The reclusive American artist Aldwyth (born 1935) has labored at some distance from the mainstream art world to produce astonishingly complex and dense collage and assemblage works that recall the fantastical intricacies of Jess, Ed Kienholz Bruce Conner or even Hieronymus Bosch in their diagrammatic, ordered mayhem. In an accompanying essay, Rosamond Purcell describes Aldwyth's work thus: “packed with intricately fashioned episodes, they seem like worlds that lie outside of our world, and infinitely worth exploring.” As records of other worlds, these works manage to simultaneously suggest maps, instruments and ruins. This catalogue, coinciding with the first major retrospective of this under-recognized artist, brings Aldwyth's work to a wider public for the first time.

Aldwyth: Work V./Work N. Collage and Assemblage 1991-2009

Arts & Photography

Purcell, Rosamond

Individual Artists

Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston

Where does personal story end and national history begin? Los Angeles artist F. Scott Hess (born 1955) explores this question in The Paternal Suit, which consists of over 100 paintings, prints, and objects created by Hess, but presented as legitimate historical artifacts relating to his family, and supported by photographs, documents and historical ephemera. Each object and artwork bears an artist’s name and provenance, and has been executed in the style of the century from which it supposedly originates. Sculpture, furniture, toys, newspaper clippings, historic photographs, guns and costumes advance the story. Hess does not claim authorship for the works, instead referring to himself as the Director of the “F. Scott Hess Family Foundation.”

F. Scott Hess: The Paternal Suit: Heirlooms from the F. Scott Hess Family Foundation

History & Criticism

Lonnie Holley (born 1950), acclaimed by The New York Times as “the Insider’s Outsider,” is best known for his assemblage sculptures incorporating natural and man-made materials, often cast off or discarded; he has recently also begun to make music, through the Dust-to-Digital label. Legendary for his environmental assemblage that spread over two acres of his property in Birmingham, Alabama―now destroyed―Holley scavenges and repurposes found objects in the service of a personal philosophy of renewal and rejuvenation. This is the first monograph on Holley’s work in more than a decade. Illustrated with reproductions of more than 70 of Holley’s sculptures, it provides a comprehensive overview of Holley’s art, life and philosophy, with essays by Mark Sloan, Leslie Umberger, Bernard L. Herman and an “as-told-to” autobiography recorded by noted oral historian Theodore Rosengarten.

Something to Take My Place: The Art of Lonnie Holley (HALSEY INSTITUT)

Herman, Bernard

Visible Man provides an in-depth look at the work of Atlanta-based artist Fahamu Pecou (born 1975) from the past two decades, showing how Pecou’s work investigates the concept of black masculinity and provides new modes for the representation of black bodies. Starting with his self-assumed persona “Fahamu Pecou is the Shit!” and his early NEOPOP works―in which he places himself on the covers of prestigious art and culture magazines―the catalog shows the trajectory of his work, ending with the DO or DIE and #BLACKMATTERLIVES series.

Fahamu Pecou: Visible Man

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Books by Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Aldwyth: Work V./Work N. Collage and Assemblage 1991-2009

F. Scott Hess: The Paternal Suit: Heirlooms from the F. Scott Hess Family Foundation

Something to Take My Place: The Art of Lonnie Holley (HALSEY INSTITUT)

Fahamu Pecou: Visible Man