Coup is an exhibition curated by Candice Madey and features the works of 13 male artists exploring themes of spectacle and aggression.

The works and the theme of the exhibition are both provoking and confrontational. Many works have overt references to guns and militias. A life size fabricated 23mm anti aircraft gun by Alfredo Martinez commands the center of the gallery space, containing a small video playing actual footage of an American attack helicopter firing on Iraqi farmers. Lee Wells’s large scale painting presents a squad of American soldiers who stand in quietly strategizing, in bleak black and white contours covered in a haze of white paint, rendering the exact identities and intentions of the unit unclear. Further obscured is the motivation behind the sparse and anonymous stick figures commanding one another in Rodney Dickson’s otherwise nearly abstract white painting. Emil Memon’s photograph unmistakably refers to the violent dystopia of Africa incarnated in a diptych that joins a pixilated photograph of an armed youth in Charles Talyor’s militia (perplexingly wearing a pink wig) with a crystal-clear and beautiful photograph of the red rings of Saturn. Hackworth Ashley paints a more metaphorical assault in his painting of Mary-Kate Olsen in which the celebrity affronts the viewer with penile projections, compounding America’s obsession with imagery of celebrity and violence. Eric Payson’s installation of 9 lightboxes considers power, authority and irresponsibility in the West Virginian miner’s tragedy through use of news media clips, and the painful victimhood that ensued. Shannon McGregor’s faces affront the viewer with imposing gestures, presented in a simplified iconic manner of stencils and spray paint; as does Eric Watson’s sketch-style figure aiming a gun at the viewer. Allan D. Hasty confronts our perceptions of reality itself, in process-oriented work which his female models are wrapped, covered, appearances’ distorted, then photographed, creating the appearance of a collage or painted figure with an obvious art historical reference, in this case, Warhol’s “Marilyn” and a reclining Modigliani. Samuel L. Saunders III also plays with perspectives, offering the viewer a c-print from a video still with a small figure (Countess) in a baroque influenced ornate frame, somewhat displacing our perception of space.

Video is well-represented as well. Critical Art Ensemble offers a work which presents media footage of member Steven Kurtz’s arrest and FBI investigation into the group’s biotech projects, bringing to light the futility and wasted resources of our government’s war on terror. Steve Kurtz is currently awaiting trial for mail and wire fraud. If convicted, he could be sentenced up to 20 years in federal prison. Stewart Home’s works are parodies of 70’s English punk scene, anarchy, the avant-garde and tabloid pornography, based off his novels “No Pity” and “Red London”; They mock the notion of sex, violence and the spectacle to the point of absurdity. Conspiracy theories conform on their own in Joaquin Segura’s piece Conspiranoia, an attempt to sketch an overview of this ultimate conspiracy, not devoid of humor and sarcasm, since the main sources for this work are mostly pop-culture paraphernalia such as comics, TV-series, debunked literature and `investigative’ sensational journalism.

In all works the overarching desire to shape right and wrong, to place blame, and to understand exactly where one finds truth is unclear. When confronted or assailed, one wants to understand clearly what one perceives and make quick judgments, and today that seems more difficult than ever. Transparency is overcome with obscurity and false realities.

Related blog post: NEWYORK artscene