Trenton Doyle Hancock slam dunks a basketball court into a Texas art museum

Trenton Doyle Hancock, the artist who put a playable basketball court into a US art museum, is trending on HENI News.

His HENI score increased an impressive 156% recently, a measure of his media profile, following his installation in Houston and a solo show in Los Angeles. To stay up to date with news about Trenton Doyle Hancock, see the artist’s HENI Dashboard.

Born in Oklahoma in 1974, to a highly religious family, Hancock is known for bold works featuring outlandish characters. It has been described as a blend of comic book aesthetics, imaginative visuals and wild, subversive narratives. The same characters often appear in his paintings, drawings and sculptures.

A prolific artist, he creates colorful works that draw viewers into his imagined world, typified by a recent site-specific commission titled* CAMH Court*. A dazzling, playable basketball court at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, it was open to all visitors, on a first-come, first-serve basis in March and April 2023, when the city hosted the men’s National Collegiate Final Four championship.

Reviewing Hancock’s recent solo show “Good Grief, Bad Grief” at Shulamit Nazarian gallery, The Los Angeles Times’ Deborah Vankin described the artist as a “universe builder”. The artist told her about some of the characters that appear in his monumental canvases, and his forthcoming multi-volume graphic novel: “[It] is a comical take on extreme behaviors whether it’s from a group of radical human vegans, an overzealous group of imaginary Vegans, a roided out superhero or a couple of magically corrupted police officers.”