The Armory Show

For the 2021 edition of the Armory Show, Garth Greenan Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of 14 paintings and works on paper by Brad Kahlhamer, all created between 2002 and 2014. Brad Kahlhamer’s works are expressive matrices of images, text, and gestural paint—reflecting a rich, peripatetic history. Opening on Thursday, September 9, 2021, the presentation is the artist’s first with the gallery.

Greatest Geronimo (2013) depicts the Apache leader who fought against Mexican and US troops, and whose name—through American’s peculiar cultural alchemy—was appropriated by US military paratroopers and ultimately, by the American children who imitate them.

Throughout the composition—and in works like 4 Topps NDN (2013) and Americannons and LUVRS (2009)—Kahlhamer replicates the Topps Chewing Gum logo. While working for the company, the artist met Art Spiegelman, who in turn introduced him to New York’s thriving underground comics scene. The influence is evident in Kahlhamer’s jagged lines, informality, and improvisational tendencies.

Like much of Kahlhamer’s work, Greatest Geronimo is a frenetic mix of visual registers: stenciled spray paint and acrylic; dreamcatchers, teepees, headdresses, eagles, and buffalo. The easy mixing of tribal signals reflects what the artist has described as his “tribal ambiguity.” His official connection is sealed in records that predate his adoption by German American parents. The works, and his life, explore this disjunction and union, as well as the energetic tension between authenticity and ambiguity.

Garth Greenan Gallery is pleased to represent Brad Kahlhamer.