Tokens of Humanity

 Randy Kart’s mixed-media series Tokens of Humanity features the artist’s characteristic monochrome palette and rich, textural play in a display of striking depth.

The range of works in this series are anything but stagnant: Each work conceals or suggests hope, tension and motion in three-dimensional detail, an object twisting its way toward the viewer or disappearing behind the safety of its frame. 

“This series is meant to bring awareness to the hope and innovation that exist beneath the superficial view. How the actions of a few can be of great humanitarian benefit to the many. Using these tokens to document the technical discoveries and innovations that change the world forever.”

tokens of humanity \ actions of a few that benefit the many.

token  \ to·​ken \ ˈtō-kən  \ an outward sign or expression.

humanity \ hu·​man·​i·​ty \ hyü-ˈma-nə-ty \ compassionate, sympathetic, or generous behavior or disposition : the quality or state of being humane.

“I see myself as a modern historian, a curator of ideas. Taking an important moment in time, capturing it and creating a visual marker. The final stage in the lifecycle is the placement of work. The work no longer belongs to me. It resides with a new caretaker. The work started with the actions, motivations and passion of another. All I did was to help visualize and facilitate that connection. The process has come full circle and will now live forever - As a physical piece of art and on the blockchain” 

A nod to post-war Spatialism translated for modern America, Tokens of Humanity brings a similar sculptural tension and sense of movement to the surface of the tokens, causing viewers to question where the image stops and what lies beneath the frame. 

Through skillful manipulation of visual fields—the tokens are weighted and torn, painted and scratched, stretched and sculpted —Kart’s idiosyncratic, irresistibly tactile style infuses each work with the covert momentum of an unbearable truth on the verge of escape.