Trenton Doyle Hancock

ART

Alfred Kubin - “Alfred Kubin is one of my favorite artists. He had a dark sensibility that was unrelenting. He dug deep to find images that were quite disturbing and looking at his work is akin to watching a horror film.”

SOURCE: Alfred Kubin, festa di macello

Joseph Campbell - “I grew up in a very religious Christian faith environment. When I discovered Joseph Campbell he really opened my mind. He offered ideas and perspectives about religious storytelling and myths that became very important to me and for my work.”

George Grosz - "I've taken a lot of ques from German artists, especially George Grosz. There's something very grotesque about his wartime depictions of humanity."

Georg Baselitz - "Baselitz's depiction of humanity is very disjointed. It's a chopped up version that interests me quite a bit. Looking at his paintings over the years has really benefited my work."

JRR Tolkien - "Within my mythology, I've created somewhat of a Tolkienesque hierarchy of characters. It's not about recreating those sorts of crusades. It's more about creating a universal language that everybody can bring their own ideas to."

Stanley Whitney - “Stanley Whitney is an amazing New York based painter. He was my Professor in graduate school and I have always been fascinated by his work. There is so much simplicity and amazing complexity that you see as you investigate his work. He is able to use color like no other artist.”

Marvel Universe - "The spirit of cataloging in my work can be traced back to the Marvel Universe of the early 1980's. I was really influenced by their images as a kid."

Stephen Mills - "Steven is the director and head choreographer at Ballet Austin. His ballets have a very narrative bent to them. He approached me to do a ballet about some of the characters in my paintings and we ended up making The Cult of Color: Call To Color. Working in this medium really helped me rediscover my own characters."

Stanley Whitney: The Last of the Bohemians, 2008

Cowboys Stadium - “I'm one of 15 artists to do a site-specific permanent piece for the new Cowboys Stadium. What the owner, Jerry Jones, did there with designating larger spaces for art is incredible. He exposed a totally new demographic to art. The stadium itself is amazing too. It’s hard to find something that adventurous and grand. It is a landmark.”

Web

Aintitcool.com - “Any action, horror or sci-fi film must get the approval of Aint it Cool News if it wants to do well. It's run by Harry Knowles who specializes in the geekier side of things.”

Film

Alejandro Jodorowsky – “Because Alejandro Jodorowsky's films were so strange and controversial he almost got kicked out of Mexico. His work was seen as threatening in a Conservative Christian atmosphere. He’s a bit of a crazy man. He’s interested in the upheaval of the mind and distortions of established symbols. His surrealist film, The Holy Mountain, is just amazing.”

Alejandro Jodorowsky, La Montaña Sagrada, 1973

NYC

James Cohan Gallery - “There’s a warmth I feel when I’m there. It feels more like a family and less like a business, which makes it very comfortable for showing art and talking about art. I’m proud to be represented there, it’s elegant and professional.”

The Bad Promise, 2008 by Trenton Doyle Hancock

Neue Gallery - “The Neue Gallery is less gallery and more museum. They specialize in Eastern European, German and Austrian art. It’s not contemporary, more turn of the century through the 1950s or so. They deal in the grotesque which I gravitate to.”

"For me, the color pink is the binding element of all my work. I feel like it's the binding element to all humilities. If you strip away the skin, we're all pink. It's an innocent color, like it may be the colors of a little girl's room, but it's also a suggestive color that could be considered very naughty."

Neue Gallery - Source: www.antiquesandfineart.com   

The Studio Museum - “The Studio Museum in Harlem shows a side of art that is not normally seen. They present a lot of underrepresented artists and show work that would otherwise have gone unseen. Director Thelma Golden is one of the greatest writers, curators and thinkers operating in the contempoary art word.”

Forbidden Planet - “Forbidden Planet has every comic book you can imagine. They also have really cool toys. Comics are one of the foundations of my work.”

John's Pizzeria - “John’s pizza uptown, by the theater district, has an amazing Fresco mural of the city from the early 20th century. I love this place because of that and the damn good pizza.”

"If I'm plotting away on a painting for a week or two things can get stagnant and very boring because I know where all these marks are going to lead. So one thing that opens up my studio like a breath of fresh air is picking up trash from the floor and adding it to my work. It creates an aesthetic detour that gives me a shortcut to the places I wanted to get to in the first place."

John's Pizzeria - Source: www.johnspizzerianyc.com

Fabulous Fanny's - “Fabulous Fanny’s on 1st Ave. and 9th St has the best selection of glasses on the planet. They have new and vintage and the guys there really know their stuff. They’ve been there for as long as I can remember.”

SOURCE: Fabulous Fanny's

"I draw a lot of hands, simply for the fact that I can. In art school, people tried to avoid drawing hands by drawing characters with their hands behind their backs or obscuring them in some other way. I always thought it was challenge to see if I could emote just by drawing them."