Michael Darling

A crafty master craftsman with the heart of a conceptualist, Roy McMakin makes furniture that pokes fun at itself and renovates historic houses to challenge archetypes. A sculptor, conceptual artist, and furniture maker, his clients have ranged from Lisa Eisner and Tommy Lee Jones to the Getty Museum's Los Angeles offices. This first monograph on the artist, published on the occasion of the first museum exhibition of his work, traces how his creations have evolved over the years, from the show more nonfunctional yet allusive sculptural works of the early 1980s, moving through the production furniture made for his Los Angeles-based company, Domestic Furniture Co., and culminating in the “hillbilly modernist” sensibility of his present pieces. It considers his approach to materials, which ranges from the art-like, constructivist plywood furniture of his “classic” domestic period to the exotic hardwoods he currently employs. An interesting hybrid of artist and designer, McMakin makes magic, and it's all there behind A Door Meant as Adornment. show less

This is one of those books that you either like or don't. I liked it. Got, the main character, has a kind of humor that is annoying and endearing in equal measure, a cross between Humphrey Bogart and Chandler Bing. I found it quite funny, but it can go either way.
If you dislike rambling inner monologues in your first person narrator, skip this one. If you appreciate a tongue-in-cheek, slightly self-deprecating, scatter-brained kind of rant now and then, this is gold, especially because it show more manages all of the above without being dirty, sexist, chauvinistic or creepy, which is refreshing. No unwarranted sex or nudity -actually, no sex or nudity at all- avoiding the cliché of the ever sensual detective that does much of his sleuthing between the sheets. For that alone, this book gets a smiley face, but it also has good characters, nice world building, a strong magical system and the promise of more to come. Color me excited. show less

12 Ballads for Huguenot House chronicles a project by American installation artist Theaster Gates (born 1973), in which he united two disused buildings--one in Chicago and the other in Kassel, Germany--by dismantling parts of each to reuse in the rebuilding of the other. Huguenot House, in Kassel, was built in the early nineteenth century by migrant workers, as were so many of the houses in Gates’ own neighborhood in Chicago, and today is in a state of disrepair. Gates therefore proposed show more an architectural exchange, transporting materials from a dilapidated building in Chicago to renovate Huguenot House, while reusing materials from Huguenot House to reconstruct the Chicago building. show less

A fascinating read and look through one artist's work, work history, and perspective on art. The images in the book can't quite match up to seeing the works in person (Murakami's work is often done on a massive scale, taking up entire rooms) but it gives a good impression of the details.