Museum Exhibition Catalogues, Monographs, Artist's Projects, Curatorial Writings and Essays
"The arts are our salvation--the only thing that allows us to heal and also helps us dream about what will make the world a better place. I have a responsibility to the world to do something with my abilities as an artist. We are in a very critical place and time right now, and I believe the arts can and must help with it. I have to be a responsible artist and to share my experience with others. This is what my work is about." Nick Cave, excerpted from Meet Me at the Center of the Earth.
Published by DelMonico Books/Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Edited with text by Naomi Beckwith. Foreword by Madeleine Grynsztejn. Text by Romi Crawford, Antwaun Sargent, Malik Gaines, Krista Thompson, Meida Teresa McNeal. Interviews by Naomi Beckwith, Nick Cave, Nona Hendryx, Linda Johnson Rice, Damita Jo Freeman.
The definitive volume on the ever-evolving and shape-shifting work of the Chicago-based artist, Nick Cave: Forothermore highlights the way Cave’s practice has shifted and continues to shift in response to our history and current moment of cultural crisis. Including several new, never-before-seen works, the book shows an artist at the height of his power. Addressing topics ranging from art history to social justice, Nick Cave: Forothermore includes essays from Naomi Beckwith, Romi Crawford, Antwaun Sargent, Malik Gaines, Krista Thompson and Meida Teresa McNeal. Punctuating these contributions are interviews with the artist exploring his life, work and teaching practice, as well as a roundtable discussion between Cave and dancer Damita Jo Freeman, musician Nona Hendryx and publisher Linda Johnson Rice on Cave's art and influences, as well as pivotal cultural phenomena from Soul Train to Ebony magazine. Nick Cave: Forothermore reveals the way art, music, fashion and performance can help us envision a more just future. Nick Cave (born 1959) is an artist and educator working between the visual and performing arts through a wide range of mediums, including sculpture, installation, video, sound and performance. Cave is well known for his Soundsuits, sculptural forms based on the scale of his body, initially created in direct response to the police beating of Rodney King in 1991. Cave has had major exhibitions at MASS MoCA (2016), Cranbrook Art Museum (2015), Saint Louis Art Museum (2014–15), ICA Boston (2014), Denver Art Museum (2013), Seattle Art Museum (2011) and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2009), among others. Cave lives and works in Chicago.
Published by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts/D.A.P.. Text by Dan Cameron, Kate Eilertsen, Pamela McClusky.
Critic Roberta Smith has written about Chicago-based artist Nick Cave, “Whether Nick Cave's efforts qualify as fashion, body art or sculpture, and almost regardless of what you ultimately think of them, they fall squarely under the heading of Must Be Seen to Be Believed...” Meet Me at the Center of the Earth features sculptures that Cave calls Soundsuits, to evoke the sense of movement, rattles and rustles inherent in the design of the pieces—which are composed of manufactured and handmade fabrics, such as beads, sequins, bottle caps, old toys, twigs and hair, and seem poised to explode into ritual dance. Exploring issues of ceremony, ritual, identity and myth, they embrace various traditions, as well as cultural and historical references, from African fetish objects to Japanese Butoh dance.
Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth