Lenz publishes books on contemporary art, photography, architecture and design.
Our imprint includes catalogues, monographs, theory and artist books.
This richly illustrated publication combines artwork, archival and process imagery, and includes an extended interview with the artist, as well as new essays by key thinkers in the fields of anthropology, philosophy, political economy and art history.
In the first monograph on the feminist conceptual artist collective Claire Fontaine, political theorist and somatic practitioner Anita Chari explores the artist’s theoretical and political innovations to illuminate a more haptic, embodied approach to the practice of critical theory.
Shahryar Nashat inserts his art in the pages of this new artist’s book, which takes the form of a catalogue-turned-manual: but instead of explaining its meaning, he strips it of its aura, flaunts its nature as an object and describes step-by-step how to create it.
Martin Heidegger, Glenn Gould, Jacques-Louis David, Cy Twombly, Paul Engelmann and Ludwig Wittgenstein: characters that Francesco Arena has chosen or rediscovered in multiple contexts over the time recur in this book. Ranging from philosophy, to music, to visual arts, they embrace the whole world of knowledge.
This first institutional monograph on the multimedia practice of artist and director Ali Cherri aims to highlight the themes and formal concerns running through his most recent, highly significant projects at GAMeC, Bergamo; Frac Bretagne, Rennes; Swiss Institute, New York; Biennale Arte 2022, Venice; and the National Gallery, London.
The book highlights the main characteristics of the collective trauma that gave rise to Rachel Whiteread’s project for GAMeC. The psychoanalysts Angelo Antonio Moroni and Pietro Roberto Goisis map out a composite picture, starting from the sense of vulnerability and collective loss associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Edited by Edoardo Bonaspetti, Erlend Hammer and Fredrik Værslev
Texts by Erlend Hammer and Martha Kirszenbaum
Design Lorenzo Mason Studio
2023, English, softcover, 23.5 x 33.5 cm, 184 pages
ISBN 979-12-80579-34-8
Fredrik Værslev: The Garden Paintings is the first publication dedicated to a single body of work by the artist. As Erlend Hammer writes in his essay: “The Garden Paintings are works that exist within a complex network of references that include everything from Abstract Expressionism to suburban garden furniture as one might find in an event organized as a platform for relational aesthetics. They similarly engage, art-historically speaking, with everything from the anthropological site specificity of Robert Smithson’s relics, the theatricality of Minimal sculpture, architecturally loaded carriers of institutional critique, and post-conceptual painting objects. At the same time, they’re also just paintings.”
In her essay, Martha Kirszenbaum points to the origin of the work in the suburban architecture of Norway in the 1980s: “His Garden Paintings are as much a homage as a misuse and a detournement of the wooden decks that formed the environment of his upbringing. Each work is based on an appropriation of wooden pallets, always seemingly the same size and comprised of seven or eight slats. The repetition of structure and material seems to echo the monotony of suburban life, while the various color palettes he uses refer to Norwegian housepaint.”
The publication gives a comprehensive and chronological account of the Garden Paintings as well as their exhibition history. It thereby shows both the stylistic development of the individual works and the various ways Værslev has presented them since he first began the series in 2011.
The book is published in conjunction with the exhibition Platting held at Haugar Art Museum (2023) and curated by Erlend Hammer. The works from the series have been also exhibited in institutions such as the Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, The Power Station in Dallas, Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen and Bonner Kunstverein in Bonn.
Photo Nicola Gnesi