LONDON.- Whitechapel Gallery is transformed by over 70 creative and cutting-edge publishers for four days from Thursday 5 September. The London Art Book Fair returns with a vibrant mix of art books, independent titles and magazines from around the world. Exhibitors range from publishing behemoths to independent presses and represent a diverse international cohort from 16 different countries, from Chile to Israel, Korea to the USA.
An expansive public programme of talks, workshops and events includes artists Sir Michael Craig-Martin (b. 1941) and Paul Winstanley (b. 1954) in conversation with Goldsmiths Head of Art Richard Noble; Turner Prize nominated artist Tai Shani (b. 1976) on her new book Our Fatal Magic (2019); a discussion about making historically overlooked female artists more visible with publisher and curator Sarah Shin, publisher Harriet Judd and author Lucy Howarth; and readings from itinerant poetry publishing platform RIVET. The programme is guest-curated by independent writer and curator Amy Budd, Associate Curator of Art Night 2019.
Publishers big and small range from UK independent Art/Books to German art book publisher Kerber Verlag, Mexican artisan publishers La Dïéresis, and Korean press at noon books, to Thames & Hudson and commercial galleries David Zwirner, Sadie Coles HQ and Hauser & Wirth.
Launches at the Fair include newly-founded Eiderdown Books, dedicated solely to producing books about female artists written by leading female artists, and Publishing Manifestos (MIT Press) featuring artists, authors, editors, publishers and designers exploring publishing as artistic practice.
Magazine specialist’s magCulture will return the magCulture Quarter, a specially curated selection of independent magazines covering topics ranging from art and football to climate change and witchcraft.
This September also sees the presentation of The Richard Schlagman Art Book Awards, celebrating the most exciting art, architecture and design titles published in the last year. Part of an ongoing collaboration between Whitechapel Gallery and the Authors’ Club and named after Richard Schlagman, who transformed Phaidon Press, the Awards build on the legacy of the Art Book Prize and the Banister Fletcher Art and Architecture Book of the Year. On 6 September the Jury - chaired by Richard Schlagman and comprising the director of the Whitechapel Gallery, Iwona Blazwick; architect Adam Caruso; critic, poet and Authors’ Club member Sue Hubbard; Turner Prize nominee artist Dexter Dalwood; art historian, curator and co-director of the Translocal Institute for Contemporary Art, Maja Fowkes; and design historian and writer, Emily King – name the winning titles.
