Joint Book Launch with Barry Schwabsky and Carol Szymanski

Carol Szymanski’s language-based art spans many media, from sculpture and photography to video and performance, and often includes musical elements with poetic texts. She has become particularly known for a series of sculptures in the form of invented musical instruments, particularly brass horns, using an alphabetic font she designed. Recent exhibitions and performances including these instruments have been with Sam Jones and the Talea Ensemble at the 100th birthday celebration for Pierre Boulez, Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew, Brooklyn, 2025; at Torn Page, New York, 2025; at Industry City as part of The Brooklyn Rail Singing in Unison exhibition series, 2022; in the Artists Studio series curated by Jason Moran, with Jaime Branch, Veterans Hall, Park Avenue Armory, 2021; The Phonemophonic Alphabet Brass Band, Winter Garden, New York, New Sounds Live series curated by John Schaefer, with Ben Neill and Pauline Oliveros, 2017; with Wadada Leo Smith and Betsy McClelland, The Drawing Center, New York, 1993; and with Dewey Redman at Pat Hearn Gallery, New York, 1993. These works have received press attention in publications including Art Press, The Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, Time Out, The New Yorker, and the New York Times. Szymanski has been a recipient of numerous awards including the Rome Prize and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.

Barry Schwabsky’s forthcoming books are a collection of poetry, The Bone China Years (Black Square Editions) and an essay, We Work in the Dark: Artists at Midcareer (Ten O’Clock Project).