Sandow Birk

Los Angeles artist Sandow Birk is a graduate of the Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design whose work has dealt with contemporary life in its entirety. He is the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fulbright scholarship to Brazil. Birk’s recent projects have dealt with police violence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Holy Qur’an. He is represented by the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, Track 16 Gallery in Los Angeles, and Koplin Del Rio Gallery in Seattle.

Birk’s medallion depicts an American landscape of water, mountains, and plains. A leafless tree in the middle ground is being felled by a hatchet man. In the foreground, a man in a tricorn hat waters a small, new tree, sprouting green leaves. The scene symbolizes cutting down an old, withering, dying way of governance—monarchy—while replacing it with a new, blossoming system of governance—democracy—which needs nurturing and care to help it grow.