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Coffee Table Curator, July 2014

10 Corso Como: A to Z, Rizzoli, 50USD

A refuge for Milan's eclectic creative crowd since 1990, this mecca of art, photography and design is hidden in a deceitfully plain converted-garage in the northern part of the Italian city. The dynamic duo of Carla Sozzani, a former fashion editor and publisher, and Kris Ruhs, an American painter and sculptor, curated a space that is equal parts concept store, art gallery, hotel, and restaurant, attracting a vast international group of followers in the process. You don't even need to book a round-trip ticket to Milano for the experience anymore—there are now branches in Tokyo (in partnership with Comme des Garçon) and Seoul. Molto bene.

Carole Feuerman: Swimmers, The Artist Book Foundation, 75USD

Half erotic, half meditative bliss, Feurman's hyperrealist sculptures explore a deeper connection between the woman and the body. While some might perceive swimming or walking in the rain as a seemingly mundane activity, Feruman transforms the scenes into private and isolated moments that the viewer gets to intimately witness. With materials such as marble, bronze and vinyl favored, the sculptures even create the illusion of glistening water being present.

 

 

Google Volume 1, Jean Boîte Editions, 140USD

While most people tend to scour Google Images for cat-centric content, London-based artists Felix Heyes and Ben West had something a bit different —and perhaps more dignified—in mind. Using the Oxford English Pocket Dictionary and its 21,110 words, the artists set forth to reproduce the first Google "Image" displayed for each word included in the dictionary—a joy for linguists and artists alike. The duo even plan to update the book annually, as, of course, the images are in a constant flux. Say goodbye to words and definitions, as a new type of "dictionary" has just been established.

Victoria Sambunaris: Taxonomy of a Landscape, Radius Books, 60USD

Travelling across the United States with scarcely more than a wooden field camera, sheets of color negative film, and her car, American photographer Sambunaris strikingly captured the spirit of the vast American landscape and its animated surroundings. But don't expect cliché "Americana" photographs in this retrospective—her images often intersect the themes of civilization, geology and natural history, with special attention to documenting the slow decline of the American terrain.

 

Simon Hantaï, Centre Pompidou, 75USD

Paying tribute to the surrealist-abstract artist, the book examines Hantaï's influential "pilage" (folding method) technique of the 1960s, in which he would apply paint to an already-folded or bent canvas. Once the canvas unfolded, the results were captivating, often ending with the blank, bare canvas juxtaposed with splashes of vibrant color. Think of it as a hybrid of Matisse's cutouts and Pollock's abstract expressionist paintings, all neatly presented in this first major publication of his work.

Yayoi Kusama: I Who Have Arrived in Heaven, David Zwirner, 55USD

Try not to get hypnotized by the psychedelic colors and patterns in Kusama's pop art and minimalistic-inspired works. This book presents a series of large-format square paintings from the 84-year old artist's recent 2013 exhibit in New York City, where she took up all three locations of the David Zwirner Gallery. "My works are painful and at the same time playful," she once said. Indeed so, as the avant-garde works are actually allusions to universal spheres and reflections on death and the afterlife.