Bodys Isek Kingelez

Description

Composed of paper, commercial packaging and the stuff of everyday life, Bodys Isek Kingelez's 'extreme maquettes' transform these materials into fantastic visions that encompass civic buildings, public monuments and private pavilions. Published to accompany the first retrospective of his work, this book traces the span of Kingelez's career, from early single structure works included in Centre Pompidou's landmark 1989 exhibition, Magiciens de la terre , to the complex and multifaceted cities he made in the 2000s, bringing his rarely seen, distinctive oeuvre to American audiences. Featuring new photography of his work, this is the most comprehensive volume on the artist to date.

A euphoric exhibition as utopian wonderland, featuring his fantasy architectural models and cities -- works strong in color, eccentric in shape, loaded with enthralling details and futuristic aura.--Roberta Smith "The New York Times" A euphoric exhibition-as-utopian-wonderland.--Roberta Smith "The New York Times" A neat, visually pleasing volume.-- "PIN-UP" A utopian antidote to corruption and suffering, through whimsical, technicolored, and optimistic architecture.--Thu-Huong Ha "Quartzy" Fantastical architectural maquettes of public monuments and civic buildings envisage a utopian metropolis-- "Apollo Magazine" From early single-building sculptures to his futuristic late works, which incorporate increasingly unorthodox material.-- "The Paris Review" Growing up in his home city of Kinshasa, which grew exponentially with urban planning and infrastructure often unable to keep up, his vibrant and ambitious structures provided utopian alternatives to his own experience of urban life in his home city.--Mackenzie Goldberg "Archinecht" His festive, suis generis work, is sure to make fans of just everyone who sees it.-- "The Week" Imaginary buildings and whole cities in a perfectly integral melange of modern, postmodern, and entirley invented styles.--Peter Schjeldahl "The New Yorker" Sparkling, colorful, intricate, and inventive, are so inadequate in describing his work that one is tempted to drag out that overused compliment in contemporary arts commentary: amazing.--Peter Plagens "The Wall Street Journal" The first comprehensive survey of this Congolese artist's work is a euphoric exhibition as utopian wonderland.--Roberta Smith "New York Times" The self-trained artist is celebrated for creating "extreme maquettes" to explore questions around urban growth, economic inequity, and the rehabilitative power of architecture.--Hayley Arsenault "talkcontract" This small-scale architecture is fabulous but orderly--the stuff of fantasy, but also an expression of the real world: of political ambitions, of a desire for harmony, of a vision for civic responsibility and a new postcolonial world order.--Tess Thackara "Artsy"