Roxy Paine and James Cohan Gallery are proud to announce a special exhibition of Paine’s Scumak sculptures to benefit Human Rights First. This is the third collaboration between James Cohan Gallery and Human Rights First.

In his diverse body of work, Roxy Paine mirrors natural processes, drawing increasingly on the tension between organic and man-made environments, between the human desire for order and nature’s drive to reproduce. Collectively, his works demonstrate the human attempt to impose order on natural forces, depicting the struggle between the natural and the artificial, the rational and the instinctual.

Paine has created a series of conceptually challenging art-making machines that mimic the creative process of the artist, effectively replacing the human element of artmaking with a computer program. His machine, Scumak No. 2 (Auto Sculpture Maker), melts pigmented polyethylene plastic and periodically extrudes it onto a conveyor belt, producing bulbous sculptures called Scumaks. Each one is unique and has its own specific character, subverting the expectations of sameness and precision typical for the output of an automated, mechanical system.