Ashley Bickerton: Ashley Bickerton

This lavishly illustrated career survey of the work of Ashley Bickerton provides unprecedented insight into the artist's life and art. As one of the loose collection of New York artists, including Haim Steinbach and Jeff Koons, whose work inspired the appellation "Neo-Geo," Bickerton first rose to prominence in New York in the mid-1980s with vibrant abstract works infused with a sardonic critique of consumer culture. These gave way in the early 1990s to tropically derived pieces redolent of concern for thenatural environment. The artist's move, in 1993, to the surfer's paradise of Bali, Indonesia, occasioned the development of a richly hued aesthetic that has found expression in diverse paintings, sculptures, and photographs. Combining the fantastically exotic with the troublingly nightmarish, Bickerton's evocative work continues to evolve. Throughout this eclectic monograph, the artist's own commentary is interwoven with text from additional contributors, including essays by fellow artist Jake Chapman, novelist Nick McDonell, art historian Abigail Solomon-Godeau, curator Dominic Molon, and the artist's father, the noted linguist-anthropologist Derek Bickerton. Also included is an interview with Bickerton conducted by Hans Ulrich Obrist, co-director of London's. Serpentine Gallery, presented in the form of a comic novel with illustrations by graphic artist Ignacio Noé. This book, designed by Stefan Sagmeister in close collaboration with the artist, is a striking work of art in its own right, featuring a fold-out poster, die-cut pages and more than 300 colour illustrations.