Clark V. Fox: Subversion and Spectacle

Station Museum

In CURRENT EXHIBITION, NEWS Posted November 24, 2021

ANN AND JAMES HARITHAS AND THE STATION MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART ARE PLEASED TO PRESENT CLARK V. FOX: SUBVERSION AND SPECTACLE

Opening: Thursday, May 26, 2022 through September 25, 2022.

I was shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of Ann Harithas. There will never be another individual like her. This is a huge loss to our culture, but her extraordinary legacy will live on. Ann was a great friend, who I first met in 1975 at her gallery in Houston while on a visit to see James Harithas.  While serving as director of my 501C3 MOCADC (Museum of Contemporary Art in Washington, DC), I was fortunate enough to be able to exhibit Ann’s wonderful socio-political collages in a show in 1998. With her husband James, they made a great impact on the art world with their three pioneering museums, and through their great support of so much art and so many artists. This year, we will continue our collaboration in one of her museums, making the show Subversion and Spectacle, one of the most cherished that I have ever presented in my 55 years as an artist. The exhibition will be dedicated to Ann. I am so grateful for having been graced by her generosity, respect, and amazing sensibility for the arts.
– Clark V. Fox

Clark V. Fox: Subversion and Spectacle is a survey of Clark Fox’s (Michael Clark) many modes of work that highlight his ingenuity and unmatched eye.

Subversion and Spectacle tracks the various periods and aesthetic sensibilities of Clark V. Fox, drawing on the complexity of his identities beyond art historical boxes, commercial tropes, and simple classification.

This exhibition highlights Clark’s consistent mixing of styles and movements as a political statement, examining his work as an artist thinking broadly about the subtle connections between the imagery of consumerism, history, identity, and formalist considerations.

Clarks deploys techniques like Pointillism, stenciling, and screen-printing as art historical associations in his visual vocabulary. By incorporating the imagery of American pop culture, symbols of the American Indian, American consumerism, and historical figureheads he renders new signifiers for the resultant images. Through this technique Clark simultaneously performs an identity while dissolving it subverting the visual languages to which it refers.

Subversion and Spectacle originates from Insurgent: The Paintings of Clark Fox, an exhibition curated by Ann Harithas for the Five Points Museum in Victoria, Texas. 

The Station Museum of Contemporary Art is located at 1502 Alabama st. in Houston, Texas 77004 and is open to the public 11AM-6PM, Wednesday through Sunday. Admission at the museum is always free. For more information, for event and program information please contact: Jordan Lee Harris, Media Contact at 713-529-6900.

ABOUT CLARK V. FOX
Using appropriated corporate and political icons, Clark V. Fox dismantles the effects of capitalist culture on our consciousness. In his art, Fox explores the basic components of visual expression in order to redefine our understanding of social and political identity.

Clark’s iconoclastic portraits provide a framework for reconnection, reinstatement, and reconciliation between culture and creativity. By coupling the same marketing techniques as the advertising industry, and in a time when corporate morality and consciousness is suspect, Clark creates slyly subversive work which challenges our ingenuity, imagination and ultimately our humanity.