Jon Pestoni's paintings are proposals, formal experiments in which competing, even contradictory, aesthetic positions co-exist, often within the same work. They are documents of an ongoing process of self-examination, cancellation, and improvisation in which the desired result is not only visual surprise but also the continual rediscovery of how art feels in real time, on a moment-to-moment basis.As his work has evolved over the last few years, Pestoni has introduced new materials, varied formats, and more dramatic shifts in scale to his repertoire of moves. This monograph, the artist's first, surveys his painting practice from 2011-2016, including medium- and large-scale canvases, and mixed-media paintings on paper mounted to aluminum, several of which were featured in his solo exhibition "Jon Pestoni: Some Years" at the Cleveland Museum of Art at Transformer Station (April 23 - July 24, 2016). The commissioned texts and selected images provide readers with an intimate sense of how Pestoni gets from one compositional idea to the next, and how a given idea, once subjected to his process, can emerge in two or more drastically different ways. Texts by Beau Rutland and Janet Kraynak. Designed by Brian Roettinger. Hardcover, 84 pages, 11.25 inches x 8.75 inches, English, David Kordansky Gallery 2017.
