Events

James Hoff on Primary Information
Artist / Publisher Talk

Monday April 7, 2014 at 5:00pm
READ Books at the Charles H. Scott Gallery

READ Books and Or Gallery are pleased to present a talk on Primary Information’s publication practice by New York-based artist and publisher James Hoff.

James Hoff and Miriam Katzeff formed Primary Information in 2006 to foster intergenerational dialogue through the publication of artists’ books, writing, documents and editions from the 1960’s to the present. With an emphasis on Conceptual practice across disciplines such as art, music and poetry, Hoff and Katzeff have re-published works that are vital to contemporary art. These include a deluxe box set facsimile edition of all the issues of Avalanche, edited by Willoughby Sharp And Liza Bear (1970-76), a compilation of texts from REAL LIFE Magazine from the 1980s, a facsimile of Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw and Cary Loren’s Destroy All Monsters magazine (1976-79) and a facsimile edition of Something Else Press’ Great Bear Pamphlet Series (1965-67). They published long lost live recordings of Martha Wilson’s no wave feminist group Disband, Dan Graham’s writing on rock music, and GPO Mail Action a chronicle of Genesis P-Orrige’s 1975 prosecution by the British General Post Office for disseminating pornographic material through the mail.

Hoff is in Vancouver for How Wheeling Feels When the Ground Walks Away a solo exhibition at Or Gallery. He works across diverse formats including the artists’ book, live performance, writing, painting, sculpture, and sound art. Guided by both his editorial practice and archival impulses, Hoff employs minor histories as source material, which are then re-worked or re-contextualized, forging new relations that reflect on contemporary practice or further compound, expand, or expose the underlying history.

Hoff has recently participated in exhibitions at: MoMA, New York; VI,VII, Oslo, Norway; TEAM Gallery, New York; IMO, Copenhagen, Denmark; Air de Paris, Paris, France; LUMA Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland; and Publication Studio Vancouver. Hoff co-founded the non-profit art organization Primary Information with Miriam Katzeff in 2006.

James Hoff at Castillo Corrales in Paris, 2014