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1993
Produced in conjunction with a 1993 exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, this signed portfolio stands as a precise document of a particular moment in American contemporary art, when conceptual strategies were being tested across wildly divergent materials and sensibilities. The nine works gathered here were created specifically for the publication, and each artist contributed a small, carefully considered object rather than a reproduction, giving the portfolio the character of a curated cabinet rather than a conventional catalogue supplement. Janine Antoni's contribution, a black and metallic gold case containing a retractable red lipstick titled Viewers' RED, encapsulates her ongoing interrogation of the body, desire, and the cosmetic as conceptual form. The remaining works range from Ashley Bickerton's fiberglass and sandpaper panel to Christian Marclay's braille record labels, Malcolm Cochran's handmade paper embedded with hair from cow tails, and Willie Cole's scorched paper, each piece occupying its own compressed world while remaining in conversation with the others. What distinguishes this object for a serious collector is the density of its assembly. The portfolio brings together artists whose practices, taken separately, represent foundational threads of late twentieth-century American conceptualism, and gathers them around a single institutional occasion with the care of edition-making. Tony Tasset's twenty green felt slides, Joel Otterson's stenciled muslin, and the TODT collective's bagged color photograph all reflect the period's fascination with systems of display, packaging, and institutional framing as subjects in themselves. The inclusion of the original exhibition catalogue within the clamshell box preserves the full intellectual context of the project. Housed in its original clamshell and bearing Antoni's signature, this portfolio offers both archival integrity and the tactile, object-based richness that distinguishes it from any single work acquired in isolation.
- Medium
- Portfolio of 9 artworks with copy of exhibition catalogue, all comes in clamshell box
- Sheet
- Signed
- Yes
- Spotted At
- Gallery · CAC Cincinnati Benefit Auction
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