"At eye level, artist Chris Santa Maria’s six-foot-high collage 'PRESIDENT TRUMP' (2016-2020), currently on view at
Jim Kempner Fine Art
in Manhattan, depicts a gargantuan figure hovering above a densely
populated landscape. However, a closer look reveals thousands of
individual photographs — some as small as three-eighths of an inch —
meticulously cut out from newspapers, magazines and internet print-outs
in the last four years. Patches of orange-tinted skin, tiny puckering mouths, and eyes evocative of genitalia crystallize into
the immediately recognizable head of the giant. He floats in a galaxy
of emojis, jungle animals, reclining nudes from famous paintings, and
tabloid shots of pop culture figures, from Barack Obama to Kanye West. Every
element in the cacophonous scene, a hybrid of a Where’s Waldo puzzle
and Hieronymus Bosch’s 'Garden of Earthly Delights,' has been culled
from the unsettlingly familiar visual torrent of Trump’s presidency. ..." (Mike B.)
Hyperallergic
Chris Santa Maria
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