Alex Schupak

2nd hand art

Senior thesis · First Floor Gallery, List Art Building, Brown University · 2026

A photograph is fundamentally a reproduction. In this show, each image is recontextualized, mounted, or set beside an object until its meaning is complicated by its context. The more I make, the more I understand that the frame is of equal, if not greater, importance than the image.

  1. 1A pig in a cage2026Tub/shower unit, treated drain covers, inkjet print in found wood frame, bathroom caulk, fluorescent light, dirt, soap bar, hair, and comb.
  2. 2Getty Image/Acrylic Shadow2025Inkjet print mounted to corrugated plastic; teddy bear, acrylic paint.
  3. 3Four untitled prints2026Inkjet prints mounted to foam board, wood, nails.
  4. 4BOX/BOX/BOX2025Inkjet print mounted to foam board; foam, plush blanket, staples, metal wire, fishing line.
  5. 5Neapolitan Ice Cream2026Inkjet print mounted to masonite, cut wooden table top, artificial grass turf.
  6. 62nd hand art2024Inkjet print.
  7. 7Ham/Today2026Inkjet prints mounted to foam board, wood, nails.
  8. 8Innie/Outie2026Inkjet prints mounted to foam board, wood, nails.
  9. 9Carcass/Compression2026Inkjet prints mounted to foam board, wood, nails.
  10. 10Industry/Animals2026Inkjet prints mounted to foam board, wood, nails.
  11. 11Impression/Expression2025Inkjet print mounted to foam board; mixed-media sculpture (foam, cement, dirt, shells, rocks).
  12. 12Three dusk prints2026Inkjet prints mounted to painted masonite.
  13. 13Wood/Stone (holes)2026Inkjet prints mounted to masonite in tire-and-wood frames.
  14. 14Three orange prints2026Inkjet prints.
  15. 15Second floor, Dehradun Airport, India2026Inkjet print in altered photo album cover.
Installation view: a found tub-and-shower unit leaning against the wall, a tilted black print of a hand, a charred teddy bear on a plinth, and a large vertical print of a figure bathing in orange water.
Installation view, 2nd hand art, First Floor Gallery, List Art Building, 2026.
Installation view: the large orange hand poster titled 2nd hand art beside a dark doorway, with diptych boxes and tire-framed works around it.
Installation view.
Installation view: a small framed tree print, the BOX/BOX/BOX work lit pink with its protruding black fur cube, and the grass-framed Neapolitan Ice Cream print wrapping the corner.
Installation view.
A found tub-and-shower unit leaning against the gallery wall, mottled with grime, a small framed seascape hung inside it under a fluorescent light.
A pig in a cage, 2026. Tub/shower unit, treated drain covers, inkjet print in found wood frame, bathroom caulk, fluorescent light, dirt, soap bar, hair, and comb.
Detail: the corner of the seascape print, its edge thick with bathroom caulk, against the stained surface of the tub.
Detail.
A wide black print of a hand holding a flashlight, its beam cutting across the dark image, hung beside a worn teddy bear on a white plinth whose body is half-darkened with paint like a cast shadow.
Getty Image/Acrylic Shadow, 2025. Inkjet print mounted to corrugated plastic; teddy bear, acrylic paint.
Detail: the teddy bear on its plinth, half its fur darkened grey-brown with acrylic paint like a shadow.
Detail.
Four framed photographs hung as a constellation: a black-and-white silhouette, a large vertical print of a figure bathing in orange water, a small horse-by-a-fence print, and a lone tree at dusk.
Four untitled prints, 2026. Inkjet prints mounted to foam board, wood, nails.
Detail: a framed black-and-white photograph of a backlit figure standing before a spray of water.
Detail — one of the four prints.
Detail: a framed color photograph of a brown horse behind a white wooden fence at the edge of a field.
Detail — one of the four prints.
Detail: a framed color photograph of a single tree in a field under a pink-and-blue dusk sky.
Detail — one of the four prints.
A large print of a white door panel reading BOX, with a black plush fur cube projecting out from the wall over the centre of the image.
BOX/BOX/BOX, 2025. Inkjet print mounted to foam board; foam, plush blanket, staples, metal wire, fishing line.
The BOX/BOX/BOX work seen from the side, the black fur cube projecting out from the printed door image on the corner wall.
Alternate view.
An oval cushion of artificial green turf mounted on the wall, framing a rectangular print of striated red-and-tan rock under a blue sky.
Neapolitan Ice Cream, 2026. Inkjet print mounted to masonite, cut wooden table top, artificial grass turf.
Detail: the edge where the artificial turf meets the printed rock-and-sky image.
Detail.
The large clipped poster of a backlit orange hand with the words '2nd hand art' across it, beside a wall text and two framed diptychs.
2nd hand art, 2024. Inkjet print.
A diptych in one long wooden frame: a dusk cornfield with broken stalks on the left, and stacked weathered planks painted with the word TODAY on the right.
Ham/Today, 2026. Inkjet prints mounted to foam board, wood, nails.
Two wood-box framed works wrapping a corner: an empty interior beside a rusted orange shipping container above, and a black silhouette beside a white urinal below.
Innie/Outie, 2026, and Industry/Animals, 2026. Inkjet prints mounted to foam board, wood, nails.
A diptych in a long wooden frame: a dead otter on grey beach stones on the left, and a ghostly photogram of a crushed can on black on the right.
Carcass/Compression, 2026. Inkjet prints mounted to foam board, wood, nails.
A cast sandy boulder sculpture on a white plinth, set in front of a grayscale photograph of a hole dug into rocky dirt.
Impression/Expression, 2025. Inkjet print mounted to foam board; mixed-media sculpture (foam, cement, dirt, shells, rocks).
The boulder sculpture and the photograph of the dug hole seen together from an angle.
Detail.
Three small dusk photographs mounted on white masonite panels and arranged across the wall: a window-lit horizon, a dim plain, and a dark treeline.
Three dusk prints, 2026. Inkjet prints mounted to painted masonite.
Two photographs in black tire-and-wood frames: a hole worn through a granite stone, and a dark hollow in a tree trunk.
Wood/Stone (holes), 2026. Inkjet prints mounted to masonite in tire-and-wood frames.
Three clipped inkjet prints in a row: a red-and-blue geothermal landscape, a supermarket shelf of milk and juice cartons, and orange wildflowers at sunset.
Three orange prints, 2026. Inkjet prints.
A young man seated on an airport bench, the snapshot inset into the iridescent blue-and-gold pebbled cover of an altered photo album, seen at a slight angle.
Second floor, Dehradun Airport, India, 2026. Inkjet print in altered photo album cover.
Detail: the small airport snapshot at the centre of the iridescent blue album cover, seen straight on.
Detail.