David Datuna (1974–2022) was a Georgian-born conceptual artist renowned for using lenses, flags, and layered symbolism to question truth, identity, and perception. Behind the Mask, an Empty Book presents his late performance-installation works, created when his exploration of truth, power, and spectatorship became most distilled and provocative.
Dates: November 6 – November 16 | Opening Reception: November 6, 5–8 PM | 101-85 North 3rd St, #108, Brooklyn, NY 11249
The Empty Book Revealed
Datuna gained international attention not only for his mixed-media collage works, but also for interventions that turned media into part of the artwork itself. His widely discussed “Hungry Artist” at Art Basel Miami — consuming Maurizio Cattelan’s $120,000 banana — collapsed authorship, spectacle, and critique into a single gesture (watch here).
He also staged “An Empty Book” at St. Thomas Church in New York, a provocative participatory performance in which he installed a classical-style diptych depicting U.S. President Trump as a saint holding an empty book. The work remained in front of the church until it was removed.
Both works are presented at Twelve Chairs Gallery, not as relics, but as active provocations — asking viewers to confront what is shown, what is hidden, and what remains unwritten.
Behind the Mask
The mask is the self we perform for the world; the empty book is what remains when the performance ends. Datuna’s works expose the gap between appearance and reality, spectacle and substance, persona and truth. Many speak, many posture — yet the book stays empty.
A Dialogue Across Time
In dialogue with Twelve Chairs Gallery partner Zura, this exhibition bridges past and present. Though their visual languages differ, both artists interrogate illusion, authorship, and the fragile line between reality and performance.
“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” — Oscar Wilde
On view through November 16th.
