Wes Lang

Wes Lang (b. 1972, USA) is a contemporary American artist. His work consists of frenetic drawings, sculptures, and paintings that often contain sensationalist or controversial imagery from American history, including Native Americans, the confederate flag, and blackface minstrelsy. “I like to take American history and then completely ignore it,” the artist has said. “I come at it visually, taking images and telling my own story. It comes out of criticism and great love. There are problems [with America], and we all know that, but I’m attracted to the dark side of things.” Aggregating these images is central to Lang’s process, an autodidactic painter who learned through art handling at the Guggenheim Museum. Born in Chantham, NJ in 1972, he currently lives and working in Brooklyn, NY. Lang recently rose to popular culture prominence following his artistic contributions to the musical platform of Kanye West in 2013, and he has regularly exhibited his work at Zieher Smith & Horton gallery in New York.