CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 6/24/2016

Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Billboards

In little more than a decade, Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996) produced a profoundly moving and influential body of work that came to define his generation. As poetic as it was political, as autobiographical as it was universal, it was "deeply reflective of the transience of life, rich with metaphors about intimacy, presence, absence, loss and survival," in the words of Matthew Drutt, contributor to Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Billboards, published by Radius Books and Artpace, San Antonio. This beautifully produced volume documents the Texas art organization's state-wide, comprehensive 2010 retrospective of Gonzalez-Torres' seminal billboard works, originally produced between 1991 and 1995 (one year prior to the artist's death from complications related to AIDS). "Untitled," here installed near Highway 90 & Bartlett, in Houston, TX, was first shown throughout New York City in 1991, following the death of Gonzalez-Torres' longtime partner, Ross Laycock.