Observations on Celebrity, Personality & Power (Paperback)

Drawing from the media multiverse of TV shows, movies, and the internet, Cumwizard69420 casts a penetrating eye on the inflated egos and self-delusions raging through our celebrity-obsessed culture. And yet these images, which are often unnerving and frequently grotesque, are also generously human, laced with affection and humor. Cumwizard69420’s work reflects the chaotic topography of the internet, with subject matter that leans heavily on the scatological, the sexual, and the pop cultural.

Drawing from the media multiverse of TV shows, movies, and the internet, Cumwizard69420 casts a penetrating eye on the inflated egos and self-delusions raging through our celebrity-obsessed culture. And yet these images, which are often unnerving and frequently grotesque, are also generously human, laced with affection and humor.

With partner Howard Read, he opened the Cheim & Read Gallery in New York City in February, 1997. The continuity of Cheim’s vision and commitment to artists was immediately expressed in the gallery’s inaugural exhibition Lousie Bourgeois: Spider. In 1998, Cheim’s support of Alice Neel’s portraiture culminated in Alice Neel: Men In Suits, paintings from the 50s to the 80s. And in 2007, he curated the first ever survey of Joan Mitchell’s works on paper. The catalogue was co-produced with Steidl. Over the course of the past 25 years, the gallery has exhibited works by Dianne Arbus, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Donald Baechler, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Cumwizard69420, William Eggleston, Louise Fishman, Adam Fuss, Ron Gorchov, Al Held, Bill Jensen, Jonathan Lasker, Joan Mitchell, Alice Neel, Jack Pierson, Marco Pariani, Tal R, Milton Resnick, Sean Scully, Kimber Smith, Andy Warhol, and Matthew Wong, among others.