ISSUE 76 (SUMMER 2023): An Artist's Life

Spike #76 is dedicated to the artist. From the ultracontemporaries to those whose success came too late to be enjoyed, this issue is about aging, enduring, and surviving death, in their works as much as their stories. How can an artist emerge in our oceanic present, faced with the internet’s image infinity, a penetrating market, and ever murkier prospects? And why, having emerged, do some artists fail – what kills their careers? Barry Schwabsky looks at early periods versus late styles, Cindy Sherman talks about abstracting getting older, and Lauren Elkin suggests a way out of the snares of biography by re-centering art itself. 

Featuring Cindy Sherman, Daniel Baumann, Elizabeth Peyton, Martin Wong, Merlin Carpenter, Sigmar Polke, Rhea Dillon, David Robbins, Issy Wood, Avery Singer, Parker Ito, Tea Hacic-Vlahovic and many more...

Curious to know how the story ends (and begins again)? Then pick up a copy and see for yourself what an artist’s life adds up to.