Publisher's Synopsis
Since the late 1970s, as a pioneer of Southern California underground culture, Raymond Pettibon has radically blurred the boundaries of high and low. His obsessively worked drawings pull freely from myriad sources spanning the cultural spectrum. The resulting, highly poetic constructions function as acute and authentic reflections of contemporary society. Inspired by September 11, 2001, Pettibons focus has grown increasingly political, as evidenced by his 2006 exhibition at Regen Projects and his 2007 exhibition at David Zwirner. This probing catalogue, which is a collaborative effort between Regen Projects, Los Angeles and David Zwirner, New York, includes a text by art historian Benjamin Buchloh. Raymond Pettibon was born in 1957 in Tucson, Arizona and currently lives and works in Venice, California. He received his B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles in Economics. A self-taught artist, he received the Bucksbaum Award following his participation in the 2004 Whitney Biennial, and the 2001 Wolfgang Hahn Prize from Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany. Pettibon has recently been the subject of expansive surveys at Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, Germany (2007); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria (2006); and CAC Málaga, Málaga, Spain (2006). Recently included in the 52nd Venice Biennale, Pettibon is widely considered one of the most influential contemporary artists working today.
