A HISTORIC NEW BOOK ON ARTIST CARLOS VILLA!

MERITAGE PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT
September 3, 2011

CARLOS VILLA AND THE INTEGRITY OF SPACES
Editor: Theodore S. Gonzalves
Release Date: Fall 2011
ISBN No.: 978-0-615-52120-6
Price: $40.00
For More Information: MeritagePress@aol.com, http://www.meritagepress.com, http://integrityofspaces.info (http://www.missionculturalcenter.org/MCCLA_New/gallery.html)

Meritage Press (San Francisco & St. Helena) is delighted to announce the release of CARLOS VILLA AND THE INTEGRITY OF SPACES, edited by Theodore S. Gonzalves. This long-overdue book takes a critical look at the life and work of one of the most celebrated Filipino American artists of our time and a leading light in the San Francisco Bay Area’s rich history of creative arts. The book includes essays and poetry by Bill Berkson, Theodore S. Gonzalves, David A.M. Goldberg, Mark Dean Johnson, Margo Machida, Moira Roth, and Carlos Villa; and features a gallery of 77 color and b&w images from Villa's career.

ADVANCE WORDS on this project include:

“For this beautiful book, cultural studies scholar Theo Gonzalves brings together the most relevant and important voices on the work of Carlos Villa, which spans more than half a century. Together with Gonzalves’ own detailed and nuanced essay, which provides a rich context for our understanding and appreciation of Villa’s art and life, they variously illuminate how the artist’s vision emerges from Filipino American history, how his work engages the work of other American visual artists, and how he thinks about and makes art. The book ends as powerfully as it begins, with Villa’s own words, both as a teacher and artist. Carlos Villa and the Integrity of Spaces is the definitive work on one of the most important American artists of our time.”
—Elaine H. Kim, author of Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes: Conversations on Asian American Art

“Here, finally, is the book that Carlos Villa so richly deserves. His fascinating art-and-life trajectory is explored by an equally stellar group of writers who weave the links (and ruptures) between Filipino/U.S. histories, art worlds, jazz, Asian American arts, San Francisco, and Villa’s gifts for friendship, teaching, and cultural activism. His art is memorable, powerful, and moving. So is this book.”
—Lucy R. Lippard, author of Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America

“When I first moved to the Bay Area in 1990, I remember seeing a pair of feathered shoes in a glass box. The implication—that by lifting the glass the shoes might fly away—did not feel like mainstream art or party line culture. It felt like a leap both personal and tribal. Looking back, I can now see the leap that Carlos Villa took as something close to my own immigration, one having always stood for a non-ideological American multiculturalism firmly grounded in the steps of his—and our—own journey.”
—Hung Liu, Professor of Studio Art, Mills College

“Carlos Villa is a legendary figure in the arts and in the struggles of a multicultural generation. For over four decades he has created work from the soul of his ancestry, language, and ceremonial vision. His generous leadership in the movement for cultural rights has brought together the luminaries of our time. His contribution to global artistic expressions is immense and incalculable and his iconic work marks an era critical to the arts in America.”
—Amalia Mesa-Bains, artist and author of Ceremony of Spirit: Nature and Memory in Contemporary Latino Art

“A wonderfully rich and important anthology that generously offers several instances of Carlos Villa’s own words with writings by distinguished contributors. Editor Gonzalves critically coheres a lively collection of essays and a brilliant piece of pantoum poetry, from discussions of the manong legacy to an assertion of hybridity and the primacy of art. Carlos Villa and the Integrity of Spaces will ensure the artist his rightful place in art and cultural history.”
—Yong Soon Min, Professor of Studio Art, University of California at Irvine

“This remarkable book on Carlos Villa—artist, educator, curator, and author—reveals the breadth of his work worldwide. His World’s in Collision has been one of the most important texts for the education of students and artists for over two decades; and his own art extends the cultural range of visual perception.”
—Keith A. Morrison, art educator, curator, art critic, and administrator

*****

Meritage Press seeks to expand fresh ways of featuring literary and other art forms. Meritage Press publishes a wide range of artists – poets, writers, visual artists, dancers, and performance artists, among others. By acknowledging the multiplicity of aesthetic concerns, Meritage’s interests necessarily encompass a variety of disciplines – politics, culture, identity, science, humor, religion, history, technology, philosophy and wine. Based in St. Helena and San Francisco, Ca., Meritage Press is published and edited by Eileen R. Tabios. More information at http://www.meritagepress.com and http://meritagepress.blogspot.com.