Chopped & Screwed, the inaugural exhibition at White Cube New York, considers the use of sourcing and distortion in contemporary art to resist established systems of power and value.The exhibition's title makes oblique reference to the technique of the same name, popularised by the late Houston musician DJ Screw in the early 1990s. The selection of artists for the show apply similar approaches to medium, form and aesthetic inheritances, each challenging, undermining or malforming existing hegemonic conditions and prevailing narratives.

With a focus on authoritarian governance, patriarchy and religion, the artists interrogate the power inherent to archetypes, whether material, structural or symbolic. It is a deliberate application of clandestine methods, both subtle and exacting, to establish new visual language. Often starting from familiar motifs and objects, the use of sampling becomes a transgressive act that implicates the conflicts of contemporary life. In turn, their reconfigurations constitute alternative readings to both conditions of power and realities of living.

Courtney Willis Blair is US Senior Director of White Cube and holds a seat on the gallery's global board of directors. She was formerly a Partner and Senior Director at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, where she led artist canonical strategy and institutional engagement in the US and internationally, from projects at documenta and the São Paulo Biennial, to exhibitions at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas; the Jewish Museum, New York; MoMA, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Speed Art Museum, Kentucky. As a writer and journalist, she has profiled some of the world's leading artists, architects and curators, as well as edited a number of artist books. She is the founder of Entre Nous, an international body of Black women art dealers established in 2016 and serves on the boards of The Kitchen, Triple Canopy, and the International Studio & Curatorial Program.

Press release courtesy White Cube.