An ambitious intergenerational survey of twenty-five contemporary New York artists. Contemporary art, like the city of New York, has seen massive growth over the past five decades. The twenty-five artists profiled in Empire State, from Dan Graham and Jeff Koons to the net-based Tabor Robak, question existing conventions and explore the new possibilities manifested by their community’s new, near-industrial scale. Empire State is an exhibition that asks how artists might reimagine urban life and how the city of New York might continue to be a site of contestation. Making new connections among the artists via commissioned pieces, the book includes essays by the show’s curators, Alex Gartenfeld and Sir Norman Rosenthal, and by Tom McDonough, John Miller, Eileen Myles, and Matt Keegan. Each artist’s work is paired with original texts by a host of leading critics and curators, such as Bruce Hainley, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Bonnie Clearwater, and Tina Kukielski.