Mark Landis

“Creative Conscience”
March 30- April 21

A Jesuit priest, philanthropist, and art collector walk into a museum and donate paintings by artists Paul Signac, Jean-Antoine Watteau, and Mary Cassatt. The museum happily accepts and includes the work in their collection. Sounds like the beginning to a joke? It could be, except all three roles are played by Mark Landis, and the museums are definitely not laughing. The story is true, but Mark’s assumed identities are fake, as are the paintings. Nevertheless, Mark was able to pull this off for more than twenty years starting in 1987 donating his paintings to over 50 American museums, some of which may still continue to unknowingly display his artwork on their walls. He is that good. So good, that an article written about him described him as possibly “one of the greatest artists of our age.” Yet despite being able to dupe museum experts for over two decades, he refuses to believe it. Unlike most art forgers, Mark is not motivated by money, but is rather fueled by the validation and VIP treatment he receives when donating works of art. Since his actions never led to monetary gain, Mark is not considered a criminal.

 Up until now, his story has placed him into the category of “forger”. But what Mark did is more than that: Having struggled most of his life with mental health, his act of creating a different storyline for himself as a philanthropist, transformed his life in a way he could never have imagined. He chose to invent a new role -an instinctual social experiment- and in doing so, invented a new narrative that brings about multiple questions about authenticity, appropriation, and what it means to be an artist. How does our perception of him change if we were to consider his actions conceptual/ performance art? How does the value of his paintings change? If he were to convert his forged artwork into NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), does that make the NFTs original?

On March 30, 2022 Wirth Galerie poses these questions to the public with an art exhibition of Mark Landis’ paintings, hosted by Salomon Arts Gallery in Tribeca from 6:00-9pm. The evening will include a discussion on the topic of value and authenticity with the filmmakers who produced “Art and Craft”, the documentary highlighting Mark’s “philanthropic exploits”: Jennifer Grausman, Mark Becker, and Sam Cullman; and will be joined by Dr. Colette Loll, founder of Art Fraud Insights, and Mark Landis himself.

On Friday, April 1st, the team developing the SunGens NFT collection will be sponsoring the evening, which will include a screening of the film, followed up with a discussion on the subject of copyright and multiples but as it relates to the digital art space. Participants will be announced closer to the event date. Proceeds from art sales will benefit the organization Different & Able.

Artist Reception: March 30th from 6:00-9pm
Screening + NFT Talk: April 1 from 5:30-9pm
Location: Salomon Arts Gallery | 83 Leonard Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10013
Curation: Sabrina Wirth/ Wirth Galerie