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For the first time in the history of our planet, more than half the population-3.3 billion people-is now living in cities. City is the ultimate guidebook to our urban centers-the signature unit of human civilization. With erudite prose and carefully chosen illustrations, this work of metatourism explores what cities are and how they work. It covers history, customs and(...)
City : a guidebook for the urban age
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For the first time in the history of our planet, more than half the population-3.3 billion people-is now living in cities. City is the ultimate guidebook to our urban centers-the signature unit of human civilization. With erudite prose and carefully chosen illustrations, this work of metatourism explores what cities are and how they work. It covers history, customs and language, districts, transport, money, work, shops and markets, and tourist sites, creating a detailed portrait of the city through history and into the future. The urban explorer will revel in essays on downtowns, suburbs, shantytowns and favelas, graffiti, skylines, crime, the theater, street food, sport, eco-cities, and sacred sites, as well as mini essays on the Tower of Babel, flash mobs, ghettos, skateboarding, and SimCity, among many others. Drawing on a vast range of examples from across the world and throughout history, City is extensively illustrated with full-color photographs, maps, and other images.
Urban Theory
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Celebrated artist Keith Haring (1958–1990) has been embraced by popular culture for his signature bold graphic line drawings of figures and forms. Like other graffiti artists in the 1980s, Haring found an empty canvas in the advertising panels scattered throughout New York City’s subway system, where he communicated his socially conscious, often humorous messages on(...)
Contemporary Art Monographs
December 2021
Keith Haring: 31 subway drawings
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Celebrated artist Keith Haring (1958–1990) has been embraced by popular culture for his signature bold graphic line drawings of figures and forms. Like other graffiti artists in the 1980s, Haring found an empty canvas in the advertising panels scattered throughout New York City’s subway system, where he communicated his socially conscious, often humorous messages on platforms and train cars. Over a five-year period, in an epic conquest of civic space, Haring produced a massive body of subway artwork that remains daunting in its scale and its impact on the public consciousness. Dedicated to the individuals who might encounter them and to the moments of their creation, Haring’s drawings now exist solely in the form of documentary photographs and legend. Because they were not meant to be permanent—only briefly inhabiting blacked-out advertising boards before being covered up by ads or torn down by authorities or admirers—what little remains of this project is uniquely fugitive. ''Keith Haring: 31 subway drawings'' reproduces archival materials relating to this magnificent project alongside essays by leading Haring experts.
Contemporary Art Monographs
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The photographs by Richard Misrach assembled in this volume are a stark, affecting reminders of the physical and psychological impact of Hurricane Katrina as told by those on the ground, and seen through the lens of a contemporary master. Rather than simply surveying the damage, Misrach-who has photographed the region regularly since the 1970s, most notably for his(...)
September 2010
Richard Misrach: Destroy this memory
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The photographs by Richard Misrach assembled in this volume are a stark, affecting reminders of the physical and psychological impact of Hurricane Katrina as told by those on the ground, and seen through the lens of a contemporary master. Rather than simply surveying the damage, Misrach-who has photographed the region regularly since the 1970s, most notably for his ongoing "Cancer Alley" project-found himself drawn to the hurricane-inspired graffiti. "Destroy This Memory" presents previously unpublished and starkly compelling material, all of which Misrach shot with his 4 MP pocket camera while also working on a separate archive of over 1,000 photographs with his 8 x 10 large-format camera. Created between October and December 2005, this series of images serves as a potent, unalloyed document of the raw experiences of those left to fend for themselves in the aftermath of Katrina. With no essay, titles or even page numbers in the way, the words on these homes, cars and trees offer a searing testament that continues to speak volumes.
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In the last fifteen years, a tremendously vibrant youth culture movement has emerged made up of DIY artists and creators, who are descended from and inspired by the 1970s to ’80s underground movements of punk, hip-hop, and skateboarding. These predecessors set the foundation for the current movement—which in the broadest sense can be called “street culture”—with their(...)
Revisionaries: a decade of art in Tokion
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In the last fifteen years, a tremendously vibrant youth culture movement has emerged made up of DIY artists and creators, who are descended from and inspired by the 1970s to ’80s underground movements of punk, hip-hop, and skateboarding. These predecessors set the foundation for the current movement—which in the broadest sense can be called “street culture”—with their ability to work outside of the traditional fine art establishment through their own network of independent newspapers, ’zines, books, music, film, and galleries. Today’s renegade artists blur the lines between graffiti, graphic design, folk art, and stoned doodling. From streetwalls to T-shirts, sneakers, and toys, the works of these artists are instantly recognizable and are defining today’s aesthetic. In The Revisionaries, the editors of Tokion, a magazine at the helm of discovering and covering new talent, gather all of these artists in one book. Organized into three sections: graphic arts, folk art, and psychedelia, and with introductory bios and interviews with such artists as Shepherd Fairey, Geoff McFetridge, Ryan McGinness, Swoon, and many more. This book is an indispensable guide to the artists of today and tomorrow.
Graphic Design and Typography
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This book compiles Frank Day's multivalent series of photographs of Bangkok's battered public phone booths. Seen as if magnets for the detritus of daily life in a metropolis, Day's intimate yet subtly epic images register traces of the demands that govern our urban existence: postings for job adverts, signs of commercial pleasure, and listings for entertainment(...)
Frank Hallam Day, Call waiting: Bangkok phone booths
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This book compiles Frank Day's multivalent series of photographs of Bangkok's battered public phone booths. Seen as if magnets for the detritus of daily life in a metropolis, Day's intimate yet subtly epic images register traces of the demands that govern our urban existence: postings for job adverts, signs of commercial pleasure, and listings for entertainment spectacles, or social advancement opportunities. Many of the markings in the booths are tags by graffiti artists and also messages left by street protestors during the recent years of Thailand's political meltdown. Call Waiting is not a sociological document of the type that maps the rich contrasts of a contemporary Asian city. Rather, Day's formalism cultivates intense moods and surprising resonances, touched by a noir sensibility of abandonment, neglect and mystery. (Brian Curtin) Frank Hallam Day lives in Washington DC. He won the 2012 Leica Oskar Barnack Prize for the series Nocturnal (published by Kehrer 2012), among other awards. His work has been widely exhibited and is in the collections of Berlinische Galerie und Landesmuseum Berlin, Baltimore Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum, Corcoran Gallery, San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts, and others.
Photography monographs
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"Margaret Kilgallen: that’s where the beauty is". is published on the occasion of Kilgallen’s first posthumous museum exhibition, and the largest presentation of her work in more than a decade. Using the artist’s exhibition history as a chronological tool, "that’s where the beauty is". examines Kilgallen’s roots in histories of printmaking, American and non-Western folk(...)
Contemporary Art Monographs
December 2019
Margaret Kilgallen: that's where the beauty is
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"Margaret Kilgallen: that’s where the beauty is". is published on the occasion of Kilgallen’s first posthumous museum exhibition, and the largest presentation of her work in more than a decade. Using the artist’s exhibition history as a chronological tool, "that’s where the beauty is". examines Kilgallen’s roots in histories of printmaking, American and non-Western folk history and folklore, and feminist strategies of representation, expanding the narrative around her work beyond her association with the Bay Area Mission School and the "Beautiful Losers" artists. Kilgallen’s graphic, schematic style came from a deep engagement with the handmade in wildly divergent forms—from folk art to letterpress printing to freight train graffiti, among many other sources. “I like things that are handmade and I like to see people's hand in the world anywhere in the world,” she said, embracing the idiosyncrasies and imperfections that come from hand craft. “I think that’s where the beauty is.” Kilgallen’s work, in form and content, celebrates the handmade, making heroes and heroines of those who live and work in the margins and challenging traditional gender roles, hierarchies and mainstream culture.
Contemporary Art Monographs
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Take as a starting point the cover of this book; Anthony Hernandez’s wonderful photograph of square, colourful ceramic tiles could be almost anything you might imagine it to be. A Mondrian-like painting, a random pattern, a city grid, or perhaps the work of an anonymous tile setter, brightening up the facade of a government building in South Central Los Angeles. With the(...)
Photography monographs
December 2002, Tucson
Anthony Hernandez : waiting for Los Angeles
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Take as a starting point the cover of this book; Anthony Hernandez’s wonderful photograph of square, colourful ceramic tiles could be almost anything you might imagine it to be. A Mondrian-like painting, a random pattern, a city grid, or perhaps the work of an anonymous tile setter, brightening up the facade of a government building in South Central Los Angeles. With the passage of time, these vibrant squares have been lost beneath a coat of anti-graffiti paint. Anthony Hernandez is a photographer for whom waiting has long been a theme, with his bus stop pictures in the late 1970s, and his fishing photographs in the 1980s. Hernandez’s vision is both abstract and documentary, and there is a pattern to his work in every sense of that word – whether he is focusing on an empty waiting room, a phone hanging in a booth, or random scribbles etched on a sheet of glass. Hernandez skillfully draws attention to the simple geometric beauty that can be found in even the most utilitarian fence, wall, or window. There is not a soul in sight, but there is a strong sense that someone has been here, and there is enough to grip the attention until, perhaps, they return. With an essay by photographer, writer and critic Allan Sekula.
Photography monographs
Dot dot dash
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Dot Dot Dash! is brought to you by the editors of Pictoplasma and Pictoplasma 2. Expanding on the widely popular subject of contemporary character design, this definitive volume showcases an up-to-date survey of the personalities and characters that have entered the third dimension. Vinyl figures, plush dolls, designer toys and action figures can be seen as a new(...)
Dot dot dash
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Dot Dot Dash! is brought to you by the editors of Pictoplasma and Pictoplasma 2. Expanding on the widely popular subject of contemporary character design, this definitive volume showcases an up-to-date survey of the personalities and characters that have entered the third dimension. Vinyl figures, plush dolls, designer toys and action figures can be seen as a new movement in contemporary design, art and popular culture. Interest in these three-dimensional toys have surged, drawing on pop culture, graffiti and visual art. The new-generation-characters appear cute, cuddly and innocuous at first, but are often elicit, subversive and politically incorrect. Not intended for child's play, they are highly esteemed by teens and adults alike. Each is a work of art, often created by world-famous artists and many of them are produced independently in limited editions and become highly sought after collectibles. A recent trend of character applications aspiring from inherent crossovers of the character and art worlds is also taking form in sculptures and objects, creating a new art market where artists are progressively moving beyond the boundaries of the gallery and extending their work to a disparate audience. This voluptuous volume exhibits the expansive scope of designs and objects in the ultimate compilation of contemporary character design.
Zines
Paul Graham: Troubled land
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An iconic project made at the height of the ''Troubles'', ''Troubled land'' deals with the small but insistent signs of political division embedded in the landscape of Northern Ireland. At the heart of the Irish conflict lays the land — who owns it, who controls it, whose history it expresses. Paul Graham’s quietly radical book keeps this material truth in mind as it(...)
Paul Graham: Troubled land
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An iconic project made at the height of the ''Troubles'', ''Troubled land'' deals with the small but insistent signs of political division embedded in the landscape of Northern Ireland. At the heart of the Irish conflict lays the land — who owns it, who controls it, whose history it expresses. Paul Graham’s quietly radical book keeps this material truth in mind as it uniquely combines landscape and conflict photography, seducing us with bucolic views in which telling details only gradually appear: painted kerbs, distant soldiers or helicopters, flags and graffiti, paint-splattered roads, each tacitly aligning that location to its Republican or Loyalist allegiance. Pastoral photographs of green fields and hedgerows reveal themselves to be images of conflict and dispute — despite the steadiness of the photographic frame and the clarity of Graham’s vision, this is unsettled land. Originally published in 1986, ''Troubled land'' is reprinted here for the first time in thirty-five years. Controversial then for its use of colour and refusal to follow the clichéd tropes of photojournalism, the book was pivotal in providing a fresh perspective on Northern Ireland’s ''Troubles'' and left a lasting impact on landscape photography, suggesting how it might engage with politics and society rather than escape from them. Together with ''A1 – The Great North Road'' and ''Beyond Caring,'' it completes a new edition of the remarkable trilogy of books Graham made in 1980s UK.
Photography monographs
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Cities participate in the production of meaning by providing places populated with objects for words to refer to. Inscriptions on these objects (labels, billboards, newspapers, graffiti) provide another layer of meaning. And today, the flow of digital information - from one device to another in the urban scene - creates a digital network that also exists in physical(...)
Architectural Theory
January 1900, Cambridge, Mass.
Placing words : symbols, space and the city
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Cities participate in the production of meaning by providing places populated with objects for words to refer to. Inscriptions on these objects (labels, billboards, newspapers, graffiti) provide another layer of meaning. And today, the flow of digital information - from one device to another in the urban scene - creates a digital network that also exists in physical space. "Placing Words" examines this emerging system of spaces, flows, and practices in a series of short essays - snapshots of the city in the twenty-first century. Mitchell questions the necessity of flashy downtown office towers in an age of corporate web sites. He casts the shocked-and-awed Baghdad as a contemporary Guernica. He describes architectural makeovers throughout history, listing Le Corbusier's Fab Five Points of difference between new and old architecture, and he discusses the architecture of Manolo Blahniks. He pens an open letter to the Secretary of Defense recommending architectural features to include in torture chambers. He compares Baudelaire, the Parisian flaneur, to Spiderman, the Manhattan traceur. He describes the iPod-like galleries of the renovated MoMA and he recognizes the camera phone as the latest step in a process of image mobilization that began when artists stopped painting on walls and began making pictures on small pieces of wood, canvas, or paper. The endless flow of information, he makes clear, is not only more pervasive and efficient than ever, it is also generating new cultural complexities.
Architectural Theory