Stallings has written essays for numerous contemporary art exhibitions, has edited several books, and has been a columnist for print and online journals. He writes about artists who are highly engaged with their political, social, and ecological environment. His personal essays often take a What If? speculative perspective.
SELECTED BOOKS AUTHORED, EDITED or WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY TYLER STALLINGS
Chronologically ordered beginning with most recent
MUNDOS ALTERNOS: ART AND SCIENCE-FICTION IN THE AMERICAS
Mundos Alternos looks at science fiction in the Americas through a transcultural perspective, grounded in an understanding of “Latinidad” expressed through shared hemispheric experiences in language, culture and visual expression. If a Latin American science fiction is said to exist, the texts in this volume interrogate where that Latin America, and its science-fiction imagination, might be located. In addition to focusing on specific regions in North, Central and South America, the book’s essays cross time and space, illuminating Soviet influence in Cuba, the impact of American pop culture in Mexico and the cross-pollination of European avant-garde aesthetics in Brazil. Mundos Alternos will be an indispensable resource for contemporary art curators working on Latin America, science-fiction scholars interested in visual interpretations of the genre and readers interested in science fiction, art, Latin America and the diaspora. Foreword by Sheila Bergman. Introduction by Robb Hernández, Tyler Stallings. Text by Kency Cornejo, Robb Hernández, Joanna Szupinska-Myers, Itala Schmelz, Alfredo Suppia, Sherryl Vint.
D.A.P. and University of California Riverside, 2017, hardcover, 159 pages, ISBN-10: 9780982304686, ISBN-13: 978-0982304686
“In the tradition of the science fiction genre, the straight white male scientist becomes the hero and the alien race is often represented as primitive,” Mr. Stallings said. Here, many immigrant or so-called alien artists cast themselves as cosmic pioneers or explorers.
—New York Times
ARIDTOPIA: ESSAYS ON ART & CULTURE FROM DESERTS IN THE SOUTHWEST UNITED STATES
A collection of essays by Tyler Stallings from over the past decade. Taken togehter literary mirage that fuses present day reality and a future imaginary which repositions our view of the world from that of the desert. Aridtopia explores utopian communities, water rights, the L.A. Aqueduct, and even the desert as a stand-in for the terrain of would-be astronauts to Mars.
Blue West Books, 2014, softcover, 276 pages, ISBN-10: 0985949538, ISBN-13: 978-0985949532
The desert is a place where Native American and settler conflicts, water and land-use issues, survivalists, military bases, experimental aircraft launches, and so much more converge in a new consciousness, which Aridtopia so deftly observes.
—Deanne Stillman, author of Desert Reckoning, Twentynine Palms, and Mustang
THE SIGNS PILE UP: PAINTINGS BY PEDRO ÁLVAREZ
This is the first comprehensive book to survey the work of Cuban artist, Pedro Álvarez (1967-2004). The book includes four essays which examine much of Álvarez’s career - the Periodo Especial, the Dollarscape series, his use of American cars from the 1950s drawing on the complicated U.S.-Cuba relations, and identity issues. Much of his work utilized a juxtaposition of pop culture references, such as clippings from The Simpsons comic books, against traditional Cuban images, such as 19th century peasants and troubadours. Essays by Tyler Stallings (editor), Antonio Elegio Fernndez (Tonel), Orlando Hernandez, Kevin Power. Tom Patchett interviews Ry Cooder. Introduction by Tom Patchett. Chronology by Carmen Cabrera.
Smart Art Press, 2008, hardcover, 144 pages, 74 reproductions, bi-lingual with Spanish, ISBN-10: 188919557X, ISBN-13: 978-1889195575, Distributed by RAM Publications
The first monograph on the artist, The Signs Pile Up: Paintings by Pedro Álvarez, is a much needed publication, one poised to become an authoritative source on this talented artist’s oeuvre and a must read for scholars, art historians, curators, or anyone who wants to gain a genuine understanding of contemporary art and, in particular, of the so-called ‘90s generation’ in Cuba.
—Alma Ruiz, Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
WHITENESS, A WAYWARD CONSTRUCTION
This book examines the work of twenty-eight contemporary individual artists and collaborative teams employing various media who explore representations of whiteness in the United States. The selection of artists is not restricted to whites but includes artists of various ethnicities. The book and exhibition are about the image of whiteness in the public imagination and in contemporary art; it is not an analysis of particular historical developments. It approaches whiteness as being less about the color of skin and more about an ideology of power. As the title indicates, the notion of waywardness is central to the exhibition and its conception of whiteness, referring both to the wayward, or capricious, power that whiteness confers and also to its ungovernability--the impossibility of pinning a single, overarching identity on any individual. The book is divided into three overlapping categories that move from the general to the specific and are meant to suggest a movement from unawareness to reflection to problematizing the white as a racial subject. Essays by Ken Gonzales-Day, Amelia Jones, David R. Roediger, and Tyler Stallings (editor).
Laguna Art Museum, 2003, hardcover, 156 pages, 58 reproductions, heavily illustrated, ISBN-13: 978-0940872288
Exhibition accompanied by the book
KCET Artbound, ten years after the exhibition, by Tyler Stallings
Previous museum exhibitions that have dealt with identity have for the most part presented only images of other races, and not those of whites. This is perhaps due in part to the relative abundance of works in which others reread and reinterpret dominant culture, defining themselves in relationship to it. As Richard Dyer notes, however, in his seminal book White: 'As long as race is something only applied to non-while peoples, as long as white people are not racially seen and named, they/we function as a human norm. Other people are raced, we are just people.’ The artists in this book and exhibition explore the invisibility of whiteness and how whites are made out to be generic and the norm.
—Tyler Stallings, from the book
Image above: Daniel Joseph Martinez, I Can’t Imagine Ever Wanting to Be White, 1994, metal museum tags, made for 1993 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, and included in Whiteness, A Wayward Construction.
SURF CULTURE: THE ART HISTORY OF SURFING
Surf Culture examines the history of modern surfboard design from 1900 to the present and features over 100 surfboards. It is the most comprehensive examination to date of surfing's impact on western culture and its cultural bleed into mainstream. Both exhibition and book will explore surfing related activities and by-products such as skateboarding, surf photography, film, clothing, and music and make an assessment of their socioeconomic impact. Works of art featured are all surf-influenced and by artists/surfers who have achieved prominence in either the art world or popular culture -- Craig Kauffman, Billy Al Bengston, and Robert Irwin to name just a few. Essays by co-curators Bolton Colburn, Craig Stecyk, and Tyler Stallings, along with Deanne Stillman, and Ben Finney. Tom Wolfe's memorable essay "The Pump House Gang" (1968) is also reprinted. Designed by the noted Dave Carson.
Gingko Press, 2002, softcover, 240 pages, heavily illustrated, ISBN-10: 1584231130, ISBN-13: 978-1584231134
…surfers used polyester resin pigment to reinvent the look of surfboard graphics, creating popular icons that are still influential today. Noteworthy examples include Bev Morgan’s Santa Barbara Surf Shop insignia, Hap Jacobs’ Surfboards by Jacobs label, Mike Salisbury’s Gordon and Smith trademark, John Van Hammersveld’s Dive and Surf emblem, and Rich Harbour’s geometric color layout for the Banana model.
Surfer-artists making work with the new surfboard materials began to gain acceptance in the vanguard art scene. Billy Al Bengston, known as Moondoggie in Malibu in the mid-‘50s, was shown at the pioneering Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles along with his surf-mate Kenny Greenwater Price. When Robert Irwin was featured in Life magazine, he refused to allow them to photograph his art pieces, choosing instead to pose with his hand-painted surfboard.
—Craig Stecyk, from the book
SANDOW BIRK’S IN SMOG & THUNDER: HISTORICAL WORKS FROM THE GREAT WAR OF THE CALIFORNIAS
Drawing inspiration from the ever-present rivalry between the Northern and Southern California and from contemporary political events, the book and exhibition detail Sandow Birk’s portrayal of a fictional war between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Thick with parody, satire, and astute social commentary, Birk appropriated iconic compositions and painting styles from the past to make commentaries on contemporary life and events of California’s history. The artist examined politics and art history in a Hollywood-style war of epic proportions, depicting first the invasion of San Francisco by L.A.’s “Smog Town” troops, to San Francisco’s belated counter attack by sea that captures the megalopolis unawares and culminates in a powerful confrontation in the streets of the southern California city. The exhibition and book were complete with elaborate “history” paintings, propaganda posters, topographical maps, ship models, portraits of key military figures, and extensive pseudo-historical observation. Birk’s art explores contemporary California issues, interpreting events such as the San Fernando Valley’s secession and debate about leaf-blowers, Mono Lake water rights, etc. Generals lead their troops riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and the Goodyear blimp hovers over the landscape of freeway cloverleaf interchanges. Essays by Tyler Stallings (curator of exhibition), Claudine Ise, Marcia Tanner, and Sandow Bark. There is an CD pocketed inside back cover containing 20 tracks of different historical music pieces relating to the art works.
Last Gasp, 2000, softcover, 64 pages, heavily illustrated, ISBN: 9780867195415
Exhibition accompanied by the book
Mockumentary based on the book and exhibition about The Great War of the Californias
Sandow Birk, The Spirit of Los Angeles, 1998, oil on canvas, 54 x 43 inches
RUBEN ORTIZ TORRES: DESMOTHERNISMO
The book surveys the work that Ruben Ortiz Torres has produced between 1991 to 1998, as he's commuted back and forth across the U.S./Mexican border, using diverse media to explore the linguistic, aesthetic, and social collisions of art and culture. This book and exhibition included the full range of his wildly eclectic work, including paintings/pictograms combining modern art symbols with ethnic stereotypes; photographs of scenes from both sides of the border that mix allegory with documentation; customized baseball caps that make a twisted fashion statement about the relationship between aesthetics, history, mass media, politics, sports, and community; and his acclaimed recent installation Alien Toyz. Essays by Tyler Stallings (curator and editor) and David A. Greene.
Smart Art Press, 1998, softcover, 64 pages, heavily illustrated, bi-lingual in English and Spanish, ISBN 10: 1889195316, ISBN 13: 9781889195315
This is an artist whose work not only crosses borders but also recognizes that our identities are fluid and everchanging; that the human cognitive process is an unstable constellation of webs, fusions, overlays, and hybrids; and, finally, that we actually live in zones and regions of the world, rather than countries, where California is as much a part of the U.S. as of Mexico, and both are part of the mythic/factual Aztlan.
Tyler Stallings, from the book
UNCONTROLLABLE BODIES: TESTIMONIES OF IDENTITY AND CULTURE
This collection of original writings and artwork challenges commonly held definitions of the body. Filmmakers, poets, visual and performance artists, sex workers, activists, and cultural critics employ outrage and analysis to investigate the body as a source of identity and an object of social control. The contributors offer anguished and exultant visions of gay yearning and despair, male heterosexual hysteria, ethnic defiance, feminist reflection, and emotional recognition. These rigorous and inventive works will entrance and provoke. Co-edited by Rodney Sappington and Tyler Stallings, with contributions by both, along with….
Bay Press, 1994, softcover, 280 pages, many illustrations, ISBN-10: 0941920275, ISBN-13: 978-0941920278
Borrow online version of the book
Interview with the editors, Stallings & Sappington, Los Angeles Reader
This unique and compelling assemblage of poetry, photography, and prose (both autobiographical and fictional) mixes the work of writers, visual artists, activists, performance artists, and sex workers. The point of departure here is the body as worthy—even demanding—of reflection….
Library Journal