Following the success of Mickey Boardman’s Eat Me!, his curatorial debut with Trotter&Sholer, we are pleased to present Paper Boys, a 4-man show of artists working with paper as a medium rather than a mere support. As Paper Magazine’s Editorial Director, this exhibition offers Boardman the opportunity to reflect on paper in a broader context, and provides a convenient pun about his longtime place of work. Paper Boys features works by Mark Gagnon, Adam Himebauch, Bernie Kaminski, and Scott Lifshutz.
Mark Gagnon is a former commercial illustrator and painter who’s began working in paper mache to make frames for his paintings. He’s branched off into creating an entire repertoire of hand-sculpted, hand-painted objects from historical busts to exotic birds and canned vegetables.
Adam Himebauch, known by some as his pseudonym Hanksy, is primarily known as a painter of large-scale stylized landscapes. For this exhibition, Himebauch is sharing his collage work -- which often inform his painting compositions -- for the first time. These works are a clear reflection of Himebauch’s visual language. They are instinctual compositions that have a depth and texture that draws a viewer in.
Sculptor Bernie Kaminski elevates mundane everyday objects into precious objects. He makes faithful representations of items he encounters, but their recreation in paper mache elevate them to objects worthy of deep consideration. For example, his folded Lacoste polo shirt, rendered in paper mache has no value as apparel, but creates a new kind of conversation about material, purpose, and object. His medicine cabinet is a drugstore version of Dresden’s Grunes Gewolbe, but instead of precious trinkets it’s filled with tampons and Vick’s Vap-O-Rub.
Scott Lifshutz is a painter who established himself as a portraitist with a series of Egyptian pop stars displayed at the seminal downtown nightclub Fez. Known for his prodigious technique, Lifshutz has recently been working in watercolor on paper, creating blue and white “tiles” of surreal scenes of animals and characters that call to mind Hieronymous Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. The works are individual, but also work together to create a tile mural.
This exhibition is a celebration of paper as a means of sharing visual information. In his capacity as editor of Paper magazine, Boardman has decades of experience using paper to share the written word, photography and other visual information. Exploring the mailability of paper allows for a sense of play and exploration that is at the heart of this exhibition.
Paper Boys is on view at 168 Suffolk Street through Aug. 9, 2025.
