Trump Protest Signs Inspire Lower East Side Art Exhibit

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — A Lower East Side gallery is displaying new artwork that's largely inspired by protest signs and news from Trump's America.

The exhibit, titled "Breaking News," comes from the artist Michael Landy who has focused on news cycles and tabloid coverage in different countries over the last several years before turning his attention to the U.S. and the election of President Donald Trump.

Landy is showing "Breaking News" for the first time in the U.S. at the Sperone Westwater gallery, 257 Bowery, where his red and white drawings depict images and headlines from the first year of Trump's presidency and protest signs from the thousands who have demonstrated against Trump.

Landy told New York Magazine that his vision for the show was in part spurred by Trump's campaign promises: he was "inspired by Donald Trump when he talked about building a wall, so I thought I’d build wall of protest," he said.

"The New York iteration centers on a group of drawings showing individual protesters," according to the exhibit's description. "Made since the shock November 2016 election of Donald Trump, these drawings have become still more urgent and provocative, with slogans and signs taken from the many rallies staged in the months following the election."

"I've become much more aware of how it's brought people together—not necessarily under one umbrella, but people know who the enemy is," Landy told Vice about the protests against Trump

Landy is best known for his 2001 performance art project in which he and assistants rented a storefront in London and systematically destroyed each of Landy's more than 7,000 possessions. The third floor of the Sperone Westwater gallery is dedicated to Landy's inventory of the thousands of things he once owned and later destroyed.

Image credit: Courtesy of Michael Landy and Sperone Westwater, New York