Anna Sew Hoy: Suppose and a Pair of Jeans

Anna Sew Hoy, Math Bass, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Trinie Dalton, Rita Gonzalez, Jennie Sorkin, A.L. Steiner, Alice Konitz

Suppose and a Pair of Jeans is the first book to consider the work of Los Angeles-based artist Anna Sew Hoy, whose prolific practice originates in sculpture and reaches into craft, performance, and ceramics. Organized into groupings that emphasize the interrelation of form, process, function, and influence, this generously-illustrated volume is punctuated by texts and “manifestos” responding to Sew Hoy’s work by fellow artists, writers, art historians, curators, and collaborators including Math Bass, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Trinie Dalton, Jennifer Doyle, Eve Fowler, Rita Gonzalez, Alice Könitz, Jenni Sorkin, and A.L. Steiner.

Add to your order

Jim Shaw

Dreams

After years out of print, this re-issue of the 1995 Dreams once again reveals internationally renowned artist/writer Jim Shaw’s innermost fears, obsessions and sexual fantasies. This bizarre journal takes the reader into the imagination of the Los Angeles-based artist through painstaking pencil drawings that bring the nocturnal world of this inventive, anti-elitist artist to life. Shaw is known for his preoccupation with dream imagery, pop culture and odd-ball, even pornographic, subject matter; his works span drawings, sculpture, prints and photos. This massive, diary-like picture book is an in-depth look at one of the most important facets of this seminal artist’s work.

Add to your order

Sheikh ‘n’ Vac

Yara El-Sherbini

Add to your order

Mark Sheinkman

Wisps of smoke? Clouds? Woven threads? An unknown species of jellyfish? New York artist Mark Sheinkman’s romantic, mysterious and delicate drawings are the focus of this catalog from his first European solo exhibition. To create these dramatic works of art, Sheinkman applies graphite powder to the ground and rubs it into the completely black surface until the white plumes appear chiselled out of the darkness of the paper, in a mesmerizing filigree effect. The drawings, some as large as six feet across, inspired curator Ulrike Schick to write that Sheinkman “describes time through space … the fleetingness of a moment that is captured without becoming rigid.” Photos include the gallery installation from the museum show.

Add to your order

ANWAR JALAL SHEMZA

Iftikhar Dadi (Ed.)

Layering postwar geometric abstraction with Arabic calligraphic forms, Anwar Jalal Shemza’s rich and imaginative body of work combining the visual traditions of East and West is surveyed for the first time in this comprehensive volume. Born in India in 1928, Shemza attended art school in Lahore, Pakistan, and was a leading artist and literary figure when he moved to London in the mid-1950s to study at the Slade College of Fine Art. His subsequent work in painting, drawing and printmaking engaged dilemmas of identity, culture and place in rigorously deployed geometric and calligraphic forms. Accompanying over 130 illustrations of works and rare archival material, a text by art historian Iftikhar Dadi provides an overview of his career alongside essays by artists Shezad Dawood and Rachel Garfield, art historian Courtney J. Martin and London-based curator Hammad Nasar on his work, contemporary reception and influence on younger generations. This publication coincides with Tate Britain Spotlight exhibition (2015–16).

Add to your order

SHOOTING TIME

Cinematographers on Cinematography

Richard van Oosterhout, Maarten van Rossem & Peter Verstraten (Eds.)

An indispensable text for contemporary filmmakers, Shooting  Time is a collection of conversations with directors of photography (DP) all over the world talking about the transition of their profession from analog to digital cinema. The conversations center around two main areas: film language and digital revolution. How does each DP employ his own visual style? How do contemporary DPs relate to the cinematography of previous eras? How do the new digital tools transform their profession and, is it for better or for worse? Moreover, how do hypermodern cameras affect the language of the cinema? Cinematographers in conversation include Vilmos Zsigmond, Robby Müller, Dante Spinotti, Christian Berger, Slawomir Idziak and Frederick Elmes. Also included are four articles on celluloid in the digital age.

Add to your order

PAUL SIETSEMA

Interviews on Films and Works

Quinn Latimer (Ed.)

This collection of interviews with Los Angeles artist Paul Sietsema by prominent writers and curators was published on the occasion of his first solo museum exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel (2012). The aesthetics of Sietsema’s practice result from the translation of visual information between mediums—like the presentation of his sculptures and paintings on film rather than in their original media. These discursive texts consider issues central to the artist’s work, including the perception of present time and the relationship of materials to form. Stills from newly produced films and reproductions of paintings and works on paper continue Sietsema’s ongoing investigation into the mechanics of knowledge within image culture. With interviews by Andrew Berardini, Gintaras, among others.

Add to your order

SANTIAGO SIERRA

Sculpture, Photography, Film

Spanish artist Santiago Sierra’s genius lies in using his art to allow the public to see the structure of power in the contemporary world. At the Spanish Pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, he built a wall and hired a security firm to police the door—only admitting those visitors who were able to provide Spanish or Mexican identity documents. The Guardian of London wrote that the shocking nature of Sierra’s most recent work was not that he solicited some junkies to get tattoos in exchange for drugs; the ah-ha moment is the small shift of perception that reminds us of the daily human rights violations worldwide that we don’t even notice. This expansive catalog, accompanying a retrospective exhibition of countless performance remains and installations, was compiled by Sierra himself and offers a deep overview of the artist’s career.

Add to your order

PAUL SIETSEMA

At the Hour of Tea

Los Angeles-based artist Paul Sietsema develops a filmic space within the pages of this unique artist book by layering stills from his most recent 16mm film At the Hour of Tea. By puncturing the imagery with single and multiple laser-cut portals, he alludes to the analog process in film. Drawing on the design idea of skeuomorphism, common in modern computer interfaces, Sietsema fills his tableaux with now-outmoded items that live on as icons of their former functions. Clichéd “collectible” objects—Roman glass, coins, minor antiquities—invoke the notion of a salon or space of contemplation as a parallel to the contemporary studio. Characteristically, Sietsema plays with the idea of a kind of leisure-based consumptive creativity, employing sequences and objects as historical analogs for modern processes of consumption, production and communication.

Add to your order

ROMAN SIGNER

Slow Movement

An exciting new series coming from the Barbican Gallery, The Curve Series 23 features a single body of work by one artist in tandem with an installation in their noted “Curve” exhibition space. In this inaugural volume Swiss artist Roman Signer’s use of the kayak, a symbol and form he has employed in his work for over 30 years, provides the jumping-off point. The red kayak in the current installation Slow Movement (2015), towed by a rope suspended from the ceiling, navigates the 300-foot-long gallery as if moving through a canal. Signer is well known for his “action sculptures” and sculptural installations plus videos that push everyday objects and situations to absurd ends. This slender volume of color photographs documenting Signer’s kayak installations over the years is bookended with an essay by art writer Rachel Withers and an interview with the artist by editor and teacher David Signer. This is a series to pay attention to!

Add to your order