Unconscious Collaboration (Number 1)

William Powhida is best known for his text-based critques of the often-insular world of contemporary art, targeting its celebrity artists, mega-galleries, and prominent museums with equal vigor. Powhida often questions the market-based measures of artistic success, using narrative and self-parody to consider his own career circumstances. For his print Unconscious Collaboration, which was published as part of the Lower East Side Printshop’s Mystery Print fundraiser, Powhida created a trompe l'oeil facsimile and parody of a fictional illustrated feature from the now-defunct magazine Art on Paper. The faux article details a scandal at the Printshop itself that involved Powhida, who in a moment of self-doubt sabotages his Mystery Print project and eventually co-opts and signs his own name to a print edition created by another workshop artist.