Art Books

Art_Latin_America: Against the Survey edited by James Oles with Lisa Fischman, 2019

“The Davis Museum’s groundbreaking curatorial project, Art__Latin__America: Against the Survey, reconsiders conventional frameworks for understanding, exhibiting, and discussing Latin American and Latinx art. This illustrated volume, published with the exhibition, features 70 essays by leading scholars and specialists from across the Americas on an exceptional selection of art works, many never before seen or published." -- Amazon

Hiroshi Sugimoto : time machine, curated by Ralph Rugoff, contributors, James Attlee and eight others, 2023

“Through his expansive exploration of the possibilities of still images, the internationally renowned artist and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto has created some of the most alluringly enigmatic photographs of our time; pictures that are meticulously crafted and deeply thought-provoking, familiar yet tantalisingly ambiguous. Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Machine is a comprehensive survey of work produced over the past five decades, featuring selections from all of Sugimoto's major photographic series, as well as lesser-known works that illuminate his innovative, conceptually-driven approach to making pictures. Texts by a collection of international writers, artists and scholars, including James Attlee, Geoffrey Batchen, Allie Biswas, David Chipperfield, Edmund de Waal, Mami Kataoka, Ralph Rugoff, Lara Strongman and Margaret Wertheim, will highlight his work's philosophical yet playful inquiry into the nature of representation and art, our understanding of time and memory, and the paradoxical character of photography as a medium suited to both documenting and invention. Hiroshi Sugimoto (born 1948) has exhibited extensively in major museums and galleries throughout the world, and his work is held in numerous public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; National Gallery, London; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Smithsonian, Washington, DC; and Tate, London, among others. Sugimoto divides his time between Tokyo and New York City." -- Provided by publisher.

Kehinde Wiley, An archaeology of silence by Kehinde Wiley, Claudia Schmuckli ; with Valerie Cassel Oliver and Emil Wilbekin and Janna Keegan, 2023

“An Archaeology of Silence presents a collection of monumental paintings and sculptures, expanding on Kehinde Wiley's body of work DOWN from 2008. Initially inspired by Holbein's painting The Dead Christ in the Tomb (1520-22) as well as historical paintings and sculptures of fallen warriors and figures in the state of repose, Wiley created an unsettling series of prone Black bodies, re-conceptualizing classical pictorial forms to create a contemporary version of monumental portraiture, resounding with violence, pain, and death, as well as ecstasy. For this new body of work, Wiley has expanded these core thematic elements to meditate on the deaths of young Black men slain all over the world. Technology allows viewers to witness these graphic depictions of violence against the Black body that were once silenced. Wiley states, 'That is the archaeology I am unearthing: The spectre of police violence and state control over the bodies of young Black and Brown people all over the world.' In light of the current global conflicts, language concerning power struggles and inalienable human rights are more critical than ever. The new portraits depict young Black men and women in positions of vulnerability that tell a story of survival and resilience, revealing the beauty that can emerge from the horrific. These poses, borrowed from Western European art historical sources, function as beautiful elegies echoing a central metaphor of youth and resilience and stand as monuments to endurance and perseverance in the face of savagery, incorporating a scale that pushes beyond the mere corporeal and into the realm of spiritual icons, of martyrs and saints."
-- Provided by the artist

Ma' conch't do't nub't = El caparazón en las nubes = The shell in the clouds by Pável Acevedo, 2022

“The Shell in the Clouds (El Caparazón en las Nubes or Ma' Conch't do't Nub't) ... is a visual documentation of Pável Acevedo's printmaking process and the body of work created during his Beyond the Press residency at Self Help Graphics & Art. 'The images created in this series are a celebration of the rebelliousness that is part of ourselves,' says Pável Acevedo. The artist's work includes an array of mythological characters inspired by the Zapotec stories, in a contemporary context, shared by his grandfather to explore migration, immigration, borders, and the duality many immigrants contend with after leaving their homeland for a new nation. The pages are filled with otherworldly creatures, half-human half-animals (nahuales), and highly detailed work, leading viewers from one page to another." -- Publisher's website 

Visit the Reading Room of the STCC Library in Building 19 to view Pável Acevedo's work, Nisa/The Memory of Water (La Memoria del Aqua). More information.

I just wanna surf / photography and text by Gabriella Angotti-Jones ; text edited by and from conversations with Deborah Artman, 2022

“I Just Wanna Surf captures the friction of finding one's identity and community during the pandemic and post-George Floyd era in a sport dominated by white men. Growing up in one of the only mixed-race Black families in a small Orange County beach town, Angotti-Jones reflects on how her early relationship with the ocean and Californian surf culture became intertwined with her identity as a Black woman. In a mix of photo book, zine, and diary, Angotti-Jones challenges the traditional surfing narrative by documenting Black women and non-binary surfers living the surfing lifestyle inspired by 1990s and early 2000s surf culture, while making it their own. The images juxtapose the joy of friendship and the refuge found in the the ocean's wilderness with the underlying racial tensions at the core of the Black American experience. With sensitivity and vulnerability, her text explores her experience with depression and the sense of peace brought by riding waves."
-- Publisher's website.

Visit the Office of Disability Services in Building 19 to view Angotti-Jones' work, Untitled, (women surfers/chemical damage). More information.

Attention servicemember by Ben Brody, 2020

“Attention Servicemember is Ben Brody's searing elegy to the experience of the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Brody was a soldier assigned to make visual propaganda during the Iraq War. After leaving the army, he traveled to Afghanistan as an independent civilian journalist. Returning to rural New England after 12 years at war, he found his home unrecognizable--even his own backyard radiated menace and threat. So he continued photographing the war as it exists in his own mind. Inspired by military field manuals, Attention Servicemember invites viewers through an evolving and often wickedly funny creative process--some pictures are intimate snapshots, some are slick jingoistic propaganda, others are meditative and subtle tableaus. Writing from an intensely personal perspective, he also offers an insiders' view of the military, the media, and their contentious but symbiotic partnership. Anyone wondering how we wound up trusting serial liars and arguing about fake news should take a closer look at what was happening in Baghdad and Kabul during those years. With a darkly engaging design treatment by Kummer & Herrman, Attention Servicemember is a powerful passport to that world."
--Publisher's website