Summer Reading List | Jeff Ostergren
Summer Reading List | Jeff Ostergren
Jeff Ostergren, The History of Algorithmic Colonialism (Bicameral Diptych), 2021. Bupropion, Jolessa, Naltrexone, Oxycontin, Strattera, Viagra, alcohol, oil, and acrylic on two synthetic canvases, 40 by 60 inches.
Old In Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over
Nell Painter
This memoir of Painter’s experience retiring from a successful career as a renowned historian at Princeton University to enter art school — first as an undergrad at Rutgers and then as a grad student at RISD — should be required reading for all artists, especially current and imminent art students. It reveals the highly artificial and (racist/sexist/ageist/elitist) conservative system of the ostensibly progressive art world. Socially incisive, it is also a highly entertaining read full of poignant and humorous insight into aging and creativity in general. It’s a book I wish I had read before starting art school many years ago. Painter’s other books are amazing as well, especially The History of White People, which reveals how artificial and constructed Whiteness is just as much, if not more, than all racial categories.
Empire Of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
Patrick Radden Keefe
At this point, the problems with Oxycontin and the nefarious behavior of its maker, Perdue Pharma, are pretty well known. It is thus all the more impressive that this deep dive into the history of the Sacklers is a revelatory exploration of a family that operates in the great tradition of economic family powerhouses — the Sacklers are the de Medicis (or the Sopranos) on drugs (maybe a speedball). The author leads the reader to demonstrate the shocking impact that one family has had on our current entire system of medicine, economics, and advertising. Their interest in art and philanthropy further complicates this narrative; one remarkable reveal is that the Sackler pater familias Arthur was at one point a budding artist himself. It’s curious to think about what would have happened had he pursued his interests in drawing, rather than obsessive colonialist collecting of Asian artworks and murdering people.
Severance
Ling Ma
This prescient novel about a fungal contagion that causes a worldwide plague and societal collapse is recent enough that it cuts like a scalpel. I’ve been reading a lot of other plague books, but a lot of them already feel dated and out of touch (not to mention fairly bad writing, no names). But Severance, with its world riddled in apps and smartphones, avocado toast, and podcasts, gives us that sense of fiddling while Rome burns in a way that feels awfully familiar right now. The shift into remote work, the N-95 masks, the fumbling of the government — it’s very, very real. Ling Ma also builds the narrative around an immigrant experience adding humanity and warmth into a very cold world that doesn't need to be fictionalized to be dystopic.
Jeff Ostergren, Vaporized (Breathe Freely), 2020. Juul mint e-liquid, Aricept, Aspirin, Claritin, Jolessa, Miralax, Oxycontin, Rozerem, Viagra, Zoloft, Purell hand sanitizer, Blackwater energy drink, pigment, and acrylic on Kevlar ballistic fabric mounted on rubber; 38 by 60 inches.
JEFF OSTERGREN
Jeff Ostergren has exhibited work in locations around the world including Los Angeles, Vancouver, and the Czech Republic. Last year, his work was included in the group exhibition Perverse Furniture at Artspace in New Haven, as well as a solo commissioned installation “Science For a Better Life,” a site-specific project at City-Wide Open Studios in New Haven in which he explored the chemical and corporate history of Bayer Pharmaceuticals. He also screened a work in Video Snack 6 in Brooklyn in Fall 2017, which was recently screened again as part of the Fikra Design Biennial in Sharjah, UAE in November 2018. He is a recipient of a 2017 Artist’s Resource Trust Grant from the Berkshire Taconic Foundation. He also has a curatorial practice, including the exhibition False Flag: The Space Between Reason and Paranoia at Franklin Street Works in Stamford, CT. He received his MFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA in 2006, and a BA in a double major of anthropology and gender studies at Rice University in Houston, TX in 1998.
