Trenton Doyle Hancock

Best known for his exuberant paintings centered around semitragic fictional characters called the Mounds, Trenton Boyle Hancock (born 1974) is also a prolific draftsman. The first in-depth examination of his drawings, collages and works on paper, this comprehensive survey brings together works made between 1984 and 2014. Tracing the evolution of Hancock's vision by showing the genesis of his mythology, including that of the epic Mound saga, and his wide range of high and low influences (comics, graphic novels, cartoons, music and film, as well as visual art), this catalogue demonstrates the fundamental, continuing importance of drawing in Hancock's work up to the present day. Also included in this volume is a 32-page comic book.

It's the Mounds versus the Vegans in their inaugural published battle, and the heat is on. This first monograph and storybook from a major young African-American artist describes an ancient conflict: the peaceful, organic Mounds may have been created by the same father, Homerbuctas, who made their violent, nightmarish enemies the Vegans, but the two clans have been caught up in a tragi-comic struggle through nearly a decade's installations, paintings, drawings and etchings. Me a Mound combines biblical allusions, gags, food, and sex as it describes their saga in Hancock's laconic Texan prose and lays it out in his explosively colorful paintings. It's filled with new work created just for the book and a comprehensive overview of Hancock's oeuvre, on top of the entire Mounds versus Vegans saga to date, plus trading cards and inserts. Once readers have ventured through the die-cut cover into Hancock's universe--whether they are followers of contemporary art who recognize his name from two successive recent Whitney Biennials, fans of graphic novels, or general-interest browsers drawn in by the book's bright, cartoonish look--they will find it hard to see the world in quite the same way again.