Tomato House is pleased to announce its second exhibition, “Fakes”, from June 22 to July 28. This once-in-a-lifetime group show will include artworks from “Rembrandt”, “Phillip Guston”, “Hans Arp”, “Giorgio Morandi”, “Ben Jones”, “Van Gogh”, “Da Vinci,” “Franz Kline,” and many others. With a dizzying sweep of art history contained within quote marks, this will be an unforgivable historic event.

There have been forgeries for as long as there have been artworks. The fake speaks to issues of authenticity inherent in the art market; buying a painting is less buying a unique object to be enjoyed than purchasing stock in a going concern. When it has become commonplace for assistants to produce the work of famous artists, many artists now make their living being someone else. Fakes offer the opportunity to participate in a black market art world. Owning a fake offers the prestige and name recognition of owning an “original”, and asserts issues of taste and choice.

Twenty artists try their hand at deception, learning from a master, or staking a claim. As Orson Welles might have said in his F is For Fake, “If you want it bad enough, you will get it, one way or another.”

BRIAN BELOTT, ANDREW BURKHOLDER, BLOOD PILLOW, LIZA CORSILLO, CHRISTIAN DIETKUS, LIZ DURETTE, BALD EAGLES, FREDERIC FLEURY, JAMES FRANKLIN, TRAVIS FRAZELLE, AMANDA FRIEDMAN, LEIF GOLDBERG, XICO GREENWALD, DUNCAN HIRST, HAISI HU, ANDY LANE, BETH LIVENSPERGER, ILSE MURDOCK, MOLLY O’ CONNELL, R. SIKORYAK