New York-based Dana Schutz is widely considered one of the most talented painters of her generation. As The New York Times' Holland Cotter wrote in 2007, "She's a terrific painter. From the start, her broad, sardonic, cartoon-expressionist style was prodigious but also focused. There was lots of splash, but the images were strong and centered. Her gallery shows were thematically tight without being programmatic, like a book of poems that reads as one poem. This kind of completeness is hard to achieve." In this volume, Schutz takes on the still-life genre, coming up with dazzling, colorful paintings that are at once merry and ambiguous about the objects of our everyday lives. Thirteen recent paintings are presented, along with installation photographs from her recent exhibition at Contemporary Fine Arts, Kupfergraben. A conversation between the artist and Jorg Heiser lends additional insights into Schutz's pictorial compositions and working method....

In a 2008 review, New York Times art critic Roberta Smith glowingly endorsed German-born, Los Angeles-based artist Sterling Ruby, calling him "one of the most interesting artists to emerge in this century. That's only eight years, of course," she added, "but the claim may stick." Ruby--who was born in 1972--uses whatever media suits his ideas; projects have included sculpture, collage, installation, painting, ceramics, video and printmaking. Fusing references to Minimalism, Art Brut and graffiti with a canny grasp of contemporary and pop culture, Ruby's accumulative approach addresses the overproduction of information, neurosis and paranoia, conflicts between individual impulses and mechanisms of social control, urban violence, consumption, anxiety and the need for control that characterizes contemporary Western society. Part of JRP|Ringier's distinctive monograph series, this well-illustrated volume is the most comprehensive reference on this rapidly emerging artist's work to date. It contains newly commissioned essays by Frieze associate editor Jorg Heiser and art historian Robert Hobbs....