THE FOLLOWING The recent work of Los Angeles artist Nathan Weikert explores the dark underbelly of contemporary media images. Weikert’s sensuous charcoal drawings are largely sourced from the subject matter typical of doomscolling and include “portraits” of victims of abuse, the abusers, and the culture of activities surrounding them. Well-known figures may be altered through various pictorial treatments and can feel as if they have been smeared or caressed into their current state of notoriety. These skillfully translated images pose questions about power and ask us to consider both the depicted and the image itself. Weikert’s work is both the product of and possibly an antidote to our current obsession with habitual, mindless media consumption. Nathan Weikert was born in Kettering, Ohio and studied painting at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. In addition to a BFA, he holds a BS and MA in art education and currently works as the Director of Graduate Admissions at ArtCenter College of Design. Nathan has exhibited his work in Ohio and Los Angeles.