Second Nature

Second Nature is a 432-page monograph on the painter and sculptor Chloe Wise, gathering five years of exhibitions into a single velvet-bound volume rather than documenting one show.

The book accompanies a run of exhibitions: Of False Beaches and Butter Money (Almine Rech Paris, 2017), Not That We Don't (Almine Rech London, 2019), the online exhibition Second Nature (Almine Rech, 2020), Thank You for the Nice Fire (Almine Rech New York, 2021), And Everything Was True (HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark, 2019-2020), and Fantasy America (The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, 2021). Almine Rech Editions published the hardcover in 2021 in an edition of 2,500, with texts by Jose Carlos Diaz, Kristen Cochrane, and Francesca Gavin.

The span of venues, from commercial galleries in Paris, London, and New York to a Danish museum survey and a solo presentation at the Andy Warhol Museum, tracks Wise's move from gallery artist toward institutional recognition over the years the book covers. The three contributing writers approach the work from distinct angles, positioning Second Nature as a critical reader on Wise's practice as much as a plate book.