From the notes preceding a lecture given by Hancock at the San Fransisco Art Institute: Trenton Doyle Hancock’s intricate candy-colored prints, drawings, collaged felt paintings, and site-specific installations work together to tell the story of the Mounds—a group of bizarre mythical creatures that are the tragic protagonists of the artist’s unfolding narrative between good and evil.
Influenced equally by the history of painting as by the pulp imagery of pop-culture, Hancock transforms traditionally formal decisions—such as the use of color, language, and pattern—into opportunities to create new characters, develop subplots, and convey symbolic meaning. Hancock’s works are suffused with personal mythology presented at an operatic scale, often reinterpreting Biblical stories that the artist learned as a child from his family and local church community. His exuberant and subversive narratives employ a variety of cultural
tropes, ranging in tone from comic-strip superhero battles to medieval morality plays, and influenced in style by Hieronymus Bosch, Max Ernst, Henry Darger, Philip Guston, and R. Crumb."
More of Hancock's art at this blog.
Bio on Wikipedia.
Selections from James Cohan Gallery.
