Public Offerings

2001
The Museum of Contemporary Art
Los Angeles

Public Offerings was an exhibition at MOCA in 2001. It was a critical overview of artwork at the beginning of the 21st century featuring artists such as Matthew Barney, Julie Becker, Sharon Lockhart, Chris Ofili, Rachel Whiteread, and Jane & Louise Wilson. Barnbrook designed the exhibition catalogue and publicity graphics. At the time the studio was going through an ‘anti-white space’ period, believing that it was designers’ lack of courage that meant they put artist’s works on white page, rather than properly choosing a colour that suited the work. Consequently the book has no white pages whatsoever in it. The colour selection for each page layout was shared and approved by the artists. This catalogue is also unique in being the starting point for two fonts that were later drawn up and released: Expletive and Echelon.