Check out the video production of American Mosaic by Mark Kelner:
The virtual exhibition, MARK KELNER: American Mosaic, is on view at hemphillartworks.com through May 9, 2026.
"Titled “American Mosaic,” this work took three years to build. It is the centerpiece of my 2026 exhibition of the same name with HEMPHILL. The show was rooted as the only exhibit in Washington, DC that speaks to politics as mirror to America at 250. Thus, in commemoration of America's semiquincentennial, a special edition of 250 photographic prints of "American Mosaic" have been made available by the gallery.
Used bookstores have long been among my most creative spaces; they are both hideaways and getaways; places to lose myself in the stacks or delve into the search for just the right edition of a particular book. I was drawn to collage secondhand books as a method of telling America’s story, seeking to embody the character of use and reuse, so the work functions almost like a quilt. I am a fragmented person, and I wanted this piece to be fragmented, both in form and content.
I wasn’t looking for specific titles as much as I was chasing core themes—history, biography, mythology, and, above all, identity. Over three years, I acquired well over 200 books and then edited the selection down to 65. During the final month of assembly, I focused on scale and proportion, adjusting each book’s height and length to build the piece’s tiled, mosaic-like visual language.
At its center, the work asks which books are deemed worthy of becoming part of the fabric of the flag itself, and what questions the act of selection raises. The tension between the grid and the chromatic gradient, along with the intentional gaps, produces a friction where order and disruption coexist. Moreover, this flag, and thus, its constituent parts, looks like it’s been through some things. And it has." - Mark Kelner