In his first solo show in New York, titled If You Don’t Belong, Don’t Be Long, Scott Campbell presents a series of his trademark cut currency works and three-dimensional pieces, alongside prints and hologram paintings. Although communicating with a lowbrow parlance, he delivers work that is supremely defined, deliberate, and meticulously executed. With his most recent series, Campbell switches to using layered sheets of uncut currency, pulled from the mint before cut into individual bills. Whereas the stacks of circulated currency are engaging due to their handling and intimate size, these pieces have a crisp, refined quality, inherent because of the material. There is an opposition present between the medium and the effigy – a pristine material portrays a morbid subject.

Along with the currency series, Campbell will exhibit a collection of hologram paintings using a unique process, which resemble chipped carnival mirrors or nicotine stained rainbows. The imagery borrows from working-class escapism, and Campbell is fluent with this dialect. The work pays homage to the thousands of stories Campbell has committed to flesh in an eloquent narrative of hopes and distractions. This exhibition exemplifies Campbell’s mastery of his imagery, highlights our complicated relationship with money, and reveals his continued concern with the human condition.