The art of Los Angeles–based Walead Beshty is mostly geometrically abstract in form and industrially produced, evoking Minimalist art. But Beshty does not present his works as autonomous objects for interaction with the exhibition space and the viewer; rather, he sees them within a broader context in which they are produced, transported, installed, exhibited, viewed, traded and discussed as objects of circulation. They are conceived in such a way as to document their own genesis, as well as to make visible the influences of the system in which the works also function: as a commodity, a carrier of meaning, a means of transport, a news archive, a fetish, an object of research. This volume, published for Beshty’s exhibition at Kunst Museum Winterthur in collaboration with the Musée d'art Moderne et contemporain (MAMCO), Geneva, focuses on his recent output, presenting numerous works for the first time alongside his well-known photograms and Fed-Ex sculptures.

Authors: Lynn Kost, Lionel Bovier, Hamza Walker, Noam Elcott, Walead Beshty

Publisher: Walther König, Köln/MAMCO Geneva, 2021

Language: English 

Softcover: 376 pages

Dimensions: 6.34 x 1.26 x 8.31 inches

ISBN: 978-3960987789

About the artist

Walead Beshty (b. 1976, London, U.K.)

Walead Beshty was born in London, United Kingdom in 1976 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. He studied at Bard College and received his Masters in Fine Art from Yale University in 2002. He has held academic positions at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA; Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; the Art Institute of Chicago, IL; and currently at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA.

Beshty has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2014, 2022); Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich (2016, 2021); Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva (2019); Regen Projects, Los Angeles (2018); Rat Hole Gallery, Tokyo (2017); Travesía Cuatro, Guadalajara (2015); Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, New York (2015); Curve Gallery, Barbican Centre, London (2014); Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (2011); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2009); the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2006); and MoMA PS1, New York (2004), among others. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at Cloud Seven, Brussels (2022); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2017, 2022); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2019); Tate Modern, London (2018); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2017); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2014); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2013); Gemeente Museum Den Haag, The Hague (2013); the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (2011); the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010), among many others.

Walead Beshty has also curated many exhibitions, including Luma Arles, Arles, France (2018 & 2016); Hessel Museum, Center for Curatorial Studies, Hudson, NY (2017); Petzel Gallery, New York (2014); Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2014); Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (2013); and MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY (2006).

Beshty has works in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; the de la Cruz Collection, Miami; the Fond Régional d’Art Contemporain Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkerque, France, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.