The Mask of Civilization
Sutures Schisms and Decay
New work by Garth Thompson-Vieira
Steeped in the visual language of anarchist ideologies and the barbaric sound of the macabre, Garth Thompson-Vieira’s new work transforms the Backroom Gallery into a repository of nightmarish scenes from over 30 works of collage. Articulated by automatist techniques, Thompson-Vieira’s practice extracts representational forms from the cut-outs from early 20th-century French illustration books and the grisly patterns of overpainting. Military battalions transform into pillars of war, lurid portraits ooze with terror, and as a result, the haunting imagery reveals what lies beneath the mask of civilization.
Garth Thompson-Vieira is a 2005 graduate at the San Francisco Art Institute and currently lives and works in New York. Adobe Books is proud to present The Mask of Civilization: Sutures, Schisms and Decay as the body of work calls attention to the unseen surrenders of progress and innovation as well as the store’s own veiled mutations and traces of decay.
Music performance by SHREDDING at 9:00pm
Adobe Books Backroom Gallery
Opening Reception on Thursday, 26 March, 2009 8:00-10:00pm
Exhibition dates 26 March - 25 April, 2009
