ExhibitionSquad: The Calling of the Common Hero, Photography by Faisal Abdu’Allah

Exhibition Overview

Squad: The Calling of the Common Hero, Photography by Faisal Abdu’Allah conceived by Faisal Abdu’Allah, Associate Professor, Art Department, and developed collaboratively with UW–Madison student curators and Magnolia Editions, extends themes that Abdu’Allah explored in his 2007 London show Goldfinger, and his 2010 project Ten Degrees (Adeve) created while a visiting professor at Stanford University.

For this show, Abdu’Allah has created eleven larger-than-life photographic portraits of Squad members, which critique the concept and visage of the superhero, by humanizing it and opening up the figure of the archetype. Smaller portraits created using human hair accompany the Squad portraits, and The Last Supper I and The Last Supper II (1996), which Magnolia Editions re-created in 2011 as photo-realist tapestries, will be shown here for the first time in the United States.

IMAGE: Left to right: Ishtar, 2015, photograph on Hahnemuhle paper, 116 1/2 x 60 in. Phantom, 2015 photograph on Hahnemuhle paper, 116 1/2 x 60 in. “Mosgaadace,” Lead Hummingbird from the Sky, 2015, photograph on Hahnemuhle paper, 116 1/2 x 60 in., Rameses XII, 2015 photograph on Hahnemuhle paper, 116 1/2 x 60 in.