These mixed media paintings by Cary Loren were made for Destroy All Monsters Magazine, which we released in 2011. Each copy of the original book included a unique work, and Loren had 50 left over once the book was completed. These signed, 50 copies were made available to Primary Information as a fundraising edition.
8.5 x 11 inches
Painting
Edition of 50
October 2011
These mixed media paintings by Cary Loren were made for Destroy All Monsters Magazine, which we released in 2011. Each copy of the original book included a unique work, and Loren had 50 left over once the book was completed. These signed, 50 copies were made available to Primary Information as a fundraising edition.
8.5 x 11 inches
Painting
Edition of 50
October 2011
“Portrait of Kathy Acker” (1978) is a limited edition print by Jimmy DeSana. Printed posthumously and signed by the artist’s estate, this work was selected from a series of portraits the artist took of famed writer and friend Kathy Acker. “Portrait of Kathy Acker” is part of a larger series of commercial photographs of Downtown celebrities that DeSana carried out in the late 1970s alongside his work for artists’ magazines and periodicals like FILE, X Magazine, and SoHo Weekly News, as well as for musicians such as the Talking Heads and James Chance. This body of work also appeared in the artist’s first exhibition at Steffanoti Gallery (1979) and in P.S.1’s legendary New York/New Wave (1981).
Printed in an edition of 75, this 5 x 7” pigment print comes with a copy of Salvation, DeSana’s posthumous artist book, which was published by Primary Information in spring 2024.
Jimmy DeSana (1949-1990) grew up in Atlanta, GA, and earned his bachelor’s degree from the Georgia State University in 1972 before relocating to New York’s East Village in the early 1970s. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Jimmy DeSana & Paul P.—Ruins of Rooms, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany, 2024 and The Sodomite Invasion: Experimentation, Politics and Sexuality in the work of Jimmy DeSana and Marlon T. Riggs, Griffin Art Projects, Vancouver, Canada, 2020. DeSana’s work can be found in numerous public collections including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, among others. A major retrospective of DeSana’s work was exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, in 2022, accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the Brooklyn Museum and DelMonico Books.
5 x 7 inches
Pigment print
Edition of 75 + 5 APs
Stamped by the Artist’s Estate
August 2024
Each edition comes with a copy of Jimmy DeSana’s Salvation.
Theatre is an artist book that documents seven early performances by Dan Graham taking place from 1969 to 1977 with notes, transcripts, or photographs for each work. Originally published in 1978, and produced here in facsimile form, the publication focuses on several key works that interrogate or undermine the psychological and social space created by, or between, individuals inside the performance venue.
Like most of Graham’s work, they also serve as a critique of cultural norms, with many of the performances utilizing quotidian, social acts that are amplified over time. For example, in Lax/Relax (1969), Graham’s subversion of West Coast new ageism, the artist chants “relax” in sync with a recording of a woman saying “lax” in a meditative manner, which implicates the audience into a group breathing exercise or hypnosis over the course of 30 minutes.
Throughout the ’70s, the artist engaged in a series of works that subverted the prescribed roles of the audience and performer by creating conditions in which each simultaneously functions as both (creating a type of feedback loop). Remarking on another work form this period, Graham once stated, “It begins with Minimal Art, but it’s about spectators observing themselves as they’re observed by other people.”* This paradigm is extended even further in Performer/Audience Sequence (1975) and Performer/Audience Mirror (1977), in which the artist performs by describing the audience as well as himself, creating conditions whereby the audience is performing for the artist as well as themselves.
Like (1971), Past Future Split Attention (1972), and Identification Projection (1977) are also featured in the publication.
Dan Graham is an artist based in New York. Since the 1960s, he has produced a wide range of work and writing that engages in a highly analytical discourse on the historical, social, and ideological functions of contemporary cultural systems. Architecture, popular music, video, and television are among the focuses of his investigations, which he articulates through essays, performances, installations, videotapes, and architectural/sculptural designs.
52 pages
5.8 x 8.2 inches
Paperback
May 2021
ISBN: 9781736534632
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Managing Editor: James Hoff
Managing Designer: Rick Myers
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* Dan Graham and Rodney Graham, “Dan Graham Interviewed by Rodney Graham,” in Dan Graham: Beyond, ed. by Bennet Simpson and Chrissie Iles, (MIT Press, 2009), 96.
Sea Shanty is a letterpress print produced on the occasion of Primary Information’s publication of Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979. The print is produced in an edition of 50 and includes a hand-numbered certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
Sea Shanty was written in 1971 and appeared in the book Soundsword (London: Writers Forum, 1972). It appears in Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979 along with other selections from Soundsword.
Paula Claire is a English-based writer that has been active in concrete and visual poetry since the late 60s.
8.5 x 12.5 inches
Letterpress print
Edition of 50 (+5 APs)
2020
This postcard by Olaf Breuning is part of a series devoted to artists’ postcards initiated by Primary Information in the wake of the Trump Administration, as well as the social and political tumult that preceded it. Since the election, there has been a growing movement of citizens using postcards to voice their concern to their representatives. As such, the postcard is a media form that is vital to political and social engagement in the United States. It is also a form with a dedicated image space, and Primary Information feels strongly that images accompanying this civic engagement should be created by artists.
Each month, Primary Information commissions artists to produce postcards in an ongoing open edition. All postcards are priced at cost.
Postcards have long been a part of the artist book tradition, with artists engaging with the form for well over 50 years now. While Primary Information sees this project as a continuation of that very important tradition, the organization also sees the need to double down on this form as a political space embedded with the urgency, diversity, and complexity of voices that are the hallmark of our times. Who better to do this than artists?
Find your national and state representatives
4 x 6 inches
Postcard
Open edition
February 2018
Publication is a facsimile edition of the 1970 artist book by David Lamelas. It features contributions from thirteen international artists and critics who the artist chose due to their relationship to language-based practices. Produced from conversations with these fellow artists and writers, Publication collects their responses to three statements provided by Lamelas:
1. Use of oral and written language as an Art Form.
2. Language can be considered as an Art Form.
3. Language cannot be considered as an Art Form.
The texts range from pragmatic to humorous to philosophical. Publication was the primary work in Lamelas’ 1970 exhibition at Nigel Greenwood’s gallery in London; copies of the volume were displayed as a roundtable installation with the intention that visitors would continue the types of discussions within the book.
Many of the contributors were already exploring the book format as an alternative strategy for presenting conceptual work, and Publication provides a concise overview of artists’ and writers’ views on language-based art forms at the time. The artists and writers featured in this volume include Keith Arnatt, Robert Barry, Stanley Brouwn, Daniel Buren, Victor Burgin, Michel Claura, Gilbert & George, John Latham, Lucy R. Lippard, Martin Maloney, Barbara M. Reise, Lawrence Weiner, and Ian Wilson.
David Lamelas is an Argentinian artist who began exhibiting minimalist sculptures in the mid-1960s before quickly moving into conceptual art and work that examines the relationship between art and the exhibition space. In 1968, he received international acclaim with his installation at the 34th Venice Biennale, Office of Information about the Vietnam War on Three Levels: The Visual Image, Text and Audio, which brought updated news reports of the Vietnam War into the biennial. In the late 60s and into the 70s, issues of temporality and space began to factor into his work as he began making Structural films. More recently, Lamelas has brought together these themes in installations, films, and performances, while continuing to build upon his earlier sculptural practice.
5.75 x 8.25 inches
48 pages
Paperback
B&W
Edition of 1000
August 2016
ISBN: 9780990689614
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Managing Editor: Miriam Katzeff
This postcard by E.V. Day is part of a series devoted to artists’ postcards initiated by Primary Information in the wake of the Trump Administration, as well as the social and political tumult that preceded it. Since the election, there has been a growing movement of citizens using postcards to voice their concern to their representatives. As such, the postcard is a media form that is vital to political and social engagement in the United States. It is also a form with a dedicated image space, and Primary Information feels strongly that images accompanying this civic engagement should be created by artists.
Each month, Primary Information commissions artists to produce postcards in an ongoing open edition. All postcards are priced at cost.
Postcards have long been a part of the artist book tradition, with artists engaging with the form for well over 50 years now. While Primary Information sees this project as a continuation of that very important tradition, the organization also sees the need to double down on this form as a political space embedded with the urgency, diversity, and complexity of voices that are the hallmark of our times. Who better to do this than artists?
Find your national and state representatives
4 x 6 inches
Postcard
Open edition
February 2018
This postcard by Steve Dalachinsky is part of a series devoted to artists’ postcards initiated by Primary Information in the wake of the Trump Administration, as well as the social and political tumult that preceded it. Since the election, there has been a growing movement of citizens using postcards to voice their concern to their representatives. As such, the postcard is a media form that is vital to political and social engagement in the United States. It is also a form with a dedicated image space, and Primary Information feels strongly that images accompanying this civic engagement should be created by artists.
Each month, Primary Information commissions artists to produce postcards in an ongoing open edition. All postcards are priced at cost.
Postcards have long been a part of the artist book tradition, with artists engaging with the form for well over 50 years now. While Primary Information sees this project as a continuation of that very important tradition, the organization also sees the need to double down on this form as a political space embedded with the urgency, diversity, and complexity of voices that are the hallmark of our times. Who better to do this than artists?
Find your national and state representatives
4 x 6 inches
Postcard
Open edition
February 2018
This postcard by Nathan Hylden is part of a series devoted to artists’ postcards initiated by Primary Information in the wake of the Trump Administration, as well as the social and political tumult that preceded it. Since the election, there has been a growing movement of citizens using postcards to voice their concern to their representatives. As such, the postcard is a media form that is vital to political and social engagement in the United States. It is also a form with a dedicated image space, and Primary Information feels strongly that images accompanying this civic engagement should be created by artists.
Each month, Primary Information commissions artists to produce postcards in an ongoing open edition. All postcards are priced at cost.
Postcards have long been a part of the artist book tradition, with artists engaging with the form for well over 50 years now. While Primary Information sees this project as a continuation of that very important tradition, the organization also sees the need to double down on this form as a political space embedded with the urgency, diversity, and complexity of voices that are the hallmark of our times. Who better to do this than artists?
Find your national and state representatives
4 x 6 inches
Postcard
Open edition
February 2018
This postcard by Dave Muller is part of a series devoted to artists’ postcards initiated by Primary Information in the wake of the Trump Administration, as well as the social and political tumult that preceded it. Since the election, there has been a growing movement of citizens using postcards to voice their concern to their representatives. As such, the postcard is a media form that is vital to political and social engagement in the United States. It is also a form with a dedicated image space, and Primary Information feels strongly that images accompanying this civic engagement should be created by artists.
Each month, Primary Information commissions artists to produce postcards in an ongoing open edition. All postcards are priced at cost.
Postcards have long been a part of the artist book tradition, with artists engaging with the form for well over 50 years now. While Primary Information sees this project as a continuation of that very important tradition, the organization also sees the need to double down on this form as a political space embedded with the urgency, diversity, and complexity of voices that are the hallmark of our times. Who better to do this than artists?
Find your national and state representatives
4 x 6 inches
Postcard
Open edition
February 2018
This postcard by Alice Tippit is part of a series devoted to artists’ postcards initiated by Primary Information in the wake of the Trump Administration, as well as the social and political tumult that preceded it. Since the election, there has been a growing movement of citizens using postcards to voice their concern to their representatives. As such, the postcard is a media form that is vital to political and social engagement in the United States. It is also a form with a dedicated image space, and Primary Information feels strongly that images accompanying this civic engagement should be created by artists.
Each month, Primary Information commissions artists to produce postcards in an ongoing open edition. All postcards are priced at cost.
Postcards have long been a part of the artist book tradition, with artists engaging with the form for well over 50 years now. While Primary Information sees this project as a continuation of that very important tradition, the organization also sees the need to double down on this form as a political space embedded with the urgency, diversity, and complexity of voices that are the hallmark of our times. Who better to do this than artists?
Find your national and state representatives
4 x 6 inches
Postcard
Open edition
February 2018
