Wes Lang collages and textures ideas and philosophies into his work. Looking at the work that is The Black Paintings, a series created between 2022-2024 as we all emerged from a uncertain pandemic and subsequent societal shift, Lang juxtaposed a series of influences and memories into the body of work: "a monster finger puppets thath he had as a child, Francis Bacon’s Man in Blue series, the 1920s serial film The Moon Riders,Edouard Vuillard and the skeletons and monsters of James Ensor’s paintings." Now on view at Damien Hirst's Newport Street Gallery in London, The Black Paintings are a cacophony of mantras and inner dialogues, for what Lang says,  "I really wanted to sit down and make a body of work that shows people that all this noise and all these divisive faces of evil that we’re told matter don’t have to consume your mind and the way you feel about the world." —Evan Pricco

Alongside the show at Newport Street Gallery, an exhibition of 96 works on paper by Wes Lang goes on show at HENI Gallery, 27 September to 22 November 2024.