Thomas Lax

This monograph, published on the occasion of the Aspen Art Museum exhibition of Rodney McMillian, showcases a comprehensive survey of the artist's paintings, a section of his practice also encompassing sculpture, installation and performance. Incorporating and challenging the notion of art as social and historical critique, the works, essays and interview in this publication examine issues of race, identity and commerce in contemporary society. The book contains images of almost every painting produced by McMillian since, and including, his graduate thesis exhibition, demonstrating a fuller comprehension of the impetus of his work and an insight into the development of the artist's practice. It also features texts by Thomas Lax and Rodney McMillian as well as an interview between the artist and Heidi Zuckerman.

Born in 1969 in Columbia, South Carolina, and currently living in Los Angeles, Rodney McMillian received his BA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia and went on to study art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2002. McMillian's work has been exhibited at the UCLA Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Herning Art Museum in Denmark, the Royal Academy in London and Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art.

You Should’ve Heard Just What I Seen explores how music shapes the experience of making and looking at art, with original contributions from over 50 leading contemporary artists, curators and gallerists. Invited to submit pieces that touch on the way music factors into both their lives and practice, the conversations, poems, essays, lists, show flyers, t-shirts, paintings and photographs they provided are collected in this supreme reader on contemporary art and sound. Featuring works and texts from an international group of artists, the publication is both a lively reader and a visually compelling document of the art of today. The contributors are Kelly Taxter, Maureen Brenner, Elizabeth Peyton, Charlemagne Palestine, Jay Sanders (Whitney Museum of American Art), Chris Ofili, Jeremy Deller, Steven Baker, Dave Muller, Jeff Poe (Blum & Poe), Anne Collier, Lesley Vance, Margaret Lee (47 Canal), Tyson Reeder, Alex Olson, Kelley Walker, Rashid Johnson, Martin Creed, Andrew Kuo, Macrae Semans, Jim Drain, Charles Long, Sarah Thompson, David Kordanksy / Stuart Krimko (David Kordansky Gallery), Roe Ethridge, Matt Anderson (DJ Matt), Spencer Sweeney, Yoshitomo Nara, Christoph Gerozissis (Anton Kern Gallery), Scott Reeder, Kai Althoff, Dan Aran / Uri Aran, Thomas Lax (Studio Museum of Harlem), Laura Owens, Amy Granat, Peter Doig, Trisha Donnelly, Edgar Arceneaux, Brian Degraw, James Fuentes (James Fuentes), Barry Johnston, Naima J. Keith (The Studio Museum in Harlem), Nicholas Party, Berry Van Boekel, Adam Putnam, Brendan Fowler, Mike Watt and Matthew Higgs (White Columns).