Published on the occasion of Matthew Metzger’s exhibition Heirloom at the Renaissance Society, this is the first book dedicated to the artist’s work, which explores various kinds of abstraction as well as tensions related to language, color, and objecthood. Anchored by the new paintings Metzger made for Heirloom, the book also features four other recent series of works, further charting his unfolding aesthetic and conceptual concerns.

In a lengthy curator essay, Karsten Lund closely observes the paintings in the exhibition and their site-responsive installation, and Metzger shares a series of studio notes that reflect on each of his projects in his own words. Looking to more distant horizons, in five shorter essays in the book Kris Cohen, Fumi Okiji, Jan Verwoert, McKenzie Wark, and Anna Zett consider how abstraction functions more broadly in the world at large—whether as psychological tendency, a social effect, or in relation to technology.

Softcover
218 pages
10 x 7 inches
ISBN # 978-0-941548-85-4
Edited by Karsten Lund
Designed by David Khan-Giordano

All Renaissance Society publications are made possible by The Mansueto Foundation Publications Program. Additional support for this book was provided by r/e projects and Alan and Sherry Koppel.

Images by Useful Art Services.