For more information
Exhibitions:
Cade Tompkins at Spring/Break Art Show, New York, 2018
55 Mercer Gallery, NYC, 2001
Ben Mangel Gallery, Philadelphia, 1999
Bibliography:
in “Male Desire: The Homoerotic in American Art,” by Jonathan Weinberg, 2005, H. N. Abrams, NY, 2005
This painting is the second of three “American History” paintings produced between 1995 and 2001, each large and each gouache on paper. “Nancy: A Hero For Right Now!”, 1999 and the first in the series, “The Death of Eddie Polec and Other Stories from Philadelphia and Elsewhere,” 1995, were reproduced and discussed at length in “Male Desire: The Homoerotic in American Art,” by Jonathan Weinberg, 2005, H. N. Abrams, NY, 2005. “Nancy: A Hero…” refers to a feud between two American Olympic skaters, Nancy Kerrigan and Tanya Harding, when the “perfect” Kerrigan was injured with a stab to the knee by “trashy” Harding’s ex-boyfriend. The feud spilled from tabloids to front page journals in the late ‘90’s, and was the subject of the 2017 film I, Tonya by Craig Gillespie. The incident came to represent more than just a duel between two athletes, as Nancy was continuously supported by international press while Harding was increasingly vilified. Beyond the two skaters, Nancy: A Hero… also contains references to a wide range of issues and ideas, including gender identification, the artist Georgia O’Keefe, late 1990’s Philadelphia, medieval France, a painting of the Native American Oneida chief Shikellamy and the founding of Philadelphia in the 17th century, the martyrdom of St. Ursula and the 100 virgins, and on and on. Nancy: A Hero for Right Now! is framed in wood. Property of the artist.