Paul Mpagi Sepuya
April 2020
96 pages, 77 four-color images
English
softcover
10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
Co-published by Aperture and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
Interview with the artist by Wassan Al-Khudhairi
Contributions by Malik Gaines, Lucy Gallun, Ariel Goldberg, Evan Moffitt, and Grace Wales Bonner.
Paul Mpagi Sepuya presents the work of one of the most prominent up-and-coming photographers working today. Sepuya makes photographs of friends, artists, collaborators, and himself. He challenges and deconstructs traditional portraiture by way of collage, layering, fragmentation, mirror imagery, and the perspective of a Black, queer gaze. Although the creation of artist books has been a long-standing part of his practice, Paul Mpagi Sepuya is the first publication of his work to be released widely.
Paul Mpagi Sepuya (born in San Bernardino, California, 1982) is a Los Angeles–based artist. His work is collected and exhibited by such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Wassan Al-Khudhairi is chief curator at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and curator of the exhibition Paul Mpagi Sepuya.
Malik Gaines is a writer, performer, and associate professor and director of undergraduate studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Lucy Gallun is associate curator in the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Ariel Goldberg is a writer and artist whose publications include The Estrangement Principle (2016) and The Photographer (2015).
Evan Moffitt is a writer, editor, and critic based in New York. His writing appears regularly in Frieze and other publications.
Grace Wales Bonner is creative director and founder of Wales Bonner, a menswear brand based in London.
(Text by https://aperture.org/shop/paul-mpagi-sepuya)