Between art and activism, from climate change to immigration: the multimedia work of Andrea Bowers Published with Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Hammer Museum. Based in Los Angeles, Andrea Bowers (born 1965) constructs her practice around the notions of collaboration, representation and engagement. Through her dedication to social and environmental justice, as well as her partnerships with activist organizations and various protest movements, Bowers has renegotiated her role as artist in society. Running throughout her drawings, paintings, videos and installations is a rigorous reevaluation of the concepts, structures and images that have guided our relentless search for meaning and justice. With work that is at once hyper-conceptual and socially engaged, Bowers creates spaces within which to share and evaluate the potential of art as a tool for social progress—while serving as witness and documentarian to the work of activists worldwide. This book is a comprehensive and definitive survey of Bowers’ work to date and investigates some of the key, longstanding interests that have guided her practice. Critical pieces from writers of various backgrounds and fields position Bowers’ practice in the context of the movements, histories and struggles that make up these broader concerns. Accompanying these illuminating texts are full-color illustrations of works, including a selection of Bowers’ well-known neon sculptures and large-scale installations, as well as numerous other drawings, paintings, photographs and video works.

Bowers, who is based in Los Angeles, was trained in the early 1990s at CalArts in a Conceptualism that stressed both intellectualism and dematerialization; she embraces the first but rejects the second, becoming a feminist Conceptual artist whose laboriously crafted work becomes, in Sanromán’s words, “an art commodity, a piece of political propaganda, and a form of public history." -- Fran Bigman * Bookforum *