Tell Me Something Good: Artist Interviews from the Brooklyn Rail Launches 9/26 at 192 Books

Tuesday, September 26 at 7 pm, 192 Books and David Zwirner Books present the launch of Tell Me Something Good: Artist Interviews from The Brooklyn Rail. Join us for a conversation between Brooklyn Rail publisher Phong Bui and artist Chris Martin, moderated by Lucas Zwirner.

ABOVE: Drawing of Chris Martin and self portrait by Phong Bui.

Since its inception, co-founder and artistic director Phong Bui and the Rail’s contributors have interviewed over four hundred artists for The Brooklyn Rail. This volume brings together for the first time a selection of sixty of the most influential and seminal interviews with artists ranging from Richard Serra and Brice Marden, to Alex Da Corte and House of Ladosha. While each interview is important in its own right, offering a perspective on the life and work of a specific artist, collectively they tell the story of a journal that has grown during one of the more diverse and surprising periods in visual art. There is no unified style or perspective; The Brooklyn Rail’s strength lies in its ability to include and champion difference.

Selected and coedited by Jarrett Earnest, a frequent Rail contributor, with Lucas Zwirner, the book includes an introduction to the project by Phong Bui as well as many of the hand-drawn portraits he has made of those he has interviewed over the years. This combination of verbal and visual profiles offers a rare and personal insight into contemporary visual culture.

Chris Martin is in the unique position of having been interviewed for the Rail and having conducted interviews with other artists. He, like publisher Phong Bui, understands the nuances of the artist-interview from every side. Together, he and Bui will discuss the philosophical underpinnings of interviews at the Rail and the way the form has developed and changed over time.

PHONG BUI is an artist, writer, and independent curator. He was a curatorial advisor at MoMA PS1 from 2007 to 2010. He is a co-founder, publisher, and artistic director of The Brooklyn Rail, the publishing press Rail Editions, and the Rail Curatorial Projects, as well as the host/producer of Off the Rail on Art International Radio. He is a board member of The Miami Rail, The Third Rail of the Twin Cities, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, the International Association of Art Critics United States, Anthology Film Archives, and Studio in a School, among others.

CHRIS MARTIN is an artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and the Catskill Mountains.

LUCAS ZWIRNER is editorial director at David Zwirner Books, where he recently began the ekphrasis series, dedicated to publishing short texts on visual culture by artists and writers, rarely available in English. He has also written on numerous contemporary artists and translated books from German and French.

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New York, NY 10011
Telephone 212.255.4022