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lots of black text written all over the walls with some of Trenton's paintings

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK In the Blestian Room, Installation View, 2006

lots of black text written all over the walls with some of Trenton's paintings

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK In the Blestian Room, Installation View, 2006

installation view of Trenton's works

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK In the Blestian Room, Installation View, 2006

lots of black text written all over one wall with some of Trenton's paintings

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK In the Blestian Room, Installation View, 2006

weird skinny arm extending from the wall while holding a bucket from a string

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK In the Blestian Room, Installation View, 2006

many strange anthropomorphic creatures and abstract components in one artwork

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK In The Blesstian Room, 2005. Mixed media on canvas, 90 X 108 X 6 inches.

abstract artwork

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK Beacon, 2006. Mixed media on canvas, 108 x 90 inches.

painting of strange, flesh-like ball hanging over a series of buckets with mystery contents

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK Morsel, 2006. Mixed media on canvas, 24 x 24 inches.

flesh-like object next to bucket with pink contents

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK Give 'Em an Inch and They'll Take a Foot, 2006. Mixed media on canvas, 60 x 60 inches.

many strange anthropomorphic creatures and abstract components in one artwork

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK Birsk Bones Befallen, 2005. Mixed media on canvas, 24 x 24 inches.

horrendously boney and skinny body suspended over a bucket

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK Bound, 2006. Mixed media on canvas, 24 x24 inches.

many strange anthropomorphic creatures and abstract components in one artwork

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK Las Luces, Looses, and Losses, 2005. Mixed media on canvas, 60 3/4 X 60 3/4 X 4 inches

abstract artwork

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK Las Luces, Looses, and Losses (detail), 2005. Mixed media on canvas, 60 3/4 X 60 3/4 X 4 inches.

artwork with bubbles that contain the words ME A MOUND

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK Me A Mound (book cover), 2005. A full color hardcover picture story book, 168 pages, 9 x12 inches. Published by PictureBox and James Cohan Gallery

many strange anthropomorphic creatures and abstract components in one artwork

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK Las Luces, Looses, and Losses (detail), 2005. Mixed media on canvas, 60 3/4 X 60 3/4 X 4 inches.

color chart

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK The Ossified Theosophied, (Title Page), 2005. Color etching, 19 1/2 X 25 inches, Edition of 35

horrendous anthropomorphic creature

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK The Ossified Theosophied, (Within Each of Us , Oftimes, There Dwells a Mighty and Raging Fury), 2005. Color etching, 19 1/2 X 25 inches, Edition of 35

many strange anthropomorphic creatures and abstract components in one artwork

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK The Ossified Theosophied, (Cult of Color), 2005. Color etching, 19 1/2 X 25 inches, Edition of 35

body parts organized in a way parallel pattern

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK The Ossified Theosophied, (St. Sesom), 2005. Color etching, 19 1/2 X 25 inches, Edition of 35

strange anthropomorphic creatures in a cave

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK The Ossified Theosophied, (Harmony), 2005. Color etching, 19 1/2 X 25 inches Edition of 35

many strange anthropomorphic creatures and abstract components in one artwork

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK The Ossified Theosophied, (Miracle Machine #1 or Vegan-Made Moundmeat Fountain), 2005. color etching, 25 X 19 1/2 inches, Edition of 35

hand holding strange abstract objects

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK The Ossified Theosophied, (Aborted but Beautiful), 2005. Color etching, 19 1/2 X 25 inches, Edition of 35

anthropomorphic creatures in a cave

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK We Must Mediate the Meat He Ate, 2006. Ink and paint on paper, 12 X 8 1/4 inches.

anthropomorphic creature tied to the floor of a cave; the strings holding it down are tied to bones

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK To Get Ahead One Must Sacrifice Certain Freedoms, 2006. Ink and paint on paper, 6 1/4 X 9 1/8 inches

deformed hand suspended over a valley

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK A Land So Wet So Dry, 2006. Ink and paint on paper,6 1/4 X 10 inches.

several long arms and hands stretched out holding pill-like objects

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK The Third to the Last Great Hurah, Jr., 2006. pencil, ink and paint on paper 8 X 12 inches.

strange anthropomorphic creature surrounded by hands and releasing pill-like objects

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK The Essence of Vegan Purity, 2006. ink and paint on paper 12 5/8 X 8 1/8 inches

giant food tied up, releasing pink liquid onto buckets

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK Sole Con Coonsole, 2006. ink and paint on paper 12 X 8 inches

strange anthropomorphic creatures and abstract components in one artwork

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK Miracle Machine # 19 or Whisk Wish, 2006. paint, pencil and ink on paper 10 X 9 1/4 inches

weird umbrella-like object secreting gobs of pink liquid

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK Miracler Machine # 18 or Dusk Buster, 2006. pencil, ink and paint on paper 8 X 7 1/4 inches

strange anthropomorphic creature and abstract components in one artwork

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK Miracle Machine # 17 or An Original Rigged Ore Rig, 2006. pencil, ink and paint on paper 10 X 9 1/4 inches

a mass of bones rising from pink liquid with a boney body suspended in air, surrounded by a ring of pink droplets and strings leading to buckets full of pink liquid

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK The Unbearable Lightness of Being Vegan, 2006. pencil, ink and paint of paper 10 X 9 1/4 inches

Press Release

Beginning March 4, 2006, the James Cohan Gallery will present an exhibition of new paintings by artist Trenton Doyle Hancock. The bulk of the show is devoted to large mixed-media works from a new series entitled In the Blestian Room. Hancock will also premiere a new set of prints, called The Ossified Theosophied. The exhibition runs through April 15.

Hancock's candy-colored works are suffused with personal mythology, presented at an operatic scale. Through collage, paint, and accumulations of detritus, he creates exuberant and subversive narratives. Hancock employs a variety of cultural tropes, ranging in tone from comic-strip superhero battles to medieval morality plays, and in style from Hieronymus Bosch to Max Ernst. He uses language, which is embedded within the paintings and drawings, both as way to drive the narrative and as a central visual component. For In the Blestian Room, Hancock adds new chapters to an ongoing absurdist parable of good and evil. The battle between the Vegans and the meat-eating Mounds takes a new turn, as Sesom, one of the Vegans, has a dream in which he discovers the liberating power of color. In The Ossified Theosophied, a transformed Sesom begins to make his miracle-machines, creating the life-affirming color blasts. Simultaneous with the exhibition, Hancock will release a book entitled Me a Mound, published by Picturebox and distributed by D.A.P. This richly illustrated volume will present a retrospective of the artist's work, showing the evolution of his distinctive saga.

The Texas-based Hancock has shown in numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally, including the 2000 and 2002 Whitney Biennials. Solo exhibitions of his work have been mounted at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. He has also shown internationally at the Lyon and Istanbul Biennials and will have an exhibitions show at the Fruitmarket, Edinburgh in early 2007.

Video documentation of the show is available at Vernisage TV.

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