum panel
10.25 x 7.75
Edition of 10
$15,000

The work that brought Marc Quinn into the larger public consciousness was SELF, 1991, a cast of the artist’s head made from 4.5 litres of his own blood. The blood was taken over a period of 5 months, poured into a mold and frozen. With its eyes closed and expressionless face, the piece appears like a death mask of the artist. It is displayed on a refrigerated stand and as it ages it shows minor surface changes, prompting the viewer to contemplate their own mortality. SELF is reconfigured here as a print, hand painted in deep, bloody reds.

DARIO ROBLETO
SOMETIMES BILLIE IS ALL THAT HOLDS ME TOGETHER, 2000
Button crafted from melted Billie Holiday vinyl records, various clothing, acrylic, spray paint
10.625 x 9.625 x 1.25 inches
Collection of Greg Kucera and Larry Yocom

Robleto gives a new identity to something so simple as an old button.

In this body of work he would typically find an item of clothing or buy it from a thrift store from which a button was missing. He would remove another button, create a mold from it, recreate it from vinyl from melted records, and then sew the buttons (one actual, one remade) back on the item and return it to where he found it. Because Robleto strongly identifies with singers such as Patsy Cline or Billie Holiday, he would often pay tribute to them by using their recordings to melt down or carve in this work. He would also fashion a second button to become part of the larger group of facsimile buttons that was the fuller artwork titled “Sometimes Billie Is All That Holds Me Together.”

"Identity is a multilayered idea. It is the way we see ourselves, which is shaped by our experiences and memories, and also how others see us. In my art, I use identity to maneuver between people in my life, (my grandfather, father, son and myself), travel in and out of stories and to pass through time. It also allows me to connect with sensations of past memories and life experiences for the viewer to interpret. Most importantly, using identity as a central theme in my work allows me to express pressures of everyday life into my art, just as other people may use therapy or exercise. It allows me to explore my own alter ego, fears, and feelings from an objective standpoint. Finally, I believe that using identity in my work shows vulnerability to the audience, which in my mind equates to honesty."

— Tim Roda

Throughout my life people have said to me:
"What country are you from?"
"What kind of food do you eat?"
"Where were you born?"
"How long have you been in this country?"
"You were in the Army? Which one?"
"How have you come to speaking the language so well?"
"You must be a Buddhist."
"You are tall for a Japanese."
"My cousin is married to one."
"I once knew a man from Japan. I wonder if you know him?"
"You must be from from Hawaii?"
"You're Japanese? Are you going to Beijing for the Olympics?"
So these paintings are my answers.

— Roger Shimomura

MICKALENE THOMAS
MICHELLE O, 2008
Screenprint
25 x 19.5 inches
Edition of 40
$3,000

On African—American female icons: "I’m really interested in women, particularly the kind of black woman who has overcome obstacles in her life and transformed." On girly women: "That’s why I have an understanding of these women," she said. "Because I was one of them myself."

— Mickalene Thomas

In the 1960s through the 1980s, Tom of Finland produced spectacular drawings of gay men with idealized (some might say exaggerated!) physiques engaging in an amazing array of semiotically encoded sex roles from romantic to kinky and everything in between. These drawings catalyzed a profound change in the way gay men perceived themselves and approached their sexuality during this nascent period of the the gay rights movement. This invention of an idealized gay male persona continues to have an effect on today's male realities and, indeed, has broadened historical stereotypes of gay men as weak or effeminate to include a hyper—masculine stereotype as well. In a very short period of time, Tom of Finland’s drawings developed from Tom’s personal fantasies into sexual archetypes that have now become cultural stereotypes.

JOHN WATERS
FARRAH, 2000
8 chromogenic prints, collage
16.25 x 96.25 inches
Edition of 8
$8,000.

DAN WEBB
THE NEW YOU MACHINE, 2009
Sculpey, plywood and metal
23 x 15 x 18 inches
SOLD

"Description: By spinning the plywood wheel in the front, the 14 heads on top spin around, each taking a turn as the head for the lumpy form below. This piece, like many others I have made, is interested in the exterior solutions we come up with for our interior dilemmas. Self—invention is an American obsession, the results of which are evident in things like body—building, fashion, tattooing and piercing, plastic surgery, etc. How the manipulation of the exterior reflects the interior remains endlessly fascinating to me."

— Dan Webb

ALICE WHEELER
KATHLEEN HANNA AT HOME, OLYMPIA, 1993
Chromogenic prints
40.5 x 27 inches
Edition of 3
$2,000

Wheeler’s series "Women Are Beautiful" is both a reference to Gary Winogrand’s famous series by the same title and a statement that embraces a broad range of female types and feminine identities. In the work shown here Wheeler reveals an intimate understanding of a teenager’s search for identity, those crucial moments of adolescence that lead to one’s self as an adult.

KARA WALKER

PASTORAL, 1998
Wall painting in black 72 x 80 inches
Limited to 15 installations, with a signed and numbered certificate
$30,000.

"The silhouette says a lot with very little information, but that's also what the stereotype does. So I saw the silhouette and the stereotype as linked. Of course, while the stereotype, or the emblem, can communicate with a lot of people, and a lot of people can understand it, the other side is that it also reduces differences, reduces diversity to that stereotype."

— Kara Walker

EDWARD WICKLANDER
BAG TOTEM, 2008
Carved old—growth Douglas Fir and steel
77 x 22 x 22 inches
$18,000
SOLD

"THE WHITE MAN’S TOTEM is my reinterpretation of the Native American totem pole using empty paper bags as symbols of current American culture. The Native American totem poles display mythic origins and lineage of ancestors reflecting their culture’s history and legends. THE WHITE MAN’S TOTEM is a sad tribute to our country’s excessive consumerism and capitalism as a means to an end. Spawned by the white culture of which I am both an avid observer and a reluctant participant."

— Ed Wicklander

"Basically they are snapshots taken in Tokyo parks at night using a 35—millimeter camera, infrared film and flash to document the people gathered for amorous trysts, as well as —— and this is the bizarre part —— the hordes of spectators hiding in the bushes who watched, and sometimes even participated in the action.

— Benjamin Genocchio ,The New York Times

"Viewing his pictures means that you too are looking at activities not meant to be seen. We line up right behind the photographer, surreptitiously watching the peeping toms who are secretly watching the couples. Voyeurism is us."

— Philip Gefter, The New York Times

" I think, in a way. the act of taking photographs itself is voyeuristic somehow. So I may be voyeur, because I am a photographer."

— Kohei Yoshiyuki (a pseudonym, his real name is unknown)