(New York, NY—June 25, 2026) Van Der Plas Gallery is pleased to present Crossroads, a group exhibition featuring works by David Buckingham, Al Diaz, and Doug Groupp. United in their interrogation of contemporary culture, these three artists wield bold color, commanding text, and figurative wit as instruments of critical commentary.​ Crossroads tosses the map out the window — charting new roads of thought, perception, and resistance.​

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Los Angeles–based sculptor David Buckingham reincarnates discarded industrial materials into assemblages that ironically, vigorously, and humorously reflect on the singular dynamics of semiotics, consumer psychology, and cultural decay. Constructed entirely from salvaged metal, vintage signage, machine parts, and reclaimed fragments, Buckingham’s works preserve the original wear and tear of the elements from which they are born. Importantly, the artist does not paint or artificially distress his pieces; every mark, oxidation pattern, and weathered color originates from the object’s previous life.

 

Buckingham's background in advertising shaped his approach to language as both subject and material — appearing throughout his work in the form of direct commands, slang, and emotionally charged phrases. His works WHAAM! and WHOOM! reflect an exuberant intersection of Pop art, comics, and graffiti, occupying a space of nostalgic symbolism that draws attention to how words shape identity, desire, and collective memory. In WHAAM!, Buckingham nods to Roy Lichtenstein's iconic comic-book imagery, extending the visual language of Pop art into sculptural form. That dialogue with postwar American art continues in his Color Studies and bullseye works, which evoke Jasper Johns' celebrated target paintings while transforming the motif through reclaimed industrial materials and a distinctive vocabulary of weathered surfaces and found objects.

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Another centerpiece of Buckingham's contribution to Crossroads is his monumental Subway Token sculpture, an homage to a New York that exists today largely in memory. Before relocating to Los Angeles, Buckingham came of age in the city's downtown counterculture, where subway tokens were not only currency but symbols of movement, freedom, and survival — relics of an era he fell in love with and still carries with him.

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Complementing Buckingham's practice are works by Al Diaz and Doug Groupp, two artists who similarly employ artistic allegory to unveil and reshape broader narratives.

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Emerging from the tags and throw-ups of New York's graffiti heyday, Al Diaz applies cryptic phrases and poetic interventions to fashion his own dialect of conceptual art, melded with neo-expressionism. His work bridges street culture and fine art, demonstrating how text can function simultaneously as image and social messaging. His American Flag takes up another motif Jasper Johns made iconic — reimagining the familiar emblem through layered language, lettering drawn from his signature wet paint signage, and street-inspired gestures demanding that a national symbol account for itself.

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Doug Groupp, known as "Clown Soldier," introduces a theatrically charged dimension to the exhibition. Utilizing cartoon caricatures, parody, and a touch of political exposition, Groupp investigates themes of performance, discord, and media culture. Balancing absurdity with vulnerability, humor with aggression, his compositions challenge viewers to consider the increasingly blurred boundaries between entertainment, politics, and spectacle as displayed in his signature piece for the show The Strait of Hormuz. One can discern the early design of Mickey Mouse, the vintage mid-20th-century laughing man, and the seal of the Islamic Republic, presented in a cool blue, layered beneath the Coca-Cola logo.  

 

Together, Buckingham, Diaz, and Groupp reveal the power of symbols as crests of the modern era, forever shaping what we understand and value. While each artist approaches these subjects through his own distinct perspective, all three transform recognizable aesthetic forms into new layers of meaning. Crossroads highlights this ongoing dialogue, inviting viewers to reconsider the visual vocabulary that surrounds them every day

 

The exhibition opening will be held on June 25th, 2026, from 6 - 8 pm at Van Der Plas Gallery, 156 Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002, and will be on view from June 25th to July 19th, 2026.