We have been speaking with and about Mark Thomas Gibson for years, a bold and brave artist who has transformed comic book aesthetic into a political force. He has always been challenging the status quo, even the misunderstood and often overlooked story of American racism. When we sat down with him for the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, months before George Floyd murder and in the heart of the Trump presidency, his works even years before felt prophetic. He was speaking about an America that always existed but was going to be unearthed in completely stunning fashion. 

Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, Gibson's newest solo show at M+B in Los Angeles, is literally it's title. This show is raw and honest. It's all the parts of Gibson's career in a more stunning and brutal form. Klansmen are killed off, the flag is squeezed dry, the mob in a frenzy and heading nowhere. As the gallery notes, "'Just when you thought it was safe…' In Mark Thomas Gibson’s work, America’s past just will not stay dead, even if it might choose to play dead for a news cycle or two. In our collective longing for respite, for closure, we might hold a premature victory parade, or a premature funeral, we might wave a flag or post a placard or plant a sun-faced daisy." 

This show is about history repeating, reappearing, re-registering it's place in our psyche. No matter how progressive your politics, these are entrenched pieces of fabric into our consciousness, and through a powerful graphic aesthetic, Gibson is as undaunted as ever. —Evan Pricco