The Trick Brain

The work of over sixty artists and more than 240 pieces from the Tony and Elham Salamé Collection.

Taking its title from a video installation by Ed Atkins featured in the collection, The Trick Brain proceeds by establishing unexpected connections between works informed by a neo-surrealist sensibility. After New Skin, which focused on the intersection of abstraction and information in contemporary painting, and Good Dreams, Bad Dreams, a survey of works in the collection that confront representations of contemporary American culture, The Trick Brain premieres some of the most recent acquisitions in the collection, highlighting similarities and contrasts among a group of multigenerational artists whose work reflects a fascination with the cacophonous, collaged experience of life in the digital age.

The recent acquisitions featured in the book include important works by established figures such as John Armleder, Isa Genzken, Maria Lassnig, Matt Mullican, Cindy Sherman, and Wolfgang Tillmans, presented in dialogue with contributions by younger artists such as Adrián Villar Rojas, Danh Vo, Haegue Yang, and Anicka Yi.