Artists Space

What is Contemporary Art for Today? And what should it be for if anything?

Book Launch
July 17, 2025, 7pm

Please join us for the book launch of What is Contemporary Art for Today? And what should it be for if anything? The launch will be accompanied by a brief roundtable discussion between Joshua Citarella, Bettina Funcke, Lloyd Wise, and Artists Space’s Deputy Director Kelly Taxter.

A book cover features white text on a red background that reads "WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY ART FOR TODAY?/And what should it be for if anything?"and a small photograph of the inside of a restaurant with red booths and wooden chairs.
Cover of What is Contemporary Art for Today? And what should it be for if anything?, Perić Collection, 2025. [A book cover features white text on a red background that reads "WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY ART FOR TODAY?/And what should it be for if anything?"and a small photograph of the inside of a restaurant with red booths and wooden chairs.]

This publication developed out of the Seaport Talks, a yearlong, unrecorded series of conversations that was held roughly every month from January 2023 until January 2024 at T.J. Byrnes in downtown Manhattan. The book compiles short responses from many of those who participated and from a few regulars, to the question What is Contemporary Art for Today? And what should it be for if anything? The texts are presented with very little editing to allow everyone’s voices to come through. The Seaport Talks and this publication were initiated and organized by the Perić Collection with the aim of bringing lively discourse back to the public.

Contributors include: Domenick Ammirati, Alvaro Barrington, Gavin Brown, Caroline Busta, Joshua Citarella, Ben Davis, Aria Dean, Travis Diehl, Bridget Donahue, Jason Farago, Bettina Funcke, Nick Irvin, Eugene Kotlyarenko, Matthew Linde, Patrick McGraw, Hiji Nam, Seth Price, Walter Robinson, Jerry Saltz, Roberta Smith, Tobias Spichtig, Natasha Stagg, Sean Tatol, Andrew Norman Wilson, and Lloyd Wise.

Published by the Perić Collection. Editors: Matt Moravec, Eleonore Hugendubel, Dean Kissick. Designer: Geoff Kaplan, General Working Group. Copy editor: Laura McLean-Ferris.