The artist Nick van Woert culls inspiration from the past, frequently remixing artifacts and evoking history to build his art. His latest, “Just Dropped in to See What Condition My Condition Was In,” on view starting next Saturday at Moran Bondaroff, the just-rebranded L.A. gallery formerly known as OHWOW, borrows its title from a well-known 1968 Kenny Rogers hit.
“Out of context, the words are self-referential, taking a look at ‘my condition,’” van Woert says in the office of his Brooklyn studio. Confronting the dark history of American institutional violence, the show homes in on themes of marginalization and forced evacuation by way of twisted sculptural effigy. Van Woert has taken a handful of Native American statues of the typical cigar-store variety and resculpted them to feature the faces of the U.S.
