WORDS UNSPOKEN | LEN DAVIS & NATE POWELL
WORDS UNSPOKEN | LEN DAVIS & NATE POWELL
FEBRUARY 20 - APRIL 25, 2026
"Len Davis often uses comic book elements in his assemblage work. His series,1000 Words, is displayed here alongside a selection of original illustration pages by Nate Powell from various comic books he has worked on, including the famous March series. I find myself drawing similarities in the way both artists create identity. The text in Powell's work is active, whereas Davis's work uses text in a more passive way. Yet both draw us to a sense of knowing the subject without speaking a single one of the words contained within.
In Davis's 1000 Words series, he explores the literal and figurative implications of the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words." This series in full contains one hundred 5 x 8 in. portrait collages. Davis portrays a variety of people from all walks of life, enhancing and humanizing them with the collaged elements, and all the portraits are drawn over various texts.
Powell's work often focuses on humanity, with the March series chronicling the civil rights movement through the perspective of Congressman John Lewis. One of his more recent books, Lies My Teacher Told Me, is a graphic adaptation of James W. Loewen's novel, scrutinizing American History books for inaccuracies and omissions. Other themes in Powell's work in this exhibition include punk bands, parenthood, and protests.
I read somewhere once describing reading as looking at dead tree bark and hallucinating. The mechanics behind language and the language of art never fail to fascinate me. Artists create something from what was once nothing, almost like alchemy, transmuting images from their precious art supplies. As I take in this exhibition, I ponder the importance of art and comic books in the evolution of literacy. Cave paintings predate spoken or written language. In the same sense, the unspoken word, depicted by images and hieroglyphs, was pivotal in creating language and sharing ideas. In summation, Words Unspoken is meant to prompt the viewer to think critically about humanity and the power of language."
~ T Lance, Curator of Exhibitions