"Since the 1960s, British sculptor Phyllida Barlow (born 1944) has pursued a unique investigation into materiality, form and process in the wake of the minimalist and postminimalist movements of the 1960s and 70s. Barlow's 2013 exhibition "Scree," at the Des Moines Art Center, was designed specifically for the museum, responding to and residing within the architecture of its I.M. Pei wing. Built in 1968, this classically Brutalist archit ..."
"Survival Does Not Lie in the Heavens looks at Dario Robleto's ingenious adaptations of nineteenth-century folk traditions to explore mortality and memorialization. Robleto's sculptural objects use the model of the folksy mantelpiece keepsake--the elaborately framed photograph, the trophy, commemorative embroidery--and counter their traditionally saccharine, sentimental appeal with brilliant conceptual gestures. Thus, paper pulped from s ..."
"This mid-career retrospective showcases Sheila Pepe’s range as an artist comfortable with both the everyday and also the extraordinary. Shoelaces, nautical ropes, bits of string. For two decades Sheila Pepe has been transforming these items into transcendent works that can fit on a lap or fill a room. Her versatility, humor, and feminist perspective are on brilliant display in this book that traces her development over the past twenty y ..."
"Agnes Pelton became famous for her distinctive metaphysical landscape paintings rooted in the imagery of the American Southwest and California. Drawing chiefly on her own inspirations, superstitions, and beliefs, Pelton manifested emotional states in the form of ethereal veils of light, jagged rock forms, shimmering stars, and exaggerated horizons. Through these imaginary tableaus, she constructed a fantastic world that allowed her to m ..."
""Cosmopolitan Routes" situates 20th-century Latin American art as an evolving discourse of individual impulses, universal themes, and shared ideas. It further illustrates the parallels between works produced in Latin America and the artistic movements that have come to define modern and contemporary art on a global level. Showcased in detail are nearly 100 masterworks from Houston collections, ranging from early Modernist and postwar pi ..."
"Everything is made in Mexico, from decorative mirrors to silver jewelry to plastic dolls and ceramic dishware--and contemporary art. Made in Mexico examines recent art produced within and about Mexico. Historically, Mexico has always welcomed artists and writers from abroad as a way of enriching and diversifying the national character. This publication examines the phenomenon from a contemporary perspective for the first time. Made in M ..."
"Walkabout presents a selection of five video and multimedia installations by New York– and Mexico City–based artist Miguel Angel Ríos (born 1943), along with his paintings and works on paper from the past decade. Ríos relocated to New York City from Argentina in the mid–1970s to escape his native country’s dire political situation, an experience that has determined much of his subject matter."
"In Gabriel de la Mora's work, accuracy and execution appear to be conceptual as well as formal manoeuvres. If everything appears to be in its place, what is so disquieting and marvellous about his work? What leads us to experience something sinister? His work is related with the dark side of the psyche, its internal side, away from the cynical and ironic proposals that are so common in contemporary art. Gabriel de la Mora's works explo ..."
"Interpretar el trabajo artistico de Gabriel de la Mora es como buscar la huella de un crimen con la sospecha de que este nunca tuvo lugar. En sus obras la precision y la ejecucion parecen maniobras conceptuales a la vez que formales. Si todo parece estar en su sitio que es lo perturbador y lo maravilloso de su trabajo? que es lo que nos conduce a una experiencia de lo siniestro? Su trabajo guarda relacion con el lado oscuro de la psique ..."
"For more than 30 years, Los Angeles-born artist Daniel Joseph Martinez has been honing his politically-inflected practice, which critic Jeffrey Kastner has characterized as "unapologetically prob[ing] uncomfortable issues of personal and collective identity, seeking out threadbare spots in the fabric of conventional wisdom." A wry provocateur, Martinez incorporates an impressive array of media including text, painting, photography, scul ..."
"American artist Robyn O'Neil makes drawings that assemble detail drawn from photography, Italian Renaissance altarpieces, Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, literary classics and cinema into grand narratives of our times. This volume surveys O'Neil's recently completed seven-year series of snowy landscapes."
"For decades the California Biennial featured emerging artists from within the state, many of whom went on to worldwide acclaim. With California's current demographics increasingly linked to the countries throughout the Pacific Rim - an area that is producing some of today's most innovative art - Orange County Museum of Art Chief Curator Dan Cameron has expanded the exhibition to include residents of more than a dozen countries. The exhi ..."
"Of God and Mortal Men conveys the artistic genius of T.C. Cannon (1946-1978) through his best and most iconic paintings and essays that offer a fresh and inclusive look at Cannon's work extending beyond the confines of American Indian art. This group of paintings--nine major canvases from the Nancy and Richard Bloch Collection--represent the finest of Cannon's artwork anywhere, from Cannon's "mature" Santa Fe period and important pieces ..."
"The American art collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has grown significantly over the past two decades and reached new heights with such spectacular recent acquisitions as Albert Bierstadtâs Indians Spear Fishing and Frank Stellaâs Damascus Gate (Stretch Variation III). Along with showcasing artworks from the colonial period to the present, this beautiful and inspiring book explores the museumâs mission of collection-b ..."