Tony Tasset

A compendium of Tasset's playful and satirical sculptures, with responses from friends and artists such as Pamela Fraser and John Waters

The Chicago-based multimedia artist and sculptor Tony Tasset (born 1960) once said, "I'm not going for originality, I'm striving for the quintessential." Tasset indeed wears his diverse influences on his sleeve, drawing from high modernism, folk, vernacular and performance art. Through these various lenses, he interrogates and satirizes institutions--galleries, museums and public art--and his own position within them. This egalitarian ethic has generated a number of much-beloved public sculptures and large-scale installations, such as Toby's Plaza (2018) in his hometown, Cleveland, Ohio.
This hardcover volume contains 200 reproductions chosen by the artist and extensive essays by curator Michelle Grabner and art writer Andrew Russeth. Tasset also invited fellow artists he admires to write on one of his works, enlisting Jeanne Dunning, Pamela Fraser, Judy Ledgerwood, Jos Lerma, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Cauleen Smith, Phillip Vanderhyden and John Waters.