20th-21st Century Contemporary American Art

The Moon is Black
1988
20 x 24 inch Polaroid with watercolor painting (17-inch diameter moon)

In the upper right corner of this work floats a painted moon an excerpt from my series The Moon is Twelve Colors. The color black recalls the dark tragedy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which emerged in New York City in 1981, when friends and colleagues were suddenly dying far too young from this devastating new disease.

My art often tells personal stories, using a variety of techniques: silver gelatin photographs; hand-sculpted, two-dimensional paintings on mahogany door skin with acrylic and resin; archival inkjet prints from original scans; and rare vintage 20 x 24 inch Polaroid and SX-70 prints. Each work is created to classical archival standards, ensuring it will last as long as possible for future audiences.

About the Polaroid Series: Each image is a unique artist’s proof documenting a performance. From each series, one was traded to the Polaroid Art Collection between 1977 and 1987. In 2010, over 200 of my works along with thousands from other artists were auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York following Polaroid Corporation’s bankruptcy due to the rise of digital photography. The works acquired in trade were purchased by WestLicht Schauplatz für Fotografie in Vienna, Austria, along with over 3,000 other artists’ images.

P A I N T I N G S

Chocolates
2023
36 x 22 inches
Acrylic on mahogany door skin

Chocolates is part of my ongoing series, The Fake-O Cards (1989–present), inspired by the 1936 Haines deck famously used by magicians at Hollywood’s Magic Castle to engage their audiences. With sleight of hand, they would produce a card that does not exist, creating an element of surprise and delight.

All of my artworks are titled using American slang words and phrases drawn from both past and present, spoken by others or invented by me. For example, The Moon is Black was inspired by real-life experiences and restructured into a reinterpreted art object.

Race Card
2020
54 x 36 inches
Acrylic and epoxy on mahogany door skin

This painting expresses my total disdain for racism, using a visual language that celebrates the beautiful and rich diversity of human skin tones symbolized through epoxy-surfaced, reflective spades.

The phrase “race card” entered popular use in 1995 during the O.J. Simpson trial, coined by the late Johnny Cochran to describe a perceived use of race as a defense strategy. In contrast, this work reclaims the phrase by presenting the many shades of human skin within each spade symbol. In doing so, it transforms a term often associated with division into a visual statement of humanism, unity, and respect for our shared humanity.