Blind Handshake: artwriting 1990-2008

 

ANNOUNCING the book signing and release party for David Humphrey’s long-awaited anthology of art writing, Blind Handshake, with introductions by Alexi Worth and Chris Kraus.

WHERE:

Sikkema Jenkins & Co.  

530 West 22nd Street
New York, NY

WHEN:

Wednesday, December 16th, 6 – 8 PM
Short reading at 7

Blind Handshake is published by Periscope Publishing and distributed by Prestel. Available at St. Mark's Books, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The art criticism of the painter David Humphrey merits an anthology. But neither Humphrey nor Periscope wanted to present his writing as archival documents from 1990 to 2008. We decided it would be more innovative to treat the texts as the starting point for a book that acknowledges and extends the connections between Humphrey s studio practice and his criticism. The outcome is Blind Handshake. It foregrounds the social life surrounding contemporary art the practices and gestures, the dialogues and monologues that determine its place in the world. Organized thematically, the book considers Coupling Dramas, Unknowable Others, Collective Solitudes, Prosthetic Selves, and Good Liars. Artists drawn into the action include Richard Prince, Chris Ofili, Lucien Freud, Mamma Anderson, Tony Oursler, John Currin, Mary Heilmann, Catherine Murphy, and Amy Sillman. The book's designer Geoff Kaplan employed aspects of graphic novels, magazine layouts, and art monographs in translating the writing and illustrations into a mutant creature. Introductions by Chris Kraus and Alexi Worth provide contexts for understanding the book s presentation of the turbulent intersubjectivity that pervades contemporary art.

DAVID HUMPHREY has exhibited his art throughout the United States and curated several shows in New York City. He is a recipient of the Rome Prize and a Senior Critic at the Yale School of Art. His art criticism has appeared in Art in America, Art issues, among other publications.

GEOFF KAPLAN of General Working Group is a graphic designer who teaches at the California College of the Arts. He is currently writing and designing Power of the People: The Graphic Design of the Radical Press and the Rise of the Counter Culture, 1964-1974.

ALEXI WORTH is an artist and a critic published in Artforum and the New York TImes. His art has been featured at the Elizabeth Harris Gallery and P.P.O.W., both in New York City.

CHRIS KRAUS is a writer and filmmaker. Her publications include I Love Dick, Torpor, and Video Green. She founded Native Agents, an imprint of Semiotext(e), to publish work dealing with theories of subjectivity. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Frank Jewett Mather award in art criticism from the College Art Association.

 

ANNOUNCING the book signing and release party for David Humphrey’s long-awaited anthology of art writing, Blind Handshake, with introductions by Alexi Worth and Chris Kraus.

WHERE:

Sikkema Jenkins & Co.  

530 West 22nd Street
New York, NY

WHEN:

Wednesday, December 16th, 6 – 8 PM
Short reading at 7

Blind Handshake is published by Periscope Publishing and distributed by Prestel. Available at St. Mark's Books, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The art criticism of the painter David Humphrey merits an anthology. But neither Humphrey nor Periscope wanted to present his writing as archival documents from 1990 to 2008. We decided it would be more innovative to treat the texts as the starting point for a book that acknowledges and extends the connections between Humphrey s studio practice and his criticism. The outcome is Blind Handshake. It foregrounds the social life surrounding contemporary art the practices and gestures, the dialogues and monologues that determine its place in the world. Organized thematically, the book considers Coupling Dramas, Unknowable Others, Collective Solitudes, Prosthetic Selves, and Good Liars. Artists drawn into the action include Richard Prince, Chris Ofili, Lucien Freud, Mamma Anderson, Tony Oursler, John Currin, Mary Heilmann, Catherine Murphy, and Amy Sillman. The book's designer Geoff Kaplan employed aspects of graphic novels, magazine layouts, and art monographs in translating the writing and illustrations into a mutant creature. Introductions by Chris Kraus and Alexi Worth provide contexts for understanding the book s presentation of the turbulent intersubjectivity that pervades contemporary art.

DAVID HUMPHREY has exhibited his art throughout the United States and curated several shows in New York City. He is a recipient of the Rome Prize and a Senior Critic at the Yale School of Art. His art criticism has appeared in Art in America, Art issues, among other publications.

GEOFF KAPLAN of General Working Group is a graphic designer who teaches at the California College of the Arts. He is currently writing and designing Power of the People: The Graphic Design of the Radical Press and the Rise of the Counter Culture, 1964-1974.

ALEXI WORTH is an artist and a critic published in Artforum and the New York TImes. His art has been featured at the Elizabeth Harris Gallery and P.P.O.W., both in New York City.

CHRIS KRAUS is a writer and filmmaker. Her publications include I Love Dick, Torpor, and Video Green. She founded Native Agents, an imprint of Semiotext(e), to publish work dealing with theories of subjectivity. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Frank Jewett Mather award in art criticism from the College Art Association.