To be honest, I had never heard of this artist before I saw this book. Even though I live in Brooklyn and have a 20 minute subway ride to Chelsea, where the best and most NYC galleries are, I still rarely go. Most of the artists I learn about I either see in books or hear about through friends(I know-pretty lame. Art in person is so much better.) Just flipping through this book at the store, I knew I had to have it. A lot of Andrew’s paintings seem to be narratives taking place in medieval times, with lots of wooden ships and armored horses, but then there’s also electricity lines and poles and small influences from skateboard and graffiti culture mixed in. His drawings of wooden structures are my favorite because every grain of wood is drawn. There are also these strange elephants drawn in a similar fashion. On his website he says the relationship between man and nature is a re-occuring theme for him as well as capitalism and globalization. This book is a nice little hardcover and his complete body of work. It’s has his drawings, his paintings, sketchbook work, photos of the murals he did on San Francisco buildings or walls in Indonesia and his installations in galleries, which are really intense. This book is published by Paper Museum Press and is a limited run of 3000. You can learn more about Andrew on his website. (The pictures I took of the book don’t do it justice. Because of the glare this book was really hard to photograph-so be sure to check out his site)

© Julia Rothman 2007