Biography

Gary Cannone’s influences include 70s comedy such as Norm Crosby, Wacky Packages, Carol Burnett, Mad Magazine, and the disembodied PA from M*A*S*H (the TV series). The practices and presentations of conceptual art have also left an indelible mark: the seriality of Sol Lewitt, the proto-crowdsourcing of Douglas Huebler, the vocal delivery of Robert Barry’s audio pieces, and Lawrence Weiner as a photographic subject. Cannone’s projects, often collaborative, encourage communal acts of parody. Cannone’s recent work travels the bureaucratic edge of minimal and conceptual art with the deft touch of a prop comic. The resulting ensemble explores fragility, instability, humiliation, torture, and death. Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2013, he has begun to address it in his art. Frequent falls led him to fabricate a sign based on “days without an accident” safety signs found in workshops (replacing the word “accident” with “falls”). He invokes conceptualism’s obsession with documentation, record keeping, and bureaucratic imagery but with a real-time relationship to his ability to walk unaided. Also related to balance and sturdiness he is currently fabricating chairs out of butcher paper and scotch tape for gallery spaces. Practically weightless, they encourage the visitor to sit down while contemplating surrounding art, but to do so would lead to injury. Visually reminiscent of Sol LeWitt’s cubes, they act as​ a conceptual banana peel on the gallery floor.