Jack Pierson LIKE PARIS IN THE RAIN ON 2ND AVE, 1993

To compose his bold word sculptures, Jack Pierson collects abandoned letters from the signs of closed businesses, such as cinema marquees, casinos or storefronts, as well as road signs and other cultural ephemera. The mid-century letters evoke nostalgia, while the words spelled out pertain to a more current vocabulary of the everyday. Pierson intuitively brings together these found letters and words borrowed from casual phrases heard in cafés or the daily commute, as well as aphorisms and advertising slogans that populate our cities and screens, to create new yet familiar phrases with the power of signs.