"Artist Making Money" Satirical Bond Paperwork Collage by Mickey "Kano" Kane

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"Artist Making Money" Satirical Bond Paperwork Collage

Elaborate collage by Mickey "Kano" Kane (American, 20th century). This piece is a … Read more "Artist Making Money" Satirical Bond Paperwork Collage

Elaborate collage by Mickey "Kano" Kane (American, 20th century). This piece is a satirical collage that mimics the ornate design of a bond certificate to critique the fragility of global systems and the false promises of progress. A pink square composed of motifs from certificates and currency sits in the center of the composition and reads "Stiletto Dreams." This square acts as an ornate outline for the center where a rug lifted by cherubs reads "it takes longer to put on the mask than to make the cut." Below the centerpiece are the phrases "artist making money" and "money making artist." Above it all are two partial faces, leaning in towards each other. Throughout the piece are more collaged details such as machinery and words phrases like "GOD trusts in man." These details underscore the work’s poetic indictment of capitalism’s detachment from human cost, particularly in the devaluation of art. Visually rich and symbolically loaded, the piece confronts viewers with the uneasy trade-offs embedded in the concept of “value.”

Signed and dated "Kano 90" to the right of the doors.
Paper size: 21.5" H x 29.25" W

Mickey “Kano” Kane (American, 1939-2002) was born in Illinois and grew up in Sacramento, CA. Kane moved to the Pacific Coast and worked on mixed media panels - which he would refer to as a “Totem” – and detailed collage compositions. His collage work is generally satirical or critical in nature, frequently dealing with themes of money, capitalism, government, power, and debt. By contrast, his “Totem” sculptural work is abstract and free of direct symbolism, focusing instead on the aesthetics of the composition.

Original Member, Artist’s Cooperative Gallery

Artist’s Statement:
The Totem is indicative of the unfolding 21st Century, graphically and metaphorically. It is neither one side nor the other, nor does one side challenge or compete with the other. Each side cooperates and thus enhances the other so that both "sides" transcend that definition into a composition revealing that, indeed, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The Totem reflects the inner harmony that all sides, whether two or two thousand, are striving to manifest in their own inimitable way. See less