Fun and Games

The work in Lisa Kereszi’s new monograph, titled after the name of a Jersey Shore arcade and the Ancient Roman wrestling phrase, “It’s all fun and games, until someone loses an eye,” documents the artist’s self-described obsession with what is hidden behind the facades of strip clubs, haunted houses, nightclubs, bars, and other places of fantasy and entertainment. “I look for places where fantasy falls short upon closer inspection,” Kereszi says. “When you look at a nocturnal place in the light of day, it looks strange and uncanny. Reality becomes surreal. I look at those banal details that I find (a rip or tear, some dirt, a crack) with a documentary, deadpan view, but colored with emotion and desire and a longing for something beyond.” Kereszi’s images are devoid of participants, allowing the viewer to look at what people discard or reject, or are in denial about, and focus on that. Lisa Kereszi’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum of Art; and the Study Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. This first edition of “Fun and Games” is limited to 750 casebound copies.