Created by
Gavin
Ten Tens Are Tenable by Gavin W, Sewekk in Montreal
Ten Tens Are Tenable
A large-scale mixed-media collage that confronts the visual language of money head-on, this work centers on the fragmented image of the hundred-dollar bill—its iconography expanded, disrupted, and reassembled across a wide horizontal field.
Benjamin Franklin’s portrait is split, doubled, and color-shifted, suggesting both the stability and instability of value in circulation. Surrounding layers of global currency, official seals, and documentary fragments create a dense field of economic signals, while embedded sculptural relief panels introduce a tactile counterpoint—small systems of objects that feel mechanical, coded, and quietly symbolic.
The title plays with the logic of denomination and equivalence—what counts, what holds, what is “tenable.” The work raises a subtle but persistent question: is value inherent, agreed upon, or imposed?
Balancing graphic clarity with material complexity, the piece operates at multiple distances—striking and legible from across a room, but increasingly intricate up close. Its panoramic format makes it particularly well-suited for placement above a sofa, in a dining room, or within professional environments where ideas of exchange, power, and decision-making are part of daily life.
Availability: Sold
Medium: mixed media, acrylic paint, other media
Collection: pop, abstract, fantasy
Size: 60in (W) X 30in (H)
Price: $6,800
Meet the Artist
Meet the Artist
Montreal, CanadaI’m a Montreal and New York-based visual artist working across painting, collage, and sculptural wall pieces. My practice moves between abstraction and figuration, often layering found imagery, drawn elements, and painted structure into surfaces that feel both constructed and alive.
I’ve been working professionally for over twenty years, with projects ranging from private commissions to public art installations. My approach is collaborative—I work closely with clients to develop pieces that respond to a space, a story, or a particular energy they want to live with.
Alongside larger works, I offer smaller commissions, including portrait drawings and custom paintings, as a way of keeping the work immediate and accessible. Whether the project is intimate or architectural, the goal is the same: to make something that holds attention over time.
I’m particularly interested in work that sits between image and object—where painting starts to take on a physical presence, and where materials carry their own history into the final piece.
