Brooklyn.isms

Presented as part of Art on the Hour on Barclays Center’s Oculus

Tony Cokes makes politically resonant works in a visual language all his own. Since the 1980s, his work has used language, color, and music to explore the hidden belief systems that shape popular culture, confronting issues of racism, power, and visibility. Rejecting representational imagery, Cokes samples and remixes sources from media and popular culture to create video essays, or “word portraits” that layer found text over vibrant colors and dissonant soundtracks.

In Brooklyn.isms, 2026, Cokes draws upon appropriated sayings written by and about American pop artist Andy Warhol, exploring the Warhol’s life and legacy through the resampling of found text. Revisiting an earlier iteration of the work, Pittsburgh.isms, 2022, presented at the 58th Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cokes uses Warhol’s first major commercial commission, a Glamour article titled Success Is a Job in New York (1949), as a point of departure. Through this engagement with Warhol’s words and images, Cokes highlights the two localities that most shaped Warhol’s career: Pittsburgh, where he was born and raised, and New York, where he emerged as one of the most prolific artists of the twentieth century.

About the Artist

Tony Cokes lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island, where he serves as Professor in the Department of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University. Cokes was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2024. A solo exhibition of his work, Texts, Tracks, Talks (1992–2026), will open at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond on September 18, 2026, and newly commissioned site-specific work will be presented at the Art Institute of Chicago starting October 3, 2026. He’s also exhibited at institutions such as Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Tate Modern, London, UK; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY and Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA.