For their first exhibition at Lehmann Maupin Gallery's Chelsea location (540 West 26th Street), Tim Rollins and K.O.S. will present a new body of work inspired by the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet Jacobs, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison and Malcolm X.

Spanning more than two decades, the collaboration of Tim Rollins and K.O.S. (Kids of Survival) continues to challenge notions of art through their deep engagement with literary and historical texts and contemporary art practice. Here the artists present a visual counterpoint to the venerable words of prominent social advocates. The ten new paintings in this exhibition reflect the artists' mixture of culture, literature and politics and the personal interpretations and connections between the content to the artists' own experiences. In Letter from Birmingham Jail #2 (after the Rev. Dr. M. L. King, Jr.), the dark bars painted across the canvas are a direct reference to King's confinement when he wrote and to the social injustice felt by many at that time and still felt today. The influence of art history is also evident here with formal links to Minimalism present in the aforementioned work as well as Invisible Man and Malcolm X. By layering book pages onto canvas and painting enigmatic images directly overtop each work, Rollins and K.O.S. have revealed the transformative power of art in this exhibition.