Edited with text by Connie Butler, Michael Darling. Foreword by Ann Philbin, Madeleine Grynsztejn. Text by Deena Metzger, Lucía Sanromán, Lucia Allain, Julia Bryan-Wilson.
Between art and activism, from climate change to immigration: the multimedia work of Andrea Bowers
Based in Los Angeles, Andrea Bowers (born 1965) constructs her practice around the notions of collaboration, representation and engagement. Through her dedication to social and environmental justice, as well as her partnerships with activist organizations and various protest movements, Bowers has renegotiated her role as artist in society. Running throughout her drawings, paintings, videos and installations is a rigorous reevaluation of the concepts, structures and images that have guided our relentless search for meaning and justice. With work that is at once hyper-conceptual and socially engaged, Bowers creates spaces within which to share and evaluate the potential of art as a tool for social progress—while serving as witness and documentarian to the work of activists worldwide.
This book is a comprehensive and definitive survey of Bowers’ work to date and investigates some of the key, longstanding interests that have guided her practice. Critical pieces from writers of various backgrounds and fields position Bowers’ practice in the context of the movements, histories and struggles that make up these broader concerns. Accompanying these illuminating texts are full-color illustrations of works, including a selection of Bowers’ well-known neon sculptures and large-scale installations, as well as numerous other drawings, paintings, photographs and video works.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Andrea Bowers.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Bookforum
Fran Bigman
Bowers, who is based in Los Angeles, was trained in the early 1990s at CalArts in a Conceptualism that stressed both intellectualism and dematerialization; she embraces the first but rejects the second, becoming a feminist Conceptual artist whose laboriously crafted work becomes, in Sanromán’s words, “an art commodity, a piece of political propaganda, and a form of public history."
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Friday, November 19, from 5:45–6:45 PM CT—in celebration of Andrea Bowers' major mid-career survey opening November 20, 2021—MCA Chicago presents the artist in conversation with her good friend, curator Lucía Sanromán. Bowers and Sanromán will be introduced by exhibition curators Connie Butler and Michael Darling. continue to blog
“Educate, Agitate, Organize” (2010) is reproduced from Andrea Bowers, the comprehensive catalog published to accompany the artist’s major one-person exhibition opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago this week, en route to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in June of 2022. “Despite the overwhelming social stasis on issues as wide-ranging and complex as the world itself, Bowers has maintained her dogged efforts to witness, repair and advance our pursuit of justice,” MCA curator Michael Darling writes. “Across more than twenty years, she has developed a highly unique practice—which blends research, craft, activism, theory and art history—to do just that. In a way, she has formed a new kind of social documentation, a contemporary analogue to the history paintings that for centuries memorialized the events, movements and protagonists of civic and social change. Rather than concentrating on a single medium such as the painters or sculptors of yore, however, or being otherwise beholden to the moment as documentary photography requires, Bowers has been able to compose a wide-ranging mosaic of contemporary political activity, telling the stories of protestors she has singled out for their heroism and acknowledging the novel methods that they use to get their points across in her seamless, captivating creations that only an artist of extraordinary gifts and vision can achieve. Indeed, she has embedded herself in the histories and processes of protest so that we might also celebrate the efforts of these individuals, organizations and movements who have, through impassioned work, provided seeds of hope that our systems and institutions can change for the better. And after more than two decades of determined devotion to this practice, we can now look back on the diversity of her output and see ourselves, as well as our societal struggles, reflected in it, just as generations in the future will look to her work as powerful reminders of battles fought, big and small.”
Image courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles.
FORMAT: Hbk, 9 x 11.5 in. / 208 pgs / 200 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $60.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $84 GBP £53.00 ISBN: 9781942884835 PUBLISHER: DelMonico Books/Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago/Hammer Museum AVAILABLE: 8/3/2021 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by DelMonico Books/Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago/Hammer Museum. Edited with text by Connie Butler, Michael Darling. Foreword by Ann Philbin, Madeleine Grynsztejn. Text by Deena Metzger, Lucía Sanromán, Lucia Allain, Julia Bryan-Wilson.
Between art and activism, from climate change to immigration: the multimedia work of Andrea Bowers
Based in Los Angeles, Andrea Bowers (born 1965) constructs her practice around the notions of collaboration, representation and engagement. Through her dedication to social and environmental justice, as well as her partnerships with activist organizations and various protest movements, Bowers has renegotiated her role as artist in society. Running throughout her drawings, paintings, videos and installations is a rigorous reevaluation of the concepts, structures and images that have guided our relentless search for meaning and justice. With work that is at once hyper-conceptual and socially engaged, Bowers creates spaces within which to share and evaluate the potential of art as a tool for social progress—while serving as witness and documentarian to the work of activists worldwide.
This book is a comprehensive and definitive survey of Bowers’ work to date and investigates some of the key, longstanding interests that have guided her practice. Critical pieces from writers of various backgrounds and fields position Bowers’ practice in the context of the movements, histories and struggles that make up these broader concerns. Accompanying these illuminating texts are full-color illustrations of works, including a selection of Bowers’ well-known neon sculptures and large-scale installations, as well as numerous other drawings, paintings, photographs and video works.
