Awol Erizku: Mystic Parallax

Mystic Parallax is the first major monograph by rising interdisciplinary artist Awol Erizku. Working across photography, film, video, painting, and installation, his work references and re-imagines African American and African visual culture, from hip hop vernacular to Nefertiti, while nodding to traditions of spirituality and Surrealism. This comprehensive monograph spans Erizku’s career, blending his studio practice with his work as an in-demand editorial photographer working regularly for the New Yorker, New York magazine, Time, and GQ, among others, and features his conceptual portraits of Black cultural icons, such as Solange, Amanda Gorman, and Michael B. Jordan. As Erizku recently told the New York Times, “It’s important for me to create confident, powerful, downright regal images of Black people.” Featuring essays by critically acclaimed author Ishmael Reed, curator Ashley James, and writer Doreen St. Félix, and interviews with the artist by Urs Fischer and Antwaun Sargent, Mystic Parallax is a luminous and arresting testament to the artist’s tremendous power and originality. Copublished by Aperture and The Momentary

Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 300
Number of images: 168
Publication date: 2023-07-11
Measurements: 9.5 x 12 x 1.5 inches
ISBN: 9781597115469

“The book features 300 pages of Erizku’s visual works, which reference and reimagine Black contemporary culture while nodding to elements of nature and spirituality—creating a canonized version of history he calls ‘Afro-Esotericism.’”—Maxine Wally, W magazine

“And its contents are even more potent than its eye-catching exterior.”—Caroline Bomback, Cultured magazine

“Erizku’s work simultaneously subverts and transcends the voracious strictures of Western cultural hegemony without losing a step.”—Miss Rosen, Blind magazine

Awol Erizku (born in Ethiopia, 1988) lives and works in Los Angeles. He graduated from Cooper Union in 2010 and received his MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2014. Erizku has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, Arkansas; Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto; Ben Brown Gallery, Hong Kong; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Gagosian, New York; and FLAG Art Foundation, New York.
Ishmael Reed is a critically acclaimed author, poet, and playwright known for his satirical and ironic take on race and literary tradition. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Ashley James is an associate curator of contemporary art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, where her work merges curatorial practice with an academic background rooted in African American studies, English literature, and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies.
Doreen St. Félix is a staff writer at the New Yorker and has previously written for publications, including the New York Times, Vogue, n+1, and Pitchfork.
Urs Fischer is a Swiss-born artist who works across sculpture, installation, and photography.
Antwaun Sargent is a writer, curator, and a director at Gagosian Gallery. His recent books are The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion (Aperture, 2019) and Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists (2020). His recent curatorial projects include a series of group shows called Social Works, as well as solo presentations of artists Virgil Abloh, Awol Erizku, Rick Lowe, Tyler Mitchell, Alexandria Smith, and Amanda Williams.