A visual retrospective of the turbulent year that was 2020 through the eyes of the New York-based multi-disciplinary artist Erik Foss.\nTWENTY TWENTY A Year in Pictures is a snapshot of Foss’s psyche, and also of one of the most turbulent years in recent American history. A lot of the events and changes of the past year directly influenced Erik’s work, depicted in this remarkable and expressive collection of imagery, bound together in a hardcover time capsule. 2020 was a horror show, but in many ways, that very horror has been the muse for Erik’s most artistically successful year. 
In a year that struck fear and insomnia in the hearts and minds of millions, we, as a culture, have undergone grave interruptions in our progression towards diversity, and global health.The onset of COVID-19, in combination with the political turmoil that ensued, we have been forced to re-examine our values, practices, and authority. In the early months of this pandemic, many Americans and global citizens faced an uprooting of lifestyle, unemployment, loss of family, experienced fear and anxiety, as well as witnessed the demonstration of violent and non-violent protests as a result of the BLM movement. 
If you’ve grazed the streets of downtown NYC at any point in the past decade, you have likely been confronted with the guttural, and expressive style of Erik Foss. After moving to New York in 1996, Erik quickly established himself as a figurative kingpin within arts and downtown culture. Having been privy to a vastness of experience within the realms of music, art, and gallery production has ultimately added to the depth, honesty, and complexity of his work. 
If nothing else, Erik is a prolific artist. In the first four months of 2020, he created: Several Portal paintings A slew of street photography Google paintings Toon drawings Abstract trompe l’oeil works made with oil and acrylics A large street mural His first bronze sculptures

TWENTY TWENTY A Year In Pictures

Foss, Erik

Children's Books

Blurring Books

<div>NYC-based photographer Tommy Kwak brings Miami Beach to life</div> <div> After the destruction of Hurricane Andrew on Miami Beach in 1992, the lifeguard towers were commissioned to be redesigned in vibrant fashion to uplift the spirits of the town.</div> <div> In the tradition of the Becher's water tower series, this book of Tommy Kwak's photographs methodically examines the 30+ iconic towers that have become symbols of South Florida's revitalization. This award-winning series of photographs utilizes similar framing and long exposures to produce minimal sky and sea backdrops in order to highlight the traits of each tower, inviting the reader to appreciate and compare the electric color palettes and eccentric forms. This body of work shows Tommy's distinct approach recognizable by the composition of the pictures, sophisticated usage of the angles, and manipulation of light, shadow, and colors. Tommy's style of photography celebrates a kind of ephemeral beauty, and at the same time transforms these entities into more graphic forms, bringing a fresh perspective on the lifeguard towers of Miami Beach.</div>

Lifeguard Towers: Miami

Arts & Photography

Kwak, Tommy

Photography & Video

Tragic and beautiful, ridiculous and sublime, these photographs are a record of the branded proprietary&nbsp;names of street drugs of The Bronx in the years around the Crack and AIDS epidemics.&nbsp; Heroin brand names were mostly associated with trouble and cocaine brand names were mostly associated&nbsp;with good living/the high life. These images tell stories, provide cautionary tales, sell through sex appeal,&nbsp;reference topical issues and engage in Truth In Advertising. Told through the photographs of New York based photographer, Thatcher Keats.&nbsp; Branded Bronx Bags 1984-1994 is part of Blurring Books' new series of publications, Limited Slim Publications.

Branded Bronx Bags: Death, Sex and Trouble: The Marketing of NYC Street Drugs 1984-1994

Keats, Thatcher

In our pill-happy society there is a pill for everything. Corporate legal drug dealers, aka Big Pharma, have for decades put design thought into clever pill presses and multicolored gel-caps to distinguish their products and attract buyers. So too, in the 1990s and 2000s when ecstasy swept the club and rave scenes, the branding of pills was essential to the marketing, a way for the user to identify a good high from cold medicine or a batch of poison. Ecstasy branding was often based on well-known corporate logos. Easily identified, pill makers latched onto the brand recognition of our corporate society subverting the brands at the same time. A process the cultural critic Carlo McCormick says “collapses the ever-convergent space between subversive youth culture and acquiescent mainstream passive consumption.” While working as a nightlife photographer, New York-based Michael Lorenzini became fascinated by the design details in ecstasy tablets and wanted to document this underground art form. He proceeded to photograph every pill he took from 2000-2001. Although jewel-like in their tiny colorful forms, the macro photographs, shot on slide film with an extreme macro lens, reveal hidden imperfections and textured landscapes.\nEvery Pill I Took: 2000-2001 is part of Blurring Books' new series of publications, Limited Slim Publications.

Every Pill I Took: 2000-2001

Lorenzini, Michael

CRASH BANG: Pictures from a Punk 1976-1982

Burkeman, DB

Fashion

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