Aram Moshayedi

This first retrospective monograph of Los Angeles-based artist Sam Falls (born 1984) spans his work from his beginnings in the 2000s to his most recent exhibitions. Following the traditions of minimalism and land art while pursuing a path toward abstraction, his photographs, paintings, public installations and sculptures have undoubtedly been influenced by nature and the Los Angeles environment in which he lives. Previously a student of physics, linguistics and aesthetics, he has long been interested in how natural phenomena such as light, rain and wind might impact his abstract paintings and sculptures. The idea of a controlled change on materials ranging from steel to cloth creates extraordinary time-based hybridities. The book brings together new essays by writer and curator Trinie Dalton, French critic Donatien Grau, and Los Angeles Hammer Museum Curator Aram Moshayedi, as well as a special portfolio conceived by the artist.

A prolific social critic, Paul McCarthy is best known for his work in performance, installation, film, and sculpture. His works reference American cultural archetypes such as Disneyland, B movies, soap operas, comic books, and contemporary politics. His drawings and films skewer, often profanely, mass media and consumer-driven American society by pointing to its hypocrisy, double standards, and repression. McCarthy’s work is also deeply influenced by European avant-garde art, especially by figures such as Joseph Beuys and Samuel Beckett, and Viennese Actionism. McCarthy’s drawings share the same visual language as his three-dimensional works: violence, humour, sex, politics, art history, and popular culture. Featuring 50 years of works on paper in charcoal, pencil, pen and ink, and collage, this selection includes pieces from McCarthy’s renowned “White Snow” series, his contributions to the “Plato in L. A.” project at the Getty Museum, and recent sketches in which, unsurprisingly given the current political climate, McCarthy’s gloves-off approach feels both necessary and inevitable. This book reveals an important aspect of his drawing techniques, and situates his works on paper as one of the most significant in contemporary art.