With ending begins

Elliott Hundley

Hundreds of images populate each of Elliott Hundley’s billboard-sized tableaux, as concrete figural subjects are stretched to the limits of perception, often to the point of becoming abstraction. He often begins by photographing his friends in costumes and acting out scenes, which he prints on rice paper and affixes to the canvas with thousands of tiny pins, as though they were etymologist’s specimens. Along with these photographs, Hundley connects clippings from magazines, pieces of fabrics, and images from his earlier works, building and removing layers to create a history that tells itself within the painting. Though in some ways these works continue the legacy of Robert Rauschenberg’s mixed-media Combines, Hundley has said he finds inspiration for the kaleidoscopic works in a much older source: Greek plays and the endless permutations created by each new performance.