David B. Frye “The Return Of The Mack”

Art During the Occupation Gallery / Brooklyn Fire Proof

[Image: David B. Frye, A painting detail from "Dejuener sur la Whiteman"]

This event has ended.

Art During the Occupation Gallery, Bushwick presents THE RETURN OF THE MACK, our second solo exhibition of the work of David B. Frye, showing both paintings and sculptures from the artist’s contentious “Lincoln paintings” series.

The artist’s previous solo with the gallery was titled, “So what did you do with the Money? The Monetized Negro and the Poltergeist of my Family’s Story within American History” and was exhibited in September of 2017.

ARTIST EXHIBITION STATEMENT

“The Lincoln Paintings were made between 2003-2015. They were the result of a kind of epiphany. At the time I began making them, I began to believe that people had begun to ignore objective truth wherever it frustrated their aims. I began to toy with the idea of creating false historical paintings and painting scenes that had never happened. I spent time pondering what such a painting would contain. What I reasoned is as follows:

American historical painting has, for the most part, always been about ideals and ideal realities. Americana is an ideal representation of the glory of us. Through this device painting is frequently pressed into the service of some perceived “good” to our society. I think of the happy slaves one sees romping through their chores at the splendid home of George Washington. I can promise you all, there is such a painting. It hangs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I did not paint it, of course, but it is as much a product of lies as any thing I have ever dreamt up. Such a painting not only tells the “story of George Washington,” it supports an ideal social order that many Americans are comfortable with believing. Think of pious Christian mothers free from the struggles and trials of women, or walls filled with images of those soldiers who do not bleed, but walk eternally towards the glory of battle. Our national story is made clean by means of these symbolic realities. Our history is thereby expunged of the lessons hidden in its tragedy. This may be seen as the noble lie that Plato spoke of.

Years ago, while I was attending a funeral reception, an old friend commented on his horror at seeing two men kiss. He went further to express his contempt for gay marriage. The whole time he was speaking his children played in front of a blaring television. On the T.V. screen were images of the burnt bodies of two men hanging from a bridge. The Iraq war was decent enough for his children, but sex never! It was then that I began to really wonder: what could be making so many people blind? Violence is all around and few people act to stop it. Very few people curse and oppose violence the way they oppose equality for gays. People speak out on somber occasions, organize voter referendums, and scream all night in churches to stop sex. The fact that American children are being shot on the way to school proves my point. There are limits on who can see sex, still more limits on who can buy or sell sex. However, anybody can buy a gun in most places. Then use it to adjudicate the most petty of grievances. I am convinced that no amount of depicting violence as it is would cause reflection, or even discussion. My work uses sexual imagery as a form of protest. I have asked myself, “Is a dick in somebody else’s ass worse than a child being shot on the way to school?” (Although violence endures as a constant.)

Even though violence is the wallpaper in the kitchen of our national home, and as such ignored, I hope for a time where love is the law, and kindness a standard.”

—David B. Frye, New York, 2018