BOURNEMOUTH.- Multidisciplinary artist, entrepreneur, and activist Stuart Semple believes that art is for everyone, and that everyone is an artist. Every single human has an inner spark of creativity that can make the world a better place. Art can change people, places, attitudes, and communities, healing and communicating when words aren’t enough.

Make Art or Die Trying empowers you to understand and connect with big art ideas and embrace your creative potential, no matter where you’re starting from. This stunning, informative, and inspiring book demystifies influential art concepts of the 20th and 21st centuries, including happenings, performance art, Bauhaus, and Fluxus, making them super-approachable and inviting you to learn, make art, and make change.

Let Make Art or Die Trying be your guide to harnessing the power of creative ideas to create art and change in your life and community.

Stuart Semple is a world-renowned contemporary artist, curator, and activist. His multidisciplinary approach spans painting, printmaking, video, technology, sculpture, happenings, and performances. His works have been exhibited at the Institute of Cultural Affairs/UK, Denver Art Museum, Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Barbican, and several other museums and institutions. Stuart has written for The Guardian, Vogue Spain, and Art of England magazine, and presented the ARIA-nominated BBC Radio Documentary “Hostile Design”. As a curator, Semple founded GIANT, the UK’s largest artist-run gallery space, where he presents a program of international contemporary art. He received a Happiness Hero medal from the United Nations on their first International Day of Happiness, in recognition of his artwork Happy Clouds, which took place outside Tate Modern. Stuart also founded culturehustle.com, which distributes art materials made in his studio, including his iconic Pinkest Pink and Blackest Black paints. Semple is an ambassador for mental health charity Mind, where he initiated a fund to provide arts therapies throughout England and Wales. He lives in Bournemouth, UK.

Make Art or Die Trying published this summer.

Table of Contents
CONTENTS
Introduction

IDEAS: Ideas and concepts, and how to have them.
MOVE IT: Moving things about, especially non-art things.
IT HAPPENS: Things that happen are happenings.
PERFORM: Your life is a performance; performance is art.
STEAL: Stealing is free. Make new things from the spoils.
BAUHAUS: Back to school with the Bauhaus.
ACTIVIST: You are an activist, so change stuff, please.
COLLABORATE: Form a crew, collaborate to punch hard.
COLOUR: Colour is wild, but its history is wilder.
GENERATE IT: Machines, processes, and systems make art too.
SITUATIONS: Situations can change behaviour in brilliant ways.
FLUX: In flux, we purge the world of dead art.

Each chapter:

·Explains a transformative art concept in a simple, straightforward, jargon-free way.
·Shares examples by amazing and innovative artists.
·Offers DIY ideas and exercises that encourage you to explore the concept yourself and ultimately develop your own unique conversation with the wider world.
·Includes a QR code that allows access to an exclusive video by Stuart that takes the conversation to a deeper level.

Stuart Semple
FRONTLIST | On Sale Date: June 11, 2024
Hardcover
9780760387030, 0760387036
208 pages
250 color images