William Copley (1919-1996, b. New York, NY) A once marginalized figure in the art world, Copley has since the 1990’s been recognized as a master provocateur and indispensable figurative painter whose irreverent output defied critics and censors alike with sexually provocative scenes that fused the intimate with the pop-cultural. Included here are works on paper from his now-celebrated “X-Rated” series of the early-to-mid-1970’s, highlighting joyfully explicit imagery derived from porn magazines found in Times Square shops that contort and distort bodies often to the point of abstraction. 

George Grosz (1893-1959, b. Berlin, Germany) One of Germany’s most significant artists of the 20th century, Grosz consistently explored the antagonisms of artistic and political life, first in the Weimar Republic and then in the United States, where he moved in 1932. Grosz was torn between a partisan, rationalist attitude and a passionate, reckless craving for the feverish pleasures of the 1920s, between basic Communist convictions and a longing for the USA. Under the influence of these new, positive impressions, and because he had lost his faith in the strength of the masses, he turned away from political propaganda and affectionately caricatured New York characters and while continuing to depicting nudes and landscapes in his newfound home. 

Jonathan Meese (b. 1970, Tokyo, Japan) For Meese, his interest in the erotic is just one aspect of an all-encompassingpractice, lying somewhere between expressionism and actionism, combining painting, sculpture, installations and performance. His personal mythology is a blend of historical, pop culture, and science fiction references, evoking political and cultural figures like, all of whom represent differ- ent facets of the artist’s identity, and all of which the artist seeks to adopt and empty them of meaning. His work espouses the ‘dictatorship of art’. 

Wardell Milan (b. 1977, Knoxville, TN) Milan’s practice is conceptually grounded in photography; often using photographs - either personal or historical - as initial inspiration behind the composition of drawings and collages. Often referencing a wide range of historical artists (Mapplethorpe, Arbus, etc.), Milan appropriates the images and thus the bodies depicted into a vision uniquely his own, often implicating the viewer in their complicit voyeurism and spectatorship of black bodies in particular. The photographs included in this presentation are some of his most personal works to date.