Author Description

Mark Flood: Gratest Hits is the first survey of the work of Houston-based artist Mark Flood (born 1957) dating from the 1970s to 2016. Described by The New York Times as a "painter and punk propagandist," Flood has, despite remaining barely visible at the museum level, maintained an active and influential career for decades in painting and, increasingly, exhibition practice, producing work characterized by deep wisdom and trenchant humor. With Gratest Hits, Flood--an artist so absolute in his judgments that one 2012 painting featured the words "Whore Museums, Gutless Collectors, Blind Dealers, So-Called Artists" emblazoned on it--finally gets the monographic museum treatment in his hometown, and a career-spanning catalogue to boot. This fully illustrated, full-color volume features texts by Carlo McCormick, Alison Gingeras, El Topito, Scott Indrisek and Bill Arning, the exhibition's curator and director of the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston.