Borna Sammak is a mixed-media artist who collects and reconfigures the detritus of urban environments to create hallucinatory installations, videos and wall pieces which comment on the absurdity of contemporary American culture. Citing Robert Rauschenberg as a key influence, Sammak similarly brings together diverse sources, such as samples of graphic t-shirts, or discarded public signage, working these items onto canvas, wooden frames or enamel. Through this process of manipulation, Sammak lays bare the often polarising, bizarre and hypocritical messages channelled through American advertising and politics. Candy sweet puppy t-shirts collide with spring break merchandise, Vietnam veteran badges sit next to cigarette packs—charging seemingly colloquial items with a heightened sensibility. The works lean into the visually arresting register of adverts or political campaigns, using bright, concrete colours to accentuate the drama of the dogmatic narratives. The comic juxtapositions orchestrated by Sammak replicate the insatiable flood of commercial and political threads which seep into daily life— leaving the viewer overwhelmed by these manic manifestations. ...
Sadie Coles HQ is a London-based contemporary art gallery representing over sixty established and emerging international artists. The gallery opened in London in 1997, with its inaugural exhibition – of new paintings by American painter John Currin – presented in parallel with an offsite show by British artist Sarah Lucas, The Law. Since its inception, Sadie Coles HQ has operated from a variety of spaces, mounting numerous off-site projects and partaking in collaborative exchanges throughout the city and abroad. The gallery frequently hosts emerging young galleries and curatorial projects in The Shop at Kingly Street, and a live events programme titled GARGLE. In September 2013, Sadie Coles HQ opened a space at 62 Kingly Street in Soho, in April 2021 a space at 8 Bury Street in St James’s and in October 2025 a third space in Mayfair: a six-storey Georgian townhouse at 17 Savile Row. ...
