Ehrlich Steinberg is pleased to present the solo exhibition Leveling by Los Angeles-based artist Coleman Collins. Including various forms of images, scans, and prints, Leveling presents objects reconfigured as flattened visuals and imagery repositioned as physical and spatialized.

The exhibition centers around a new series of subtractive relief works derived from 3D scans of architectural sites in West Africa dating between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. The sites–which include private homes, castles, and forts–also served as trading posts used for holding captive Africans, and were often the final exit point before their transport to the Americas. Inset within the reliefs are images appropriated from Senegalese films, including Djibril Diop Mambéty’s 1973 Touki Bouki and Ousmane Sembène’s 1975 Xala.

Through sculpture, print, text, and video, Leveling explores the relationship between an original object, its double, and subsequent repetitions. The exhibition is influenced by Tina M. Campt’s concept of the “afterlives of images” and Brent Hayes Edwards’ 2001 essay “Evidence”, in which he connects his arrest and temporary imprisonment in Senegal with parallel histories of captivity at the Senegalese site, Maison des Esclaves (House of Slaves).

In this new, multidisciplinary body of work, Collins expands upon ongoing research into the resonances between notions of diaspora and technological methods of transmission, copying, and reiteration.

Leveling is accompanied by a new text by Los Angeles-based artist Miljohn Ruperto.

To mark the closing of the exhibition, the gallery is hosting Speculative Fiction, a reading event in response to Collins’ exhibiting film work Specular fiction.

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Coleman Collins (b. 1986; Princeton, NJ, USA) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA. Collins received his MFA from UCLA, Los Angeles in 2018 and was a 2017 resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Madison, ME. He participated in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program in 2019. Previous exhibitions and screenings have taken place at the Palestine Festival of Literature, Jerusalem, IS/Ramallah, PS (2023); Hesse Flatow, New York, NY (2022); Brief Histories, New York, NY (2022); Carré d’Art, Nîmes, FR (2022); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, AT (2021); Nothing Special, Los Angeles, CA (2020); Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY (2019); Artspace, New Haven, CT (2019) and Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA (2018). Collins is a 2022 recipient of a Graham Foundation research grant and has received support from NYFA and Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation. He is currently Assistant Professor at University of California, Irvine.


Installation view. Leveling by Coleman Collins, 2024.


Installation view. Leveling by Coleman Collins, 2024.


Coleman Collins, Untitled (Minor concatenation), 2024. Engineered wood, UV print on Dibond, 30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm).


Detail. Coleman Collins, Untitled (Minor concatenation), 2024. Engineered wood, UV print on Dibond, 30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm).


Coleman Collins, Untitled (A recessed wall), 2024. Engineered wood, UV print on Dibond, 30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm).


Detail. Coleman Collins, Untitled (A recessed wall), 2024. Engineered wood, UV print on Dibond, 30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm).


Coleman Collins, Untitled (Arcade), 2024. Engineered wood, UV print on Dibond, 30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm).


Detail. Coleman Collins, Untitled (Arcade), 2024. Engineered wood, UV print on Dibond, 30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm).


Coleman Collins, Untitled (Elmina stairs), 2024. Engineered wood, UV print on Dibond, 30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm).


Detail. Coleman Collins, Untitled (Elmina stairs), 2024. Engineered wood, UV print on Dibond, 30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm).


Detail. Coleman Collins, Untitled (Elmina stairs), 2024. Engineered wood, UV print on Dibond, 30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm).


Coleman Collins, Untitled (A view of the courtyard), 2024. Engineered wood, UV print on Dibond, 30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm).


Detail. Coleman Collins, Untitled (A view of the courtyard), 2024. Engineered wood, UV print on Dibond, 30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm).


Coleman Collins, Untitled (Partial wall), 2024. Engineered wood, UV print on Dibond, 30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm).


Detail. Coleman Collins, Untitled (Partial wall), 2024. Engineered wood, UV print on Dibond, 30 x 23 in. (76.2 x 58.4 cm).


Coleman Collins, Inventaire, 2024. 6 inkjet prints, edition 1/3 + 1 AP, 14 x 50.5 in (35.5 x 128.3 cm).


Coleman Collins, Inventaire, 2024. 6 inkjet prints, edition 1/3 + 1 AP, 14 x 50.5 in (35.5 x 128.3 cm).


Detail. Coleman Collins, Inventaire, 2024. 6 inkjet prints, edition 1/3 + 1 AP, 14 x 50.5 in (35.5 x 128.3 cm).


Detail. Coleman Collins, Inventaire, 2024. 6 inkjet prints, edition 1/3 + 1 AP, 14 x 50.5 in (35.5 x 128.3 cm).


Detail. Coleman Collins, Inventaire, 2024. 6 inkjet prints, edition 1/3 + 1 AP, 14 x 50.5 in (35.5 x 128.3 cm).


Coleman Collins, To Cornel West, 2024. Book, 10 x 16 in. (25.4 x 40.6 cm).


Coleman Collins, To Cornel West, 2024. Book, 10 x 16 in. (25.4 x 40.6 cm).


Coleman Collins, To Cornel West, 2024. Book, 10 x 16 in. (25.4 x 40.6 cm).


Coleman Collins, Specular fiction, 2024. HD video, 8 minutes, edition 1/3 + 1 AP.


Coleman Collins, Specular fiction, 2024. HD video, 8 minutes, edition 1/3 + 1 AP.

Photos: Evan Walsh