Erik J Sommer, American Tradition (2007)

Following Gordon Matta-Clark's line of urban ruin and decay, Erik Sommer's piece American Tradition (2007) stands as a metaphor for gentrification as an artificial way to produce social change. The abstraction is grounded by thin, incomplete strokes of red paint that fill in the decaying, pale canvas plane. The red paint, which feels freshly added, suggests a wound, and the surface of the canvas is the wound of a neglected neighborhood.