Deb Sokolow: The Presidents (some of them)

About the Exhibition

In a project mounted on the heels of an unprecedentedly strange presidential election, Deb Sokolow: The Presidents (some of them) is a series of drawings focusing on humorous and bizarre anecdotes about former United States presidents and associates. Speculating on their larger, perhaps more sinister implications, these anecdotes are at the center of second-person narratives that blend fact with fiction and leave the reading viewer to wonder how much of the story is true and to determine when, if ever, the narrator can be trusted.

A staple of her work, Sokolow’s inquisitive unnamed narrator asks many questions in order to comically speculate on the histories, legends and conspiracies at the center of institutional and political narratives. His or her voice, though at times clear and at others delusional, parallels the pendulous nature of the collective American psyche. And ultimately, at a time when the United States is on the precipice of change (and as the College community ponders its own century-long legacy), this narrator forces us to consider what is perhaps the most important question of all: Are we even asking the right question(s)?