Sampling Culture

To see just how extensively appropriation is being used in contemporary art, it's useful to compare and contrast two traveling shows now in Cincinnati: Kara Walker's 'Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)' at the Cincinnati Art Museum and Shepard Fairey's 'Supply and Demand' at the Contemporary Arts Center. The term "appropriation" is used to describe new art that incorporates in some way a pre-existing work into its imagery.