For his current exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery, Kaphar presents a painting show titled “Drawing the Blinds,” along with an extension of his 2011 Jerome Project titled “Asphalt and Chalk.” The former maintain’s Kaphar’s practice of bringing history into the present, and traditional artwork into the contemporary conversation.
Many of the works allude to the historical absence of African Americans and women from the verbal and visual canons. In “Behind the Myth of Benevolence” a portrait of a silver-haired man is peeled back like a fallen drape, revealing behind it a nude depiction of a black woman, gazing at the viewer. In “Stripes,” a similarly stuffy portrait of a white man is cut into strips, many of which are nailed to the surrounding wall, exposing the wooden frame beneath. The image is both mischievous and violent, a ghostly hoax and a work of sadism.