In celebration of the publication of STUDY, a collection of “poems on art” written from the 1980s to the present, ISSUE hosts an evening of readings by Yuko Otomo. The author is joined by members of the Ugly Duckling Press collective, past and present, and those who partook in the making of the book.
With Anna Moschovakis, Steve Dalachinsky, Vincent Katz, Matvei Yankelevich, Ryan Haley, James Hoff, Marisol Limon Martinez, Linda Trimbath, and Emmalea Russo.
“I did the writing, but without the collective efforts of all involved, this book would not have been born.”
- Yuko Otomo
The poems of STUDY (2013 UDP) are born out of Otomo's “double” identity as both visual artist and poet/writer. Subjects include Giotto, Michelangelo, Picasso, Kandinsky, Max Beckmann, Louise Bourgeois, Joseph Beuys, Cy Twombly, Robert Frank, Ray Johnson, Bruce Nauman, James Castle, and Horace Pippin, along with lesser-known artist friends of Otomo including Hughes, Silv, O’Hara, and more. STUDY consists of 2 parts; Part I: Poem Cycles, and Part II: Rolled Up & Unframed/ Miscellaneous Poems on Art.
Yuko Otomo is a visual artist and poet of Japanese origin. She also writes art criticism, essays & translations. Her visual art, which focuses on the study of “pure abstraction,” has been shown at Tribes Gallery, Anthology Film Archives Courthouse Gallery, ABC No Rio, Brecht Forum, Gallery 128, Knitting Factory, Vision Festival, and elsewhere. She has read her work at New York City venues including St. Mark's Poetry Project, Bowery Poetry Club, Tonic, The Stone, Knitting Factory, NY Public Library, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Nest, Pink Pony, Nuyorican Poet’s Café, and in Germany, France and Japan. Her books include Garden: Selected Haiku (Beehive Press), Small Poems (UDP), The Hand of the Poet (UDP), Cornell box Poems, Genesis, and Fragile (Sisyphus Press). She is presently at work on on a volume of critical writing on art.
