Seven Books of the day > The Los Angeles Artist Series for The Los Angeles Project
Seven Books of the day > The Los Angeles Artist Series for The Los Angeles Project at the UCCA in Beijing. KAARI UPSON: THE HOUSE, RYAN TRECARTIN: YET, STERLING RUBY: LA/BJ , MATTHEW MONAHAN: SQUARE GARDEN, ALEX ISRAEL: STICKER BOOK, AARON CURRY - BOXXES, KATHRYN ANDREWS: STRIP. UCCA and Koenig Books. "In a critical examination of one of the most important art centers in the Western world, the Ullen Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing dedicated its entire exhibition space to an anthology of seven shows of contemporary artists living and working in Los Angeles: Kathryn Andrews, Aaron Curry, Alex Israel, Matthew Monahan, Sterling Ruby, Ryan Trecartin, and Kaari Upson.
These seven artists represent a generation of creative practitioners drawn to a global nexus, one whose rich cultural legacy and robust network of art schools, galleries, and institutions act as a magnet for top talents in the field of contemporary art. Outside of Hollywood, specific cultural connections between Los Angeles and Beijing have been lacking despite their imagined proximity as Pacific Rim cities. Los Angeles has long been imagined as a “city of the future” in much the same way that urban development in China has unfolded against the backdrop of an implicit utopianism. As China’s creative scene matures into a multi-polar terrain of geographies, contexts, and subjectivities, Los Angeles and its cultural topography become especially relevant to Beijing and its current position as the mainland’s creative capital. Following in the great artist book tradition of John Baldessari and Edward Ruscha, the UCCA has called the artists to make individual artist books for The Los Angeles Project in Beijing. These publications reflect the tremendous range of practices and positions presented within the UCCA exhibition.
