Synopsis
Ari Marcopoulos is an inveterate maker of zines. This project collects in one volume for the first time a selection of zines by Marcopoulos, many never before released, providing a unique insight and overview into an essential part of this influential artist’s daily practice. Often self-published or created in collaboration with boutique and independent publishers like ROMA, Dashwood Books, and PPP Editions, these informal, DIY-aesthetic creations function as sketchbook, diary, installation space, and a means of processing Marcopoulos’s daily practice of photographing his life, his family, his neighborhood, and the rarified cultural milieu in which he operates.
This collection showcases an impressive array of printed zines, exploring each as an artistic object through an engaging layout. Beginning in 2015 and presented chronologically per year, key zines are featured—including some made during the pandemic, when Marcopoulos worked primarily on the screen, making PDF zines—and punctuated by individual images presented full scale. An interview with Hamza Walker underscores the role of zines as an essential part of Marcopoulos’s artistic practice, emphasizing the personal, diaristic element within the work, while an essay from Maggie Nelson meditates on the work’s position within a wider social and cultural context. Ari Marcopoulos: Zines is a must-have for anyone interested in this prolific artist’s personal practice and zine culture.
About the Authors
Ari Marcopoulos (born in Amsterdam, 1957) is a photographer and filmmaker known for documenting the American subculture scenes of skateboarding and hip-hop. In 1980, he emigrated from the Netherlands to the US, settling in New York and working as an assistant to Andy Warhol. Marcopoulos is a prolific author and creator of photobooks, zines, and other printed matter, such as posters. In 2020, Polaroids 92–95 (CA) and Polaroids 92–95 (NY) were published. He has shown his work in solo exhibitions at Foam, Amsterdam; Berkeley Art Museum, California; and MoMA PS1, New York, and his work has been included twice in the Whitney Biennial.
Maggie Nelson is the author of the national bestseller On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint (2021), the National Book Critics Circle Award winner The Argonauts (2015), The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (2011), Bluets (2009), and Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (2007). She writes frequently on art, and in 2016 received a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship. She currently teaches at the University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles.
Hamza Walker is the director of LAXART, an independent nonprofit art space in Los Angeles. Previously, he served as the director of education and associate curator at the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago.
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