Eva Respini – författare

A comprehensive overview of more than two decades of Huma Bhabha’s prolific and multidisciplinary output in sculpture, drawing, and photographyHuma Bhabha (b. 1962 in Karachi) is known for sculptures depicting the human figure fashioned from materials ranging from clay, brick, and wood to Styrofoam, bronze, found objects, and construction materials. Such works reveal her myriad influences, including horror films, science fiction, ancient artifacts, religious reliquaries, and Neo-Expressionism. This handsome volume surveys over two decades of Bhabha’s innovative sculptures, as well as her lesser-known but essential work in drawing, photography, and printmaking, all while considering her singular engagement with the human figure. Illustrated essays investigate the artist’s prolific and multidisciplinary output, her historical and cultural reference points, and her frequent themes, such as war, colonialism, displacement, and the memory of home—in the artist’s words, these are “eternal concerns” found across all cultures. A conversation between Bhabha and American artist Sterling Ruby offers an intimate point of entry into Bhabha’s perspectives and artistic practice.Published in association with the Institute of Contemporary Art/BostonExhibition Schedule:Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston(03/23/19–05/27/19)

Insightful and interdisciplinary, this book considers the movement of people around the world and how contemporary artists contribute to our understanding of itIn this timely volume, artists and thinkers join in conversation around the topic of global migration, examining both its cultural impact and the culture of migration itself. Individual voices shed light on the societal transformations related to migration and its representation in 21st-century art, offering diverse points of entry into this massive phenomenon and its many manifestations.  The featured artworks range from painting, sculpture, and photography to installation, video, and sound art, and their makers—including Isaac Julien, Richard Mosse, Reena Saini Kallat, Yinka Shonibare MBE, and Do Ho Suh, among many others—hail from around the world. Texts by experts in political science, Latin American studies, and human rights, as well as contemporary art, expand upon the political, economic, and social contexts of migration and its representation. The book also includes three conversations in which artists discuss the complexity of making work about migration.  Amid worldwide tensions surrounding refugee crises and border security, this publication provides a nuanced interpretation of the current cultural moment. Intertwining themes of memory, home, activism, and more, When Home Won’t Let You Stay meditates on how art both shapes and is shaped by the public discourse on migration.Published in association with the Institute of Contemporary Art/BostonExhibition Schedule:Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston(October 23, 2019–January 26, 2020)Minneapolis Institute of Art(February 22–May 24, 2020)Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University(February 5–May 30, 2021)

Published to accompany the first major survey of Cindy Sherman’s work in the United States in nearly 15 years, this publication presents a stunning range of work from the groundbreaking artist’s 35-year career. Showcasing approximately 180 photographs from the mid-1970s to the present, including new works made for the exhibition and never before published, the volume is a vivid exploration of Sherman’s sustained investigation into the construction of contemporary identity and the nature of representation. The book highlights major bodies of work including her seminal ‘Untitled Film Stills’ (1977–80); ‘Centerfolds’ (1981); ‘History Portraits’ (1989– 90); ‘Headshots’ (2000); and two recent series on the experience and representation of aging in the context of contemporary obsessions with youth and status. An introductory essay by curator Eva Respini provides an overview of Sherman’s career, weaving together art historical analysis and discussions of the artist’s working methods, and a contribution by art historian Johanna Burton offers a critical re-examination of Sherman’s work in light of her recent series. A conversation between Cindy Sherman and filmmaker John Waters provide an enlightening view into the creative process.

Robert Heinecken (1931-2006) was a pioneer in the postwar Los Angeles art scene who described himself as a para-photographer because his work stood ‘beside’ or ‘beyond’ traditional ideas of the medium. Published in conjunction with the first museum exhibition of the artist’s work since his death in 2006, this publication covers four decades of his remarkable and unique practice, from the early 1960s through the late 1990s, with special emphasis on his early experimentations with technique and materiality, which destabilized the very definition of photography. Culling images from newspapers, magazine advertisements, and television, Heinecken re-contextualized them through collage and assemblage, double-sided photograms, photolithography and re-photography. Although he was rarely behind the lens of a camera, his photo-based works question the nature of photography and radically redefine the perception of it as an artistic medium. As the most comprehensive survey of Heinecken’s oeuvre, this book sets his work in the context of twentieth century history of photographic experimentation and conceptual art. An illustrated essay by conservator Jennifer Jae Gutierrez about the artist’s experimental techniques, which ranged from photograms to photolithography to collage, contributes to the sparse scholarship on Heinecken’s working methods.

The first major monograph on Simone Leigh's multimedia explorations of community, Black feminism and the traditions and material cultures of the African diasporaPublished with Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.A New York Times Book Review 2023 holiday gift guide pickOver the past two decades, Simone Leigh has created artwork that situates questions of Black femme-identified subjectivity at the center of contemporary art discourse. Her sculpture, video, installation and social practice explore ideas of race, beauty and community in visual and material culture. Leigh's art addresses a wide swath of historical periods, geographies and traditions, with specific references to materials across the African diaspora, as well as forms traditionally associated with African art and architecture.This publication includes substantial new scholarship addressing Leigh's work across mediums and topics. The volume, timed with the artist's first museum survey and national tour, includes contributions by her longtime collaborators, new scholars who add diverse insights and perspectives, and a conversation highlighting Leigh's voice. Additionally, generous and lushly illustrated plates feature her critically acclaimed work for the 59th Venice Biennale and works made throughout her 20-year career. A special section featuring Leigh's research images gives access to Leigh's research methodologies and encourages readers to fully engage with all aspects of Leigh's work. This monograph provides a timely opportunity to gain a holistic understanding of the complex and profoundly moving work of this groundbreaking artist.Born in Chicago in 1967, Simone Leigh received a BA in fine art with a minor in philosophy from Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, in 1990. In 2022, Leigh represented the United States at the 59th Venice Biennale with her critically acclaimed exhibition Sovereignty. She has had solo presentations at the Kitchen, New York (2012); Creative Time, New York (2014); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2016); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); and the High Line, New York (2019); among other venues. Leigh lives and works in Brooklyn.

“Her language for exploring [history] is at once serious and exuberant.” –Siddhartha Mitter, New York TimesPublished with Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.Over the last 15 years, Firelei Báez has created artwork that delves into the historical narratives of the Atlantic Basin. She draws on the disciplines of anthropology, geography, folklore, fantasy, science fiction and social history to unsettle categories of race, gender and nationality in her paintings, drawings and installations. Her exuberant paintings feature finely wrought, complex and layered uses of pattern, motifs and saturated hues. Primarily centering women of color, her works incorporate regal fashion styles and decorative elements as well as defiant gazes in order to assert their authority.In advance of her North American traveling solo exhibition, this lushly illustrated book offers audiences an opportunity to gain a holistic understanding of Báez’s complex body of work, cementing her as one of today's most important artists. Partly inspired by artists’ sketchbooks, the monograph includes full-spread reproductions of the artist’s preparatory sketches alongside annotations, source images and close-up details of her artworks. Numerous scholars contribute thoughtful, reverent texts, weighing in on Báez’s indelible mark on the contemporary art landscape.The Dominican Republic–born artist Firelei Báez (born 1981) reworks visual references drawn from diasporic histories in order to imagine new possibilities for the future, overlaying figuration, symbolic imagery and abstract gesture onto large-scale reproductions of found maps and documents. She then populates these representations with hybrid forms composed of folkloric and literary references, textile patterns and plant life.