The Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art Opens MOUND AT LARGE Today

Intricate candy-colored prints, drawings, collaged felt paintings and site-specific installations work together to tell the story of the Mounds-a group of bizarre mythical creatures that are the tragic protagonists of the artist's unfolding narrative between good and evil. Storytelling is a central part of Hancock's artistic practice. Each new work serves as a contribution to the saga of the Mounds, portraying the birth, life, death, afterlife, and even dream states of these half-animal, half-plant creatures, and their aggressors, the Vegans.

As a whole, Hancock's highly developed cast of characters acts out a complex mythological battle, creating an elaborate cosmology that embodies his unique aesthetic ideals, musings on color, language, emotions and ultimately, good versus evil.

Hancock's mythology has been translated to the stage in an original ballet, Cult of Color: Call to Color, commissioned by Ballet Austin and created by Trenton Doyle Hancock, choreographer Stephen Mills and composer Graham Reynolds. The ballet performances debuted in Austin in April 2008. He created an original mural for the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, TX, as well as a site-specific installation entitled, A Better Promise, at the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, WA. He is represented by James Cohan Gallery, New York.

Hancock was born in 1974 in Oklahoma City, OK. Raised in Paris, Texas, Hancock earned his BFA from Texas A&M University, Commerce and his MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Philadelphia. Hancock was featured in the 2000 and 2002 Whitney Biennial exhibitions, becoming one of the youngest artists in history to participate in this prestigious survey.

Opening reception tonight, January 9, at iMOCA CityWay, 216 E South Street, 6-11 p.m.

Photo Credit: Trenton Doyle Hancock, Fucht Law, 2010, Lithography, collage, pigment stained paper, pigmented paper pulp and STPI handmade paper. Copyright the artist. Courtesy James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai