OSMOS is honored to present a new body of work by the renowned American artist Duane Michals. This series includes Michals’ “Anti-Trump, Agitprop” sculptures and videos – work in media the artist has never shown before.

Since the 1970s Duane Michals has been best known for his photographic narratives mixing autobiography with history. His portrayals are as intimate as they are hyperbolic, especially when the artist assumes character roles for the camera. Provoking political change by way of total theater, Michals’ productions enact truth in an age of fake-news.

Over the last half-century, Michals has resisted the notion that photography is limited to the act of reproduction. Through “intrusions” on the image, whether in the form of text, multiple exposures, or paint, Michals has consistently reminded his viewers to not accept things as they appear. The resulting discursive image does not only show, but more importantly ask the viewer to question what is not shown.

While Duane Michals has previously stated that an artist’s political aspirations are “impotent,” this new body of work suggests a reconsideration of the artist’s role in speaking truth to power. Taking inspiration from Vladmir Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International (1919-1920) and employing the vocabulary of El Lissitzky's agitprop signs and Mikhail Plaksin's sculptures, Michals parodies the idiotic and absurd truisms pronounced by president Donald Trump to remind his audience to look a little deeper and to resist easy compliance