POP-UP EXHIBIT

Wickerham & Lomax

For part one of the Time Capsule exhibition, Wickerham & Lomax begin an examination of the spirit with which the American public confronts the American Dream.

The referencing of the entrepreneur and the creative existing in contemporary Baltimore has been positioned under a subversive lens which draws from aspects of American portraiture.

How does one render success? The artist’s answer is presenting their images in a square aspect ratio common to the iconic Instagram post. Models are dressed in a t-shirt collection and manipulated suits, the regalia of casual, corporate America. Images are framed in motifs associated with the presidential, the hustler, the commodity and the fictional—asking the viewer what archetype they embody.

“Velks Reflect/ Child Birth,” the poem present in the space as an introduction to a published collection, centers around an alien couple visiting contemporary America as tourists. They disagreed with the practices of their former home world, but eventually carve out a space for themselves in America.

The proposition isn’t a survey of America as a whole but a stylistic gesture about negotiating the artist’s space in a continually morphing conversation.

About the artists

Wickerham & Lomax is the collaborative name of Baltimore-based artists Daniel Wickerham (b. Columbus, Ohio, 1986) and Malcolm Lomax (b. Abbeville, South Carolina, 1986). Their practice is based on the accelerated exchange of frivolous information, gossip, and codified language that crystallizes into accessible forms in hopes of giving dignity to that exchange.

Formerly known as DUOX, the artists have been working together since 2009 across diverse media, curatorial platforms, and institutional contexts, creating a body of work at once context-specific and broadly engaged with networked virtualities. They continue to develop a digital narrative franchise entitled BOY’Dega, which considers dissolving hierarchies between, author, character, actor, and fan. Wickerham & Lomax are particularly invested in questions of identity and the body, exploring the impact of digital technologies and social spaces on the formation of subjectivities and speculative corporealities. They have describe their practice as being full of “fanboy hissy fits.”

Recent exhibitions by Wickerham & Lomax include The Writers Room at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, Baltimore, MD (2018); DUOX4Odell’s: You’ll Know If You Belong, commissioned by Neighborhood Lights, Light City, Baltimore (2017); Uncool at Terrault Contemporary, Baltimore (2016); Take Karaoke: A Proposition for Performance Art at Brown University, Providence, RI (2015); the Sondheim Prize Finalist Exhibition, Baltimore (2015); Girth Proof at Dem Passwords, Los Angeles (2015); the premiere of Encore in the AFTALYFE at the Artists Space booth, Frieze NY 2014; and BOY’Dega: Edited4Syndication for New Museum’s First Look series; DUOX4Larkin, Artists Space, New York (2012).

Wickerham & Lomax are the 2015 winners of the $25,000 Janet and Walter Sondheim Prize.

VISIT

Where: 1258 4th St NE, Washington, DC in the Union Market District

When: November 22, 2019-January 12, 2020

Hours: Wednesday-Sunday from 11-6pm

Limited edition T-Shirts are for sale for $40; Poetry books for sale for $20; buy both for $50

Events

• Friday, November 22 at 7pm

  • Opening Reception

• Thursday, December 12 at 7pm

  • SOUF CARE & SOUF DEFENSE: a poetry reading and pOPERA (pop-up opera) collaboration. Malcolm Lomax will read excerpts from his poetry collection accompanied by Soprano Annie Gill.