April 4 to May 20, 2009; reception for the artist 6-8 pm, April 4

Matthew Higgs: Never Look Back / Pressed / Fifteeen People Present Their Favorite Book [after Kosuth]

Matthew Higgs: Never Look Back/Pressed/Fifteen People Present Their Favorite Book [after Kosuth]
Matthew Higgs is an artist, a curator, a writer, a publisher and one of the truly vital forces shaping contemporary art. This an exhibition in three parts, with sections entitled Never Look Back; Pressed; and Fifteen People Present Their Favorite Book [After Kosuth], which demonstrates the variety of his creative work. A new artist’s book documenting this portion of the exhibition is now available. To obtain a copy, contact us directly or place an order at abebooks.

Never Look Back is an exhibition of new work; it consists of framed book pages and photographs of books that are framed and hung on gallery walls. They are readymade art objects unaltered but for their re-contextualization as art. Higgs works with their text, layout and design to make art that is by turns playful, wry, knowing, or reflective.

Pressed is an exhibition of letterpress prints by Cary Leibowitz, Peter Doig, Kay Rosen, Dave Muller, Rirkrit Tiravanija and others, including several published by White Columns, an alternative exhibition space in New York City where Higgs has been the director and head curator since 2004. 

The central orienting point for the show is an installation of books entitled Fifteen People Present Their Favorite Book [After Kosuth].  This is a re-staging of a little known work by Joseph Kosuth from 1967 in which Kosuth took books chosen by Carl Andre, Robert Morris, Sol Lewitt and others and presented them as an installation in the Lannis Gallery. By re-staging this pioneering piece of conceptual art (this time using books chosen by Wade Guyton, Adam McEwen, Richard Prince and others) Higgs is both calling attention to an overlooked piece of art history, and using it to signal toward the conceptual underpinnings of his own work. Fifteen People Present Their Favorite Book [After Kosuth] is a work of art but also an act of curation. It has not been made in the usual sense and so it blurs the line between the creative work of an artist and that of a curator. And, as a work after Kosuth, it makes no claim of originality but relies instead on an appropriated idea.

By failing in such an exemplary way to be a skillfully made and original work, Higgs’ installation creates a series of challenges to traditional definitions of art. The questions it raises are fundamental to any understanding of the multi-faceted work Higgs has made throughout his career. By ignoring the usual boundaries that would delineate the role of the artist, the curator, the writer, et cetera, Matthew Higgs has defined a singular role for himself and thereby become a figure of central importance in the art world today.

Matthew Higgs is represented by Murray Guy Gallery in New York City and director of White Columns, which celebrated its fortieth anniversary this year.  For more information about the artist or this exhibition please contact Glenn Horowitz Bookseller via email or phone: info@GHbookseller.com, 631-324-5511.