Publisher's Synopsis
This first comprehensive monograph encompasses the manifold painterly practice of Canadian London-based artist Allison Katz (b. 1980).Highly representative of a new generation of artists tackling with painting and what is it to be a contemporary painter in the 21st century, she is also creating objects, posters, videos, installations, and collaborating with artists such as Camilla Wills, Fredrik Vaerslev, and DAS INSTITUT.Primarily a painter, Katz challenges this classic medium par excellence through the diversity of her imagery, an eclectic range of references, the here-and-nowness of her brushstroke's trace, and the site-specificity of paintings designed to occupy a particular space.She rejects formal or thematic coherence and therefore resists the labeling of a style. Avoiding narrative or continuity, the artist instead chooses to approach each canvas anew, taking on different personas, and sometimes forcing opposing tastes to coexist uncomfortably within a single tableau.Gathering together Katz's successive bodies of works since the beginning of the 2010s, this monograph includes essays by Oakville Galleries director Frances Loeffler, Canadian poet Lisa Robertson, art critic and writer Kirsty Bell, MIT List Visual Arts Center director Yuri Stone, as well as a conversation between the artist and artist and editor Camilla Wills.Published alongside her exhibition at MIT List Visual Arts Centre, Cambridge, and Oakville Galleries, Oakville.
