Since the 1980s, Andreas Slominski has explored the ­uneasy­ ­relationships between objects, actions, intentions, and ­consequences. Moving across sculpture, installation, painting, and performance, he devises situations in which ordinary things ­become vehicles for extraordinary complications. Traps, utilitarian ­implements, and apparently modest gestures expose concealed mechanisms and elaborate detours. With deadpan humor and exacting attention to procedure, Slominski unsettles distinctions between usefulness and futility, inviting viewers to consider what an action achieves and how much of its execution remains unseen.

Surveying four decades, this volume examines the ­conceptual ­precision and persistent unpredictability of Slominski’s art, in which the simplest result may conceal the most circuitous process. A pair of newly commissioned critical essays, together with an ­in-depth artist interview, offers fresh perspectives on his enduring ­preoccupations with purpose, effort, deception, and the ways art catches its audience.