New Brooklyn-based publisher Antics Publications is throwing a launch party at Williamsburg’s Kinfolk (94 Wythe Street) on Monday December 16 from 6 to 11 PM, releasing four books that don’t back away from life’s uncomfortable realities.
The release includes the art book publishers inaugural Journal of Grievances – a quarterly photography zine featuring works by photographers from across the globe. The theme of the first edition is ‘The Inconveniences of Calamities,” and it includes work from more than 30 photographers with a feature spread from special guest renowned photographer Michael Northrup.
Antics Publications is also releasing Neither here nor there by Nathan Jol, Domestica by Mateo Ruiz Gonzalez and Monuments by Jaime Salazar, all Brooklyn-based photographers. The four books will be on sale at the launch party, and the artists will be there to sign copies. Work from a number of the featured photographers will also be on show.
Antics Publications was formed in 2018 by friends Mateo Ruiz Gonzalez and Pablo Mejia to help up-and- coming photographers, artists and creatives get their work seen, published and shared across different communities. Ruiz Gonzalez says the goal is to create a collection and archive of high quality art books by new artists with fresh and diverse work, particularly focusing on photography and poetry.
“We want to make affordable, good quality books and we want to create a space to meet new people and work together,” Ruiz Gonzalez says. “Books have always been important, but in the Instagram era where we just scroll and review, appreciating a piece of art has often become about giving a like and that’s the end. I think if we focus on what books do — giving time to look at the work, not just passing through, actually touching it and making it tangible — it creates a deeper relationship with the art.”