Specific Object (2004 - 2013, 2018 - ) is a gallery, bookstore, and think-tank dedicated to art post-1959 – specifically pop, Fluxus, minimal and conceptual – with an interest in the art that informed the 1960s and 1970s, as well artists whose works organically followed from the era.
Specific Object works to isolate distinct works of value – historically, monetarily and / or intellectually valuable – and show them in isolated contexts allowing these works, or objects, their own place, space, and time. The material Specific Object presented ranged from artists’ publications, ephemera, prints, multiples, and other editions to literature, music / audio works, and unique artworks of the contemporary world.
In November 2004 Specific Object acquired the inventory of Barbara Moore’s bookstore Bound & Unbound. Through her bookshops Bound & Unbound and its predecessor Backworks, founded in 1976, Moore has been a seminal and innovative champion of artists working in alternative mediums.
In February 2005 Specific Object launched the Specific Object Publication of the Year Award to annually recognize excellence in artists’ publication.
From 1998 through 2004 David Platzker was the Executive Director of the non-profit institution Printed Matter, Inc. He is also the co-author, and co-curator - with Elizabeth Wyckoff - of Hard Pressed: 600 Years of Prints and Process (International Print Center New York & Hudson Hills Press, 2000); and - with Richard H. Axsom - the book and exhibition entitled Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg : A Catalogue Raisonne 1958-1996 (Madison Art Center & Hudson Hills Press, 1997), which was awarded the George Wittenborn Award for Best Art Publication of 1997 by the Art Libraries Society of North America.
He has curated exhibitions of the works of Art & Project, John Baldessari, Marcel Broodthaers, Documenta 5, Conceptual Art, Marcel Duchamp, Donald Judd, John McLaughlin, Bruce Nauman, Oldenburg, Raymond Pettibon, Dieter Roth, and Edward Ruscha in addition to commissioning or curating exhibitions at Printed Matter of Angelblood, Larry Clark, Erin Cosgrove, Meg Cranston, General Idea, Jenny Holzer, Reverend Jen, Allan Kaprow, Yoko Ono, Ryan McGinness, Sonic Youth, Tom Sachs, David Tremlett, Richard Tuttle, the Guerrilla Girls, Dan Graham, and other projects.
Platzker was also the host of WPS1.org's Recorded Matter online radio program. Archived programs can be found at www.artonair.org. His writings have been included in Claude Closky: Hello And Welcome, I Love John Giorno, Jonathan Monk: In Relief (My Collection of Sol LeWitt Books - Exact Size, Shape and Occasionally Colour), 2015, and elsewhere.
From May 2013 through February 2018 David Platzker was Curator of Drawings and Prints at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where he curated the exhibitions There Will Never Be Silence: Scoring John Cage’s 4'33" with Jon Hendricks; Sites of Reason: A Selection of Recent Acquisitions with Erica Papernik; Gilbert & George: The Early Years; and Adrian Piper: A Synthesis of Intuitions, 1965–2016 with Connie Butler and Christophe Cherix.Copyright & Usage www.specificobject.com/copyright.cfm
