Tuesday Mar 3, 2015
7:00 pm–9:00 pm
POWERHOUSE ARENA
37 Main Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Join us for the launch of Paper Monument editor Roger White’s new book The Contemporaries at POWERHOUSE ARENA in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Roger will be in conversation with designer and curator Prem Krishnamurthy.
Published by Bloomsbury, The Contemporaries: Travels in the 21st-Century Art World grapples with a few burning questions: how does art get made, who decides what it is, and will these artists ever be remembered?
“For those of us who are interested in art but far removed from its business, the art world can seem like an alien civilization, with incomprehensible mores, dictates that shift every week, and shibboleths apparently transmitted by telepathy. Into this murky situation rides Roger White, not to ‘expose’ anything, but to make sense of art’s winding social and intellectual path, using clear language and concrete examples. This book may not make you embrace the art world, but at least you’ll understand.” —Luc Sante
“Today’s art ecosystem is utterly different from the one that intrigued so many of us in the 20th century: bigger, wealthier, and more corporate, while many an artist’s garret has become someone’s luxury pied-à-terre. Roger White’s assessment of what this post-postmodern, post-bohemian scene means for artists is right on the mark and ultimately encouraging as he finds creators across the country working to avoid spectacle, stay rogue, and stay true.” —Cynthia Carr, author of Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz
“In this revealing book, White, artist and cofounder of the art journal Paper Monument, takes the pulse of the contemporary U.S. art industry and explores the ‘profound tensions within the whole churning apparatus’… his narrative insightfully interprets the history of art education, revealing connections between the art studios of the Renaissance and those of today.” —Publishers Weekly
“The uninitiated can read it for a nuanced understanding of the art world’s codes and rituals. Veterans can delight in the material White digs up and his expert rendering of it.” —Andrew Russeth, ARTnews
Cover image: John Riepenhoff, The John Riepenhoff Experience, 2010. Image courtesy of the artist.