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painting, acrylic, tar, shredded erotica, and communion wafer, 2004 exhibition view, Momenta Art, 2004 detail view, acrylic, tar, and shredded erotica, 2004 painting, acrylic, tar, shredded erotica, and communion wafer, 2004 exhibition view, photography, tar, and Vaseline, 2006 detail view, photography, tar, and Vaseline, 2006

The Man was my first portrait series created after graduate school while working as Glenn Ligon’s studio assistant. With his mentoring, I made these paintings and photographs of tar, Vaseline, and shredded adult magazines with a mop. The work were exhibited at Momenta Art, revered by critic Akiko Ichikawa, and hinted at new, non-traditional approaches to rendering the self.