Featuring a group of new works in the Numbers and Trees series by Los Angeles artist Charles Gaines (born 1944), this volume extends Gaines’ decades-long Gridworks project with images of palm trees from the California desert translated into Gaines’ signature luminous numbered grid.
A pivotal figure in the history of conceptual art, Gaines has long employed rigorous, rule-based processes to create works in a variety of mediums that interrogate the relationship between objects and their representations. On his commitment to using strict systems to generate new forms, Gaines has said: “The system has never changed, but the outcome is always different.”
The book features an essay by curator David Platzker and an interview by art historian Cherise Smith delving into earlier series within Gaines’s oeuvre, positioning this new work in dialogue with the artist’s paintings. - Artbook
Photos by Ed Park