Glenn Kaino: A Shout Within a Storm

The chameleon-esque practice of Japanese-American artist Glenn Kaino (b. 1972) utilizes sculpture, spectacle, video, and performance to convey political restlessness and the uncanny blurring of news with fallacy. As a former street artist, magician, web designer, theatre producer, and chief creative officer for the pioneering digital music startup Napster, Kaino has become celebrated for his re-combinative approach known as kit-bashing. Developing his practice at the height of the Internet boom, Kaino was part of a generation of artists who rethought the model-maker's process of assembling standard structures into hybrid forms. His 2014 installation Tank integrates fragments of a decommissioned military tank into a series of aquarium environments.

Published in connection with Kaino's exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, this mid-career survey of the Los Angeles-based artist spans the last decade of his enigmatic work, including his collaborations with marine biologists, mentalists, gang members, chess players, and, in his new work, celebrity Japanese chef Niki Nakayama.

Text by curator Steven Matijcio.

Published by Kavi Gupta and the Contemporary Arts Center, 2018, softcover, 64 pages, 10.25 x 7.75 inches.