Michael Kagan: I Was There When It Happened

Published by Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art

Edited by Todd Bradway. Text by Alison Byrne, Matthew Israel, Bill Powers, and Pharrell Williams

Designed by Mike Dyer, Remake Design

Printed by Graphicom, Italy

Distributed By Artbook|D.A.P.

Growing up in Virginia Beach near the first NASA field center, Michael Kagan (born 1980) learned early in life to look toward the sky for inspiration. Now based in Brooklyn, the artist uses historical NASA photography as source material for his paintings of rockets blasting off into the atmosphere and astronauts touching down on lunar landscapes.

Heavily textured with layers of oil paint, Kagan's work brings a sense of tactile closeness to the otherworldly subject matter without sacrificing its awe-inspiring mystery. This clothbound accompaniment to Kagan's exhibition at Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art presents a selection of the artist's paintings from the past decade, dedicated to space imagery and F1 racers. It features a foreword by collaborator and fellow Virginia Beach native Pharrell Williams, an essay by Matthew Israel and an interview by Bill Powers.

Specifications

Clothbound hardcover, 9.5 x 10, 144 pages, 100 color

Forthcoming Fall 2019