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Title Round Michael Eastman Blue Column, c. 2010 Archival chromogenic print 24 x 18 inches Estimated Value Range: $3,500 - $5,000 Starting Bid: $1,750 Bidding increments: $250 Michael Eastman's photograph titled Blue Column is a chromogenic color photograph created in 1993. This piece, also known as Column, Budapest , measures 60 × 48 inches and is part of a limited edition of 7 prints. Eastman is renowned for his large-scale photographs that capture architectural interiors and facades with painterly precision. His work often explores themes of time, decay, and the beauty found in aging structures. Blue Column exemplifies these themes, showcasing his ability to find serenity and narrative within architectural forms More: Michael Eastman Michael Eastman has established himself as one of the world's leading contemporary photographic artists. The self-taught photographer has spent five decades documenting interiors and facades in cities as diverse as Havana, Paris, Rome, and New Orleans, producing large-scale photographs unified by their visual precision, monumentality, and painterly use of color. Eastman is most recognized for his explorations of architectural form and the textures of decay, which create mysterious narratives about time and place. Eastman's photographs have appeared in Time , Life , Art in America, Art News, Art Forum, Communication Arts and American Photographer , and they reside in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the International Center of Photography, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and other prestigious institutions. His books include Havana (2011, Prestel), Vanishing America (2008, Rizzoli) and Horses (2003, Knopf).

Oct 8-Nov 7, 2021 Lawrence Baker Taking Another Look Oct 8-Nov 7, 2021 Lawrence Baker, Invitation 1 . Graphite on paper, 40 x 60 in. Courtesy the artist. The Museum of Creative Human Art presents Taking Another Look, a collection of drawings on paper by Lawrence Baker. With his preferred media of graphite, he experiments with color washes and composition to create images of elements found in nature. Influenced by landscape artists, especially Vincent Van Gogh, Baker prioritizes aesthetic choices when expressing himself through his work. During his process of creation, Baker states that his, “mind becomes like unperturbed water: clear, stripped bare, and unencumbered.” He remarks, “As I stand before each blank canvas, my universe becomes the white of the paper and the black of the graphite...Naked is how I came into the world and this is how I approach my work. The emotional baggage that I carry every waking moment of my life is set aside; although in the end, it somehow is manifested in the finished art. I only take what nature provides, making images from what I see and creating a vision that will exceed the sum of its parts.” Presented in partnership w/ About the Artist Lawrence Baker. Photo: Alvin Smith/The Urban Design Suit Lawrence Baker I was born in Jacksonville, Florida during the late 1940's, where dreams were dangerous and notions of high self-esteem were deadly for young Bblack males. In a published book ( Middle Passage: The Artistic Life of Lawrence Baker by Louis B. Burroughs Jr.), I share stories of my torn relationships, the magnetism of the streets, and how art became the canvas for my particular portrayal of life. For me, life became a series of calculations; any miscalculations would have led to my undoing. My sometime successes nourished me. I chose art as my vehicle to seek out some of those successes. Though over a period of twenty to thirty years off and on of seeking higher education, I always made an effort to continue learning in some capacity. Some of those steps of continued learning included receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a minor in Education, Masters of Arts, and Master of Fine Arts from Kent State University, Kent Ohio (1989). I also was the recipient of a Doctorate of Humane Letters from Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio. Even while reaching for higher education, I continued on seeking acknowledgements for my art. I continued pursuing art to achieve as many successes as possible. Some of my early solo art exhibitions took place at Karamu House, Cleveland, Ohio (1983); Trumbull Art Gallery (1995); Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, Ohio (2002); Mississippi Valley State University, Ita Bena, Mississippi (2003); Alabama A&M University, Huntsville, Alabama (2006); Erie Art Museum, Erie Pennsylvania, and Cleveland Botanical Gardens , Cleveland, Ohio (both 2007). Some of my selected group art exhibitions include: Annual NOVA Painting Show at Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, (1982); Afro-American Artist Invitational Exhibition at Lakewood Community College, Mentor, Ohio (1984); Each in their Own Voices, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, and Andrews Art Museum, Andrews, North Carolina (both 2009). I have been seeking acknowledgement for my endeavors into fine arts for more than fifty years. In a lot of instances, I have sorted out those efforts through competitive international, national, and local competitions. I have also tried through recognition from foundations with some relations to visual arts. One of my most recent accomplishments was being recognized by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 2 017. Some of the most recent competitions include: t he 33rd Annual Tallahassee International , Tallahassee Museum of Fine Arts; the 39th Annual Paper in Particular National Exhibition , Columbia College, Columbia, Missouri, the 46th International Exhibition , Brownsville Museum of Fine Arts, Brownsville, Texas (Third Place), and the 61st Chautauqua Annual Art Exhibition , Chautauqua, New York (all 2018). —Lawrence Baker

News + Read more at Inside Climate News Sunday, February 4, 2024 Fighting for a Foothold in American Law, the Rights of Nature Movement Finds New Possibilities in a Change of Venue: the Arts The celebrated artist Andrea Bowers grew up in Ohio on Lake Erie. Her exhibit at MoCa makes a case that the lake and its tributaries possess the legal rights to “Exist, Flourish and Evolve. By Katie Surma CLEVELAND—The ailing Cuyahoga river, bloated with industrial pollution, erupted into flames reaching as high as a five story building on June 22, 1969. The river, one of several heavily polluted waterways that feed Lake Erie, had caught fire at least a dozen times over the course of a decade, the horror of which helped spark the nascent U.S. environmental movement, leading to the enactment of landmark legislation like the 1972 Clean Water Act. Fast forward nearly a half century to 2014, when Lake Erie, after having endured decades of pollution from industrial, agricultural and other human activities, was stricken with toxic algae blooms so intense that roughly 500,000 people living near the lake lost access to drinking water for three days. Those residents were left questioning what 50 years of environmental laws actually protected: ecosystems or industry’s right to pollute. Such are the bookends of Andrea Bowers’ new “ Exist, Flourish and Evolve ” exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland (MoCa), showing now through May 26. Bowers, an Ohio native and internationally acclaimed artist, named the exhibit for three of the legal rights that activists enshrined into a 2019 law known as the Lake Erie Bill of Rights. The idea was, in part, to level the legal playing field between the interests of the lake, on one hand, and those of industry, on the other. Ecuador, Panama, Bolivia and Spain are some of the countries where lakes, rivers, forests, wild animals and Earth itself have been recognized as rights-bearing entities. The so-called rights of nature laws typically provide a higher form of protection than conventional environmental regulations and usually give human legal guardians the ability to enforce the rights on behalf of rivers, forests and wild animals. Exist, Flourish and Evolve provokes visitors to confront philosophical arguments behind the rights of nature movement: principally, that nature is not a thing, or merely human property as conventional law treats it. Rather, Earth and its ecosystems are complex living communities to which humans belong. Modern science confirms this fact and legal systems ought to catch up to that reality, advocates argue. The exhibition takes place across two locations. The first, a giant red, green and blue neon sculpture installed outside Cleveland’s lakefront Great Lakes Science Center and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame declares: “Lake Erie Has the Right to Exist, Flourish, & Naturally Evolve.” The second, at MoCa, holds Bowers’ drawings, additional neon light installations, a documentary film and activists’ posters and campaign paraphernalia, including a sign boldly asking the question: “If Corporations Have Rights, Shouldn’t Mother Nature?” In between displays of Bowers’ drawings are photographic images of the 1969 Cuyahoga fires and algae blooms of the 2010s, raising questions about the effectiveness of environmental protection efforts in the intervening years. Nuclear power plants, offshore wind farms, and factory farming are some of the region’s other industrial activities highlighted throughout the exhibit. For Bowers, who grew up splashing in Lake Erie’s waters, working on Exist, Flourish and Evolve has been deeply personal. Her first word was neither mom nor dad, but “lake,” and her family lived closely to the land with her father, an avid fisherman and hunter, running the police boat on the lake. A quintessential advocate, Bowers is known for using her art to amplify the plight of feminists, Indigenous communities, environmentalists, immigrants, workers and others. She spends lengthy periods of time in the field with activists, learning about their work and how she can be of service to their cause. She’s embedded with Indigenous communities at Standing Rock and was arrested in 2011 alongside fellow activists for “tree sitting” in protest of the razing of trees in her current home town of Los Angeles. “I always ask the simplest question which is, ‘How can my art be in service to you?’” Bowers said of her approach to working with other activists. “They are the driving force in terms of content and I try to create and use my access to institutions to bring attention to their issues.” For Exist, Flourish and Evolve , Bowers teamed up with the U.S.-based nonprofit Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), an organization that helped enact the world’s first rights of nature law in 2006 in a rural Pennsylvania town . Bowers spent most of 2019 talking with CELDF’s consulting director Tish O’Dell and learning about the organization’s thwarted efforts to make U.S. rights of nature laws more than symbolic—despite nearly 20 years of effort, no U.S.-based rights of nature law has been enforced. Courts have struck down the laws on a variety of grounds, including state law preemption . O’Dell explained to Bowers how 61 percent of Toledo voters, fed up with toxic algae blooms and other environmental degradation, enacted the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) into law in February 2019, and how a day later, an industrial farm challenged the constitutionality of the law. In February 2020, a federal court in Ohio struck down LEBOR, reasoning that it was unconstitutionally vague and exceeded the authority of a municipal government. Since then, O’Dell and her CELDF colleagues have entered a period of reflection, wondering how to advance their movement in light of the roadblocks erected in U.S. legal and political systems. Working with Bowers and learning about the power of art, O’Dell began riffing on a longstanding question in the legal world: Does law influence the culture, or does culture influence the law? “We had been so focused for so long on using the law to change our culture,” O’Dell said. “Andrea gave us a different way of thinking about organizing and how we can use cultural change to shift mindsets and use that to shift the laws.” And so CELDF, in partnership with Bowers, rolled out a two-phase “ Truth, Reckoning, and Right Relationship ” conference in late 2023 and April 2024. The fall 2023 meeting at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame convened doctors, lawyers, activists, Indigenous people, students and others to reckon with how existing legal, political, educational, economic and cultural systems have contributed to the “ill health” of the Great Lakes. A gathering in April 2024 will focus on how, beyond changing laws, humanity can come back into “right relationship” with those ecosystems. “Maybe then we won’t need laws to instruct us to not poison ourselves,” O’Dell said. Still, she and her CELDF colleagues have not given up on their work in the legal realm. In March 2022, New York state Assemblyman Patrick Burke, with the help of CELDF, introduced the Great Lakes Bill of Rights , aimed at “securing legal rights” for the Great Lake’ ecosystems. The bill is pending in committee, with Democrats currently in control of the legislature and governorship. As exhibit attendees exit Exist, Flourish and Evolve , a final neon and painted installation underscores that unfolding effort in bold letters: “The Great Lakes Ecosystem Shall Possess the Inalienable and Fundamental Rights Not to be Owned or Privatized or Monetized.” Previous Next

Studio Access w/ Manabu Ikeda Feb 3, 2024 Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season. About Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season. Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season.

Press Release DOWNLOAD PDF Tuesday, July 9, 2024 Cleveland, Ohio—(July 9, 2024) The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (moCa) is excited to announce the appointment of DJ Hellerman as its new Deputy Director & Senior Curator. Hellerman most recently served as Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) in Philadelphia, PA. In the spirit of moCa Cleveland’s newly clarified mission, Art Now, in progress, Hellerman will guide the museum’s curatorial vision and work collaboratively with staff and board leadership to support moCa’s outreach, engagement, and sustainability goals. In announcing the appointment, moCa’s Kohl Executive Director Megan Lykins Reich notes, “Across all of his positions, DJ has honed a responsive curatorial practice that is inclusive, flexible, and creative, one that aligns strongly with moCa’s new mission. He balances a passion for artists with a commitment to audiences that will further moCa’s vision to open and connect people through contemporary art.” “This is an exciting moment of growth and evolution for me and moCa. I’m honored to be joining such a dedicated team actively creating the foundation for moCa’s future,” Hellerman said. Curatorial collaboration is a key driver of moCa’s current and future work. Hellerman will organize exhibitions and also nurture relationships with curators in Cleveland and elsewhere to develop new projects, beginning as early as Winter/Spring 2025. He joins a newly restructured senior leadership team at moCa including Reich, Senior Operations Officer Tom Poole, Senior Engagement Officer Joshua Hill, Senior Advancement Officer Zakia Frontz, and Senior Finance Officer Susan Chiancone. Speaking on behalf of moCa’s Board of Directors, many of whom participated in the recruitment process alongside moCa staff, Board President Stephen G. Sokany reflects, “DJ understands that curatorial leadership balances confidence with humility. We are excited for how he will help drive artistic innovation at moCa and across our field.” Hellerman has been involved with numerous noted exhibitions and artist projects, including Yoko Ono: Remembering The Future at Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; ProcessLAB: Paper Buck, Michelle Lopez, Sa’dia Rehman ; and Eiko Otake: I Invited Myself at The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA; Barthélémy Togu: Urban Requiem ; Ira Lombardia: Void ; and Doreen Garner: Pale In Comparison at SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA; Seat’s Taken at Burlington City Arts, Burlington, VT; and has collaborated closely with artists like Henry Taylor, Rose Simpson, and Jessica Campbell. A Northeast Ohio native, Hellerman holds an M.A. in Art History from Case Western Reserve University and began his career at the Progressive Art Collection. Prior to his work at FWM, he held the position of Curator at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia, Curator of Arts & Programs at the Everson Museum in Syracuse, New York, and Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions at Burlington City Arts in Burlington, Vermont. About moCa Cleveland For more than 50 years, the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (moCa) has played a vital role in the city’s cultural landscape. moCa is a conduit and catalyst for creativity and inspiration, offering exhibitions and programs that provide public value and make meaning of the art and ideas of our time. Since its founding in 1968, moCa has presented the works of more than three thousand artists, often through artists’ first solo shows. Soon after its founding, moCa was the first in the region to exhibit the works of many vanguard artists such as Laurie Anderson, Christo, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Adrian Piper, and Andy Warhol. Recent artist commissions and solo exhibitions include work by Tauba Auerbach, Simon Denny, Aleksandra Domanović, Michelle Grabner, Byron Kim, Ragnar Kjartansson, Tony Lewis, Kirk Mangus, Catherine Opie, Adam Pendleton, Sondra Perry, Joyce J. Scott, Do Ho Suh, Liu Wei, Renée Green, and Nina Chanel Abney, among many others. Museum Hours Thursdays-Sundays, 11AM-5PM Holiday hours available at mocacleveland.org 2024 Institutional Sponsors All current moCa Cleveland exhibitions are funded by leadership gifts from Doreen & Dick Cahoon, Joanne Cohen & Morris Wheeler, Margaret Cohen & Kevin Rahilly, Grosvie & Charlie Cooley, Becky Dunn, Harriet Goldberg, Agnes Gund, and Jan Lewis. moCa Cleveland receives lead institutional support in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, the Callahan Foundation, the George Gund Foundation, the Nord Family Foundation, the Leonard Krieger Fund of the Cleveland Foundation, the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, PNC, and the continuing support of the museum’s Board of Directors, patrons, and members. ### Previous Next

Studio Access w/ Manabu Ikeda May 18, 2024 Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season. About Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season. Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season.

Jan 28-Jun 5, 2022 Dana Oldfather Flyfall Jan 28-Jun 5, 2022 Dana Oldfather, Flyfall , 2022 (detail). Drawing, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist Luminous and dreamlike, Dana Oldfather’s paintings depict an imagined view of the world, one that prompts an introspective look at the layers and language of the human experience. Her portrayal of women engaged in everyday actions and tasks–climbing, swinging, stumbling, sneezing, loading the washing machine–merge current events, art history, folktales, and personal experience to evoke the emotional complexities of real life situations. In Flyfall (2022), a site-responsive drawing for moCa’s Kohl Atrium, a series of female characters are intertwined with a flock of Canadian geese. Rising up the three-story wall, the hybrid creatures appear to be simultaneously flying and falling. Both resilient and defeated, free and tethered, the figures capture the inherent tension of “fight or flight”—the term for our automatic physiological reaction to an event that is perceived as mentally or physically frightening, the response that prepares us to fight or flee. The richly imagined scenario in Flyfall and the range of possible interpretations that rise to its surface offer a reminder that our present moment is distinguished by a prevailing condition of groundlessness and uncertainty. Are the women and the geese fighting or are they working together? Are they separate entities or a hybrid form? What and how are they feeling as they wrestle together? By embracing ambiguity, Oldfather reminds us that teetering off the edge can mean both the brink of collapse and the steadying of one’s step before taking flight. Both flying and falling are possible, but how we decide to interpret the story is up to us. Major support for Dana Oldfather’s Flyfall is provided by Joanne Cohen & Morris Wheeler. About the Artist Dana Oldfather Dana Oldfather currently works and lives just outside in Cleveland, Ohio. Her work has been presented at the Library Street Collective, Detroit, MI; Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL; Kathryn Markel Fine Art, New York; Red Arrow Gallery, Nashville, TN; Museum of Contemporary Cleveland; The McDonough Museum of Art in Youngstown, Youngstown, Ohio; The Carnegie Center for Art and History, New Albany, IN; and the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. She is the recipient of the William and Dorothy Yeck Award for Young Painters, two Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards, and a Satellite Fund Emergency Relief Grant from SPACES Gallery, The Warhol Foundation, and The Cleveland Foundation. Her work has been published in Beautiful/Decay, ArtMaze Magazine, and The Art of Spray by Lori Zimmer.

Jul 16-Aug 15, 2021 Aawful Aaron by Aaron D. Williams Jul 16-Aug 15, 2021 Aaron D. Williams, A Reinvented Self I , 2021, Alcohol marker and colored pencil on Bristol paper, 17” X 14” Presented in partnership w/ Museum of Creative Human Art and moCa Cleveland Aawful Aaron uses sports as an entry point to assist audiences in more deeply understanding anxiety and mental health struggles. This exhibition destigmatized open conversations about mental health, especially as they relate to black males. Using mainstream sports including basketball and football, and those often overlooked like chess and sword fencing, Aawful Aaron conveys a “game against anxiety” through different lenses with the intention of bringing together a multiplicity of sports fans to appreciate the nuanced ways in which we experience mental health. Presented in partnership w/ About the Artist Aaron D. Williams Aaron D. Williams More about Aaron D. Williams at instagram.com/aawfulaaron .

moCa Saturday: 3D Mobile Making w/ MC2STEM Oct 5, 2024 FREE for all ages Join us at moCa for a unique design experience led by students and staff from Cleveland Metropolitan School District's MC2STEM High School as they guide you through a 3D printing workshop. Learn about 3D printing, create your own mobile masterpiece, and discover ways that design can make an impact. After your mobile is completed, you can choose to take it home or share it with a local nonprofit organization. All ages welcome. FAMILY FUN ON moCa Saturdays supported by PNC. About FREE for all ages Join us at moCa for a unique design experience led by students and staff from Cleveland Metropolitan School District's MC2STEM High School as they guide you through a 3D printing workshop. Learn about 3D printing, create your own mobile masterpiece, and discover ways that design can make an impact. After your mobile is completed, you can choose to take it home or share it with a local nonprofit organization. All ages welcome. FAMILY FUN ON moCa Saturdays supported by PNC. FREE for all ages Join us at moCa for a unique design experience led by students and staff from Cleveland Metropolitan School District's MC2STEM High School as they guide you through a 3D printing workshop. Learn about 3D printing, create your own mobile masterpiece, and discover ways that design can make an impact. After your mobile is completed, you can choose to take it home or share it with a local nonprofit organization. All ages welcome. FAMILY FUN ON moCa Saturdays supported by PNC.

Jan 29-Mar 6, 2022 Ryan Harris Sincerely, Us Jan 29-Mar 6, 2022 Ryan Harris, Du Rags II , 2021. Lustre print, 16 x 20 in framed (40.64 x 50.8 cm). Courtesy the artist Presented in partnership w/ Museum of Creative Human Art and moCa Cleveland The Museum of Creative Human Art presents photographer Ryan Harris’s third solo exhibition, Sincerely, Us. Bringing together new and older works, this exhibition captures various nuances of the black experience. Harris uses imagery to share his story with audiences, from the beginning of his photographic journey through the present. Presented in partnership w/ About the Artist Ryan Harris Ryan Harris Ryan Harris is a self-taught photographer from Cleveland, Ohio. His love for photography began in 11th grade when he took his first and only course on the basics of photography and 35mm film. Like many millennial males, he had childhood aspirations of becoming a rapper so naturally his love for photography took a back seat to music. In 2015 after deciding to retire his musical aspirations, he shifted his focus back to photography. Since then, he has started his own photography business and has been published in numerous publications including Cleveland’s Scene Magazine , The Akron Beacon Journal , and PEOPLE Magazine . When not doing freelance photography under his business imprint, Ryan captures what feeds his spirit creatively. His passion for documenting the rawness in urban decay and beauty within the black experience is unwavering.

Studio Access w/ Manabu Ikeda Apr 7, 2024 Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season. About Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season. Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season.

Title Round Teun Hocks Untitled (Man Playing with Train) , 1996 Color silkscreen 30 x 40 inches Estimated Value Range: $1,800 - $2,400 Starting Bid: $900 Bidding increments: $100 Teun Hocks (b. 1947, Leiden – d. 2022, Rotterdam) was internationally celebrated for his tragicomic photo-paintings—works that combined photography, performance, and painting into richly staged tableaux. A pioneer of staged photography, Hocks became known for portraying himself as the resigned, endearing anti-hero in meticulously crafted theatrical scenes. His dreamlike, slightly absurd environments often placed an ordinary man—himself—amid surreal tasks or ambiguous predicaments. These worlds, rendered in black-and-white photography and hand-colored with oil paint (or digitally in later works), toe the line between humor and melancholy, clarity and mystery. Hocks’ works emerged from carefully developed drawings that explored visually interesting, surreal, or droll situations. These sketches served as blueprints for the elaborate sets he built in his studio. Once constructed, Hocks photographed himself within the scene using analogue black-and-white photography, then hand-painted the resulting prints in delicate layers of oil. In later years, he began digitally coloring his photos to create editioned works while preserving the painterly aesthetic of his practice. More: Teun Hocks Artist Statement & Approach Hocks never saw himself as a traditional storyteller. “Because the basis of my work is a staged scene, the image suggests that it involves an event that actually happened in reality,” he explained. But rather than offer a clear narrative, Hocks aimed to create open-ended situations, seldom titling his works to encourage individual interpretation. Each image feels like a moment suspended in time—something is about to go wrong, or perhaps has just gone awry. The result is work that is at once deeply human, oddly comic, and subtly unsettling. Critic Ken Johnson, writing in The New York Times , captured the poetic tension in Hocks’ work: “Teun Hocks’ works are truly profound, like the one of an artist who, unaware of the sun burning on the horizon behind him, focuses on the candle light in his hand—a metaphor, perhaps, about the human limits of spiritual perception.” About the Artist Hocks studied at the St. Joost Academy in Breda from 1966 to 1970, and was active early on in performance and collaborative art projects. While many artists in the Netherlands during the 1970s leaned into conceptualism, Hocks pursued a more accessible, visual storytelling approach. His early photo-performances eventually led to the hybrid photo-paintings that defined his mature work. Over his career, Hocks exhibited internationally and became an icon of Dutch staged photography. His work appeared in solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe and the United States, and he earned cult status for his unique ability to bridge photography and painting with narrative poignancy. Legacy & Final Years In the spring of 2021, Hocks held his final exhibition, Drawings , at TORCH Gallery. It featured works made during his period of isolation at home in central France—testament to his lifelong commitment to drawing, a practice that often remained in the background of his more well-known photographic works. Hocks also contributed as an educator, teaching drawing at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the Design Academy Eindhoven. Teun Hocks leaves behind a legacy of work that defies easy categorization—simultaneously staged and spontaneous, humorous and haunting. His images invite us to pause, reflect, and imagine the stories unfolding within.