From James Dean to Karl Lagerfeld, from Breakfast at Tiffany's to They Live: black sunglasses are as notorious as the celebrities they conceal. In February 2018, New York Surrealist ClockWork Cros brings more than 400 double-cut clock portraits -- all behind sunglasses -- to the heart of Hollywood to confront this legacy of glamorous detachment.

In Shade, Crosby presents a floor-to-ceiling installation that explores how sunglasses mediate control, composure and mystique between idols and their viewers. With hundreds of clocks depicting icons of stage and screen, Crosby interrogates Hollywood’s bright lights from a New York vantage, asking what remains when eyes are left unseen. Do stars become someone else behind sunglasses? Or, as Crosby posits, are shades a mask that nevertheless reveal the true self?

Shade is the first Los Angeles solo exhibition by ClockWork Cros. His hand-built clocks explore the disposability of celebrity and confront the longevity and reputation of an iconic life by placing time itself on the face of the subject. Crosby’s clocks have shown in galleries, art fairs and collections throughout the world, including the Future Hive at The Seventh Letter, Wallplay’s lounge at ComplexCon and multiple exhibitions at Art Basel Miami Beach, as well as The Armory Show and Frieze New York. A native of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Crosby lives and works in New York.

Shade opens February 24, 2018 and will run until March 22 at de Plume Gallery in East Hollywood. Recent exhibitions at de Plume include Gateway to the Moon 3.0, described by Los Angeles Magazine as “a dizzying display of geometry . . . calculated and precise,” and The Intro, showing international emerging talent.