Liam Gillick emerged as part of the generation of "Young British Artists" who energized the British art scene in the 1980s and 1990s. He is now one of the most influential (and perplexing) artists in all of contemporary art. Gillick's discursive mode of art practice--often associated with "relational aesthetics"--complicates object production, embraces the exhibition as medium, and explores the social role and function of art. His body of work includes variations on "discussion platforms" (architectural structures that question or facilitate social interaction), text sculptures, and...

Still little-known in the United States, Richard Hamilton is a key figure in twentieth-century art. An original member of the legendary Independent Group in London in the 1950s, Hamilton organized or participated in groundbreaking exhibitions associated with the group--in particular This Is Tomorrow (1956), for which his celebrated collage Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?, crystallizing the postwar world of consumer capitalism, was made. With his colleagues in the Independent Group, Hamilton promoted the artistic investigation of popular culture,...

Mark Bradford is best known for dazzling, large-scale abstract paintings that examine the class-, race-, and gender-based economies that structure urban society in the United States. Gathering carefully chosen found and salvaged materials from the area surrounding his studio in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Bradford engages in an intricate artistic process that involves both creation and destruction. His complex, fractured works address pressing political issues and the media's influence on contemporary society while cataloguing cultural change and the artist's personal...

In this insightful collection, one of Spain s most influential artists, Antoni Tapies, reflects on art, life, and politics. A companion to A Personal Memoir (2010), this volume includes essays published in Catalan in six separate books between 1970 and 1999 (The Practice of Art, Art against Aesthetic, Reality as Art, For a Modern and Progressive Art, The Value of Art, Art and Its Places) together with previously uncollected articles, lectures, and other texts. In these essays Tapies reflects on the social role of art and the artist, discusses the influences on his art, and describes his...

This book is a collection of writings over a 10 year span from the mind of Gary Llama, an artist, musician, and activist from Richmond, Virginia.

In 2005, Gary Llama began writing essays. Inspired by the writings of C. Wright Mills, he began writing down his thoughts, normally reserved for songs, into short essays.

Topics center around society, and the implications of various issues.