Terence Koh

Prior to his 2007 Whitney Museum exhibition, Canadian-born, New York-based artist Terence Koh (originally known as Asian Punk Boy) quipped, "Being in the Whitney is like having this huge magnifying glass shining on you, if I fail, I fail spectacularly in front of the whole art world. That in a way relieves the pressure, because either way, the splatter will be beautiful." As Asian Punk Boy, Koh became known for his perversely cute website and zines infused with a queer punk sensibility. Published concurrently with the exhibition Terence Koh: Love for Eternity at Spain's Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), this is the artist's first substantial monograph; it includes an in-depth interview with international curator-critic Hans Ulrich Obrist and essays by Bill Arning, Curator of the MIT List Visual Arts Center, MUSAC Chief Curator Agustin Pérez Rubio and artist Cerith Wyn Evans.

In this concise and satisfying exhibition catalogue filled with works from 2008, essayist Martina Weinhart provides a description of the artist that bears repeating: "Terence Koh is a performer. Terence Koh is a Romantic artist. Terence Koh is a Surrealist, a Baroque artist who works with Minimalist means. A sculptural actor, a filming model, incredibly sensationalist and at the same time extremely sensitive--in short, a thoroughly contradictory phenomenon. If the impossible were possible--and why shouldn't it be?--and Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol had had a son together, then perhaps he would have been not unlike Terence Koh." Sculptural works, collage-enhanced performance documents, video stills and installation shots are collected here alongside essays and a poetic narrative biography which begins, "the first light i saw was gentle and white / the first flower i felt was red and very bright..."