LMAKgallery is pleased to present “Hard Sell,” a solo installation in our outdoor courtyard by New York–based artist Jeff Gibson. Consisting of a cluster of five custom-designed, double-sided A-frame signs bearing cryptic configurations of shape-fitted, silhouetted product shots, the exhibit’s comically assisted readymades defy our expectations of both art and street-level advertising.

Four of the A-frame signs combine dichotomous commercial imagery (e.g., red meat and microphones, fried food and hairpieces) selected from the artist’s extensive image bank of appropriated jpgs, appearing at once familiar and uncannily off. The fifth sign presents a two-part taxonomy of fake greenery—artificial hedges, astro-turf, plastic ivy, and so on— that sits in weird dis/harmony with the classically urban, grungy setting. The taxonomic aspect of Gibson’s work stems from his childhood love of dictionaries, compendia, and illustrated encyclopedia.

To quote the artist: “I am fascinated by typological systems, codes of social and cultural conduct, or any institutional effort at fixing meaning or aesthetic standards.” Gibson scrambles these codes with a Punk attitude, upending their authority while tweaking our perceptions and assumptions.