Locust Projects: The 20th Anniversary Retrospectiv Format: Paperback

The 20th Anniversary Retrospective from Miami’s Locust Projects comprehensively documents and celebrates 20 years of ground-breaking contemporary art from the Southeast’s leading alternative art space with a playful and sophisticated graphic design.

Locust Projects, the Southeast’s leading alternative art space, documents its first 20 years in The 20th Anniversary Retrospective. The cutting-edge art space offers contemporary visual artists the freedom to experiment with new ideas. Locust’s ethos of encouraging exploration and breaking boundaries has, at times, extended to the very integrity of its physical space (think jackhammered floors). This volume includes a comprehensive visual record of over 150 exhibitions and projects, essays and commentary, a written timeline, and extensive quotes. Included are works by renowned artists such as Daniel Arsham, Hernan Bas, Nathan Carter, Francesa DiMattio, Jim Drain, Jon Pylypchuk, Retna, and Cristina Lei Rodriguez. The book includes text by director Lorie Mertes and board members Steve Lanster and Debra and Dennis Scholl.

The innovative book design, like Locust Projects itself, experiments with convention. Visually referencing a calendar, the volume leads readers on a voyage of discovery through the organization’s history, with each year’s images visually bleeding into the next across French-fold pages. The cover’s thin strips of images are details from installation photos. This book will appeal to anyone interested in contemporary art, including artists, art lovers, collectors, students, curators, gallerists, and arts administrators.

Locust Projects was founded in 1998 by Miami-based artists Elizabeth Withstandley, Westen Charles, and COOPER. The not-for-profit exhibition space has grown from a grass-roots endeavor for emerging visual artists to the foremost alternative art space in the Southeast, showcasing the work of local, national, and international artists who create site-specific installations unconstrained by commercial concerns or the typical limitations of conventional exhibition spaces. In addition to exhibitions and an artist residency, Locust Projects offers public programs and community collaborations.