Courtney J. Martin

The first monograph on the work of celebrated and influential Kenyan-American artist Wangechi Mutu Wangechi Mutu's remarkable body of work touches on such issues as sexuality, ecology, politics, and the rhythms and chaos that govern the world. Her paintings, sculptures, and collages, often enriched with culturally-charged materials including tea, synthetic hair, Kenyan soil, feathers, and sand, interweave fact with fiction, generating a unique form of myth-making that sets her apart from classical history or popular culture. This is the first book to document her evolution and explore her impact.

The first major publication to explore the work of Sonia Boyce, one of Britain’s most exciting contemporary artists, including her newest and most ambitious work to date The British artist Sonia Boyce (b. 1962) is celebrated for depicting intimate social encounters that explore interpersonal dynamics in drawing, photography, video, and installation, using images and sounds captured during the participatory art events she initiates. Boyce’s immersive new exhibition for the British Council commission at La Biennale di Venezia 2022 is her most ambitious to date—focussing on collaborative play as a route to artistic innovation and the importance of taking creative risks—both central tenets of Boyce’s exceptional artistic practice. Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way captures the drama and scope of this multisensory work as it unfolds throughout the British Pavilion. Boyce came to prominence as a key figure in the British Black arts movement of the 1980s and the authors’ texts connect this astonishing new work with Boyce’s preceding works and her abiding interests and concerns. Published in association with the British CouncilExhibition Schedule:La Biennale di Venezia (April 23–November 27, 2022)

The first – and highly anticipated – monograph on one of the most influential painters of our time Cecily Brown is a British-born, New York-based artist who rose to prominence in the late 1990s. Brown established her unique voice within the art sphere by investigating the sensual qualities of oil paint and challenging the conventions of abstraction and figuration. Through a range of reference to old master paintings, Abstract Expressionism, and popular culture, Brown's symbolic language, exuberant brushwork, rich palette, intense energy, and embrace of the erotic have redefined some of painting's historical canons.

The first monograph on an artist whose theatrical sculptures elevate the grit and absurdity of everyday life into monumental, thought-provoking installations. Will Ryman was destined to become an artist--born and raised in New York City into a revered art family (his father is the late Robert Ryman), the city in all its hard-scrabble beauty shaped him from a young age. Best known for sculptures and installations that fuse satire, spectacle, and a distinctly urban sensibility, Ryman trained as a playwright before turning to sculpture. In his work, he transforms overlooked details of daily life--roses and pigeons, trash bins and candy wrappers--into larger-than-life forms that are humorous, unsettling, and unexpectedly poignant. His signature monumentally scaled rose sculptures have been exhibited as public art projects from New York City to Taipei. His work is held in prominent public collections, including The Broad, 21C Museum Foundation, and the Margulies Collection, as well as regional institutions such as the Farnsworth Museum. Ryman's theatrical vignettes of street life brim with wit while engaging themes of consumerism, labor, mortality, and the fragile beauty that persists amid urban disorder. This special volume features three different paper stocks and is bound in a silver, highly reflective foil paper that mirrors the materials the artist incorporates into his work.

A new retrospective of the work of trailblazing artist Barbara Chase-RiboudBarbara Chase-Riboud is a bestselling novelist, an award-winning poet, and a renowned visual artist whose sculpture and drawings are in museum collections around the world. Among her best-known sculptural work is the Malcolm X series of flowing cast bronze forms combined with braided fiber elements. Barbara Chase-Riboud Monumentale traces this pioneering artist’s remarkable career from the 1950s to the present, providing the most comprehensive account of her important body of work to date. The book features both celebrated and never-before-seen artworks that highlight Chase-Riboud’s groundbreaking contributions to contemporary sculpture. In addition to some forty sculptures, the book presents nearly twenty works on paper, a selection of Chase-Riboud’s poetry, and excerpts from an interview with the artist. Exploring the many different aspects of Chase-Riboud’s artistic practice, Barbara Chase-Riboud Monumentale provides unprecedented insights into her meditations on form, memory, and monument, while revealing the rich array of inspiration she has drawn from global art history and literature. Published in association with the Pulitzer Arts FoundationExhibition SchedulePulitzer Arts Foundation, St. LouisSeptember 16, 2022–February 5, 2023

Det håndgribelige rum billedhuggeren Morten Stræde Skrevet af den amerikanske kunsthistoriker Courtney Martin, chefkurator og vicedirektør for DIA art Foundation i New York Det er den amerikanske kunsthistoriker Courtney J. Martin, der i monografien “Det håndgribelige rum”, fortæller om Morten Stræde som en af den danske kunstscenes mest anerkendte og produktive kunstnere. Martin skrev katalogteksten til Morten Strædes soloudstilling “Seven Sorrowful Songs” på Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, og skriver i bogen Morten Stræde ind i en international kontekst og tradition i forhold til billedkunstnere som Bruce Nauman og Richard Serra. Morten Stræde fik sit gennembrud i 1980’erne, hvor det abstrakte formsprog var karakteristisk for den tids billedhuggere, der ligesom deres samtidige vilde malere inddrog elementer fra litteratur, semiotik og filosofi i deres kunst. Strædes skulpturer – der gennem de seneste 10-15 år fundet prominent plads i det offentlige rum – tilbyder mange muligheder for forståelse og fortolkning og har samtidig den tyngde, der er nødvendig, når et værk skal kunne blive stående år efter år og vedblive at kaste noget fra sig.

Skrevet af den amerikanske kunsthistoriker Courtney Martin, chefkurator og vicedirektør for DIA art Foundation i New York Det er den amerikanske kunsthistoriker Courtney J. Martin, der i monografien “Det håndgribelige rum”, fortæller om Morten Stræde som en af den danske kunstscenes mest anerkendte og produktive kunstnere. Martin skrev katalogteksten til Morten Strædes soloudstilling “Seven Sorrowful Songs” på Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, og skriver i bogen Morten Stræde ind i en international kontekst og tradition i forhold til billedkunstnere som Bruce Nauman og Richard Serra. Morten Stræde fik sit gennembrud i 1980’erne, hvor det abstrakte formsprog var karakteristisk for den tids billedhuggere, der ligesom deres samtidige vilde malere inddrog elementer fra litteratur, semiotik og filosofi i deres kunst. Strædes skulpturer – der gennem de seneste 10-15 år fundet prominent plads i det offentlige rum – tilbyder mange muligheder for forståelse og fortolkning og har samtidig den tyngde, der er nødvendig, når et værk skal kunne blive stående år efter år og vedblive at kaste noget fra sig.