Darrel Ellis: Regeneration - by Antonio Sergio Bessa & Leslie Cozzi (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

On Ellis' ingenious, heartfelt explorations of memory and disillusion through multimedia photography

A New York Times 'Best Art Books of 2023' pick

During his short career, Bronx-born Darrel Ellis (1958-92) created a multifaceted and expansive body of work merging painting, printmaking, photography and drawing before his premature death due to AIDS-related causes. During his early 20s, Ellis was given a group of negatives shot by his father. The young Ellis' unique practice involved projecting these negatives onto a sculpted surface, masking out areas and rephotographing them, generating a stream of surrogates that capture the fleeting effects of memory. Ellis' technical and theoretical experimentation transformed serial and appropriation practices into something unrecognizably new and compellingly heartfelt.
Darrel Ellis: Regeneration offers a comprehensive survey of Ellis' work and includes contributions by Makeda Djata Best, Allen Frame, Scott Homolka, Linda Owen and Kyle Croft.

Review Quotes

Through the vigilance of curators, artist-friends and family, his work is very much with us and permanently visible in this lovingly conceived book, the catalog for a traveling survey.--Holland Cotter "The New York Times: Arts"

In his son's hands, Thomas Ellis' photographs become visual metaphors laden with poignancy and need.--Miss Rosen "AnOther"

Rediscovery isn't as simple as it might seem...It may have taken thirty years, but the slight has finally been amended, and there's no feeling like watching art history rewritten before your eyes.--Max Pearl "Aperture"