Ben Shahn, on Nonconformity
A richly illustrated new exploration of the painting, photography, and illustration of the politically progressive American artist Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity offers a fresh and wide-ranging account of the work of Ben Shahn (1898-1969), a Jewish immigrant from Russian-controlled Lithuania who became one of America's most prominent and prolific "social viewpoint" artists from the Great Depression through the Vietnam War. Revealing why Shahn remains so relevant today, the book examines his commitment to progressive political causes, from combating fascism to fighting for civil rights. Incorporating international perspectives, it investigates his World War II poster art, labor-related work, and engagement in postwar artistic debates. It brings new insights to Shahn's social realist and documentary styles and their evolution into allegorical, lyrical, and often abstract idioms that embrace the philosophical and the spiritual. And it demonstrates the underappreciated complexity of Shahn's layered visual language and how he experimented with modernist conceptual strategies--often involving photography--to create his paintings, murals, drawings, prints, posters, illustrated books, and commercial designs. Shahn's guiding credo--formulated in the Cold War--asserted that nonconformity was the precondition for all significant art and great social change. Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity illuminates why the artist's work should be seen as a series of "nonconformities" driven by his steadfast dedication to social justice and humanistic values. Published by the Jewish Museum, New York and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sof穩a, Madrid, in association with Princeton University Press Exhibition ScheduleThe Jewish Museum, New YorkMay 23-October 12, 2025
Disney Dreams Collection by Thomas Kinkade Studios 2026 Wall Calendar
Ryan Preciado & Manuel Sandoval: So Near, So Far
By re-creating Manuel Sandoval's furniture designs for a Rudolph M. Schindler house, Preciado initiates a multigenerational dialogue encompassing architecture, authorship and the built environment Published with Palm Springs Art Museum. In 2020, artist Ryan Preciado (born 1989) began a conversation across time with the life and work of carpenter Manuel Sandoval, who was born nearly 100 years before the artist and worked with architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolph M. Schindler. Preciado had been asked to re-create a dining set made by Sandoval for the Ralph G. Walker House, a Los Angeles home designed by Schindler. Working from chairs made in the 1940s, Preciado undertook a kind of forensics to understand how to achieve Sandoval's deeply technical design. Along the way, Preciado engaged in an imagined discourse with Sandoval--about the latter's craft, life and how he navigated a crucial chapter in American architectural history. The culmination of nearly five years of research into this under-historicized figure, So Near, So Far presents work by Preciado in dialogue with Sandoval's story, breaking open established narratives about authorship and the built environment.
Zeng Fanzhi: Near and Far/Now and Then
Astonishing new works from a painter often considered China's greatest living artistPublished with Los Angeles County Museum of Art. One of the most discussed exhibitions during the 2024 Venice Biennale, by renowned Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi (born 1964), is captured in this sumptuous volume. Shedding light on Zeng's ambitious practice of redefining the abstract, this book features two recent bodies of work--oil paintings and works on handmade paper. Emerging from the artist's decades of research in color theory, Zeng's new oil paintings draw on and challenge Impressionist and pointillist practices, with layers of brushwork creating figurative elements that are readily recognizable from afar but dissolve when viewed up close. In a world inundated with machine-rendered images, Zeng's boundary-pushing experiments inspire viewers to experience the beauty and time-honored art and craft of painting. Zeng's works on handmade paper, rendered in ink, graphite, chalk, gold dust and other mineral pigments, point to a new direction in his practice.
Parmigianino
An exploration of Parmigianino's greatest Roman painting, illuminating his dynamic process of invention and the dramatic story around its creation. Parmigianino (1503-1540), whose nickname means "little man of Parma," was the leading painter in Parma after Correggio, and is celebrated as one of the originators of Mannerism. The Vision of Saint Jerome is his first, and only, major public undertaking from his brief period in Rome. This book explores the artist's time in the city until the dramatic events of the Sack of Rome in 1527, and places The Vision of Saint Jerome in the context of Parmigianino's career and legacy. Featuring a selection of key surviving preparatory drawings for this altarpiece, the publication reveals Parmigianino's inspired artistic process. Tracing the history of Parmigianino's masterpiece after its arrival in England, the texts also provides an illuminating account of the painting's conservation and of the artist's reception in nineteenth-century Britain. Published by National Gallery Global/Distributed by Yale University Press
You and Me
Like a comforting sip of tea amidst life's chaos, these delightful illustrations celebrate the small joys of existence. You and Me is an uplifting, heart-warming collection from the inimitable @JangandFox. A celebration of everyday joy to spread hope, light and positivity told through the beautiful friendship of popular characters Eleph and Little Fox. This is the perfect gift to lift a loved one's spirits and remind them that you have their back. 'Even in the thickest forest, the light always finds its way.' 'Look at the magical moments that we are so used to, that we call them "ordinary days"'. 'On the days you feel invisible, know you're a treasure worth finding.' Including exclusive, never-before-seen comics.
Janet Dawson
Celebrates the work of an artist who is a trailblazer of abstraction yet has a distinct realist styleBorn in Sydney in 1935, Janet Dawson has moved between abstraction and figuration, formalism and realism over six decades. Consistent to her practice is her investigative vision: her art derives from an immense curiosity about material existence and states of the natural world.The first major monograph on Dawson, this book features new scholarship by exhibition curator Denise Mimmocchi and assistant curator Monique Leslie Watson (both Art Gallery of New South Wales) and by Australian art critic Jennifer Higgie. An archival text by British-born Australian art critic Virginia Spate on Dawson's first solo exhibition at Gallery A, Melbourne, in 1961, is also reproduced. Published in association with a major retrospective at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Faraway, So Close features over eighty works created from 1951 to 2018, as well as archival and recent photographs.Exhibition Dates: July 19, 2025-January 18, 2026Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Sungi Mlengeya
Whether infused by movement or stillness, Mlengeya's black-and-white portrait paintings radiate both power and peaceBorn in 1991 in Dar es Salaam, Sungi Mlengeya captures the essence of Black womanhood in her haunting monochromatic acrylic portraits. The meticulously painted figures are set against a minimalist white background, creating a striking contrast that emphasizes skin texture and form. Her portraits, whether infused by movement or stillness, radiate both power and peace, offering the viewer intimate moments of strength and serenity. In this first monograph dedicated to Mlengeya, the curator Tandazani Dhlakama brilliantly analyzes how African, Black and feminist conditions are intertwined in her work, and the intimate conversation between Sungi and her model, Jemima Michael, takes us behind the scenes of a work in the making.
Margret Eicher: It's a Digital World!
Eicher's large-scale tapestries swap royals for celebrities to riff on art history and contemporary visual cultureWhile tapestries have historically been used by nobility to celebrate their exploits, Margret Eicher (born 1955) revives the genre with a surprising topicality, depicting today's most recognizable celebrities and characters. Eicher thus provides a critical dimension to tapestry making, presenting the consequences of the digital revolution.
Botello
The first ever monograph of Spanish painter and sculptor ?ngel Botello's work presents the artist's most illustrious works in a collector's edition. Text in English and Spanish. In this first published monograph devoted to the work of the Spanish painter and sculptor ?ngel Botello, the artist's most illustrious works curated from private collections, museums and the artist's estate are presented in a collector's edition. Text in English and Spanish.
Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven
Untangling the conceptual threads that unite a distinguished artist's two- and three-dimensional artworksSpanning two decades of the multifaceted work of Pakistani American visual artist Anila Quayyum Agha (born 1965), Interwoven documents immersive installations, embroidery, drawings, paintings and wall sculptures. Such visual gateways, the "patterns used to break patterns," as the New York Times put it in a recent profile on the artist, poetically convey the contradictions and layered dimensions of the American journey. Whether immersive rooms of light or delicate, intimate drawings, Agha's works prompt feelings of wonder, disarming audiences with their beauty and allowing them to ponder deep questions regarding themes such as the history of women, the role of spirituality and the immigrant experience. The book includes essays that explore Agha's work through the lenses of biography, feminism and art and architectural history. This book was published in conjunction with The Westmoreland Museum of American Art
Sam Gilliam: Sewing Fields
Dedicated to Gilliam's late-career sewn and collaged fabric works, this colorful catalog embraces the artist's restless creativity and visionary approach to abstractionA pioneering artist who redefined the boundaries of painting, Sam Gilliam (1933-2022) transformed the medium with his radical approach to color, material and space. Sewing Fields focuses on a lesser-known yet crucial period in Gilliam's later career: that of his sewn and collaged works. His residency at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in 1993 reshaped his artistic practice. Far from his Washington, DC, studio, Gilliam embraced new materials, working with pre-stained fabrics that he shipped to Ireland, cutting and layering them into sculptural compositions. A collaboration with a local dressmaker further expanded his process, reinforcing his innovative fusion of painting and textile techniques. Sewing Fields brings these groundbreaking works back to the Irish Museum of Modern Art, nearly 50 years after Gilliam's first Dublin exhibition, positioning him within a broader transatlantic dialogue on abstraction.
Retrospective Exhibition of Important Works of John Singer Sargent
Retrospective Exhibition of Important Works of John Singer Sargent
Death of Species
Death of Species is a lyrical, speculative journey across a sea of collapsing institutions and emerging possibilities. In these pages, the world is an archipelago of fragile islands-fortresses of power, shifting territories of tradition, and swirling oceans brimming with technological change. As the tide of AI-driven media and radical innovation rises, once-mighty islands crumble, revealing the tensions beneath their rigid surfaces: hierarchies upended, pirate-like dissenters flourishing in hidden coves, and new, amphibious ways of living that slip effortlessly between land and sea. Through vivid metaphors and deft storytelling, the book invites readers to witness the death of old species-outdated modes of creation, power, and governance-while tracing the emergence of astonishing new forms. From the fortresses that cling to rusted authority to the renegade pirate ships deftly navigating uncharted waters, every chapter brims with transformative ideas about collaboration, fluid institutions, and creative evolution. Weaving in tales of young visionaries, archivists on the brink, and communities unshackled by digital transformations, Death of Species is at once a reflection on the fragile illusions of permanence and a clarion call to embrace what comes next. Anyone curious about how we might thrive in a fluid, fast-changing world will find here both cautionary tales and exhilarating prospects for the future. https: //hyperdense.digital/
Hilma AF Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers
Af Klint's exquisitely rendered botanical portfolio reveals a deep spiritual engagement with the flora of her native SwedenAcross the spring and summer seasons of 1919 and 1920, Swedish artist Hilma af Klint engaged in a period of intense observation of nature, venturing into forests and fields and drawing the flowers she found there. The resulting 46 sheets comprise her Nature Studies portfolio, recently acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In pencil and jewel-toned watercolor, af Klint juxtaposed exquisitely rendered blossoms with enigmatic diagrams: a blooming sunflower is echoed by nested circles; lily of the valley is joined by a colorful checkerboard; catsfoot is set against a pair of mirrored spirals. Together, these two modes--representational and abstract--demonstrate the artist's belief that close observation of nature reveals "what stands behind the flowers" ineffable aspects of the human character.Published in conjunction with the first public exhibition of this rare portfolio, Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers presents the drawings alongside contextualizing artworks and translations of the artist's previously unpublished writings. An overview essay by curator Jodi Hauptman explores af Klint's portfolio and the circumstances of its creation; texts by Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, Laura Neufeld and Lena Struwe unpack the imagery, materiality and botanical knowledge behind these works.Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) trained at Stockholm's Royal Academy of Fine Arts and established herself as a professional artist. In the first decade of the 20th century, she developed a unique abstract vocabulary, some years earlier than her peers. Whether on canvas or on paper, her singular work is informed by her spiritual investigations and, as this project demonstrates, an interest in and attunement to the natural world.
Shimabuku: Octopus, Citrus, Human
Shimabuku's itinerant, imaginative practice creates works inspired by his encounters with humans, plants and animalsSince the 1990s, Japanese artist Shimabuku (born 1969) has traveled to various places around the world, creating drawings, photographs and performances that consider the daily lives of people he encounters, as well as new forms of communication between humans and nonhumans.
Choi Ok Yeung: Art & Nature
Choi's monumental public sculptures revitalize the environment through discarded man-made waste and natural materialsKorean environmental artist Choi Ok Yeung (born 1959) captivates viewers with his large-scale installations, from a bamboo forest of metal pipes to a sculpture of Zeus made with 200 tons of stacked wood. This monograph is a broad representation of his work, which continues to regenerate over time.
Pablo Picasso: Structures of Invention
The triennial companion to Picasso's work from the collections of his immediate familyThis book presents an innovative new reading of Picasso's long artistic career. Instead of dividing his art into discrete stylistic periods, authoritative texts and lavish illustrations demonstrate the unity of his work by showing Picasso's art as a dynamic whole united by his exploration of both his past art and invention of new artistic conceptions. As Picasso said, "my art must not be considered as an evolution," but rather a constantly shifting exchange of retrospection and innovation.Selected from the collection of the Museo Picasso M獺laga and the Fundaci籀n Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte (FABA), more than 150 paintings, sculptures, drawings and engravings explore the creative pathways of his art. Extensive photographs of the installation demonstrate the unity of his art through unexpected juxtapositions of works from different decades. More than 30 essays explore the meaning of major individual works. Five "focus" chapters address specialized facets of his practice, including his responses to African sculpture, World War II and the commission to create a huge mural for UNESCO headquarters in Paris.Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was one of the most renowned and protean artists of the 20th century, creating everything from paintings to ceramics and set designs. He is known for his mercurial shifts in style, characterized by titled periods, as well as his propagation of new techniques including collage. There are several museums and collections worldwide dedicated entirely to his work.
Photographing Ambiguity
Photographing Ambiguity examines photography as a metaphor for technological culture, arguing that a relational exploration of the medium can shed light on the dominant ideological tendencies of our time. The book advocates for photographic practices that emphasize ambiguity, suggesting that this approach fosters more conscientious, ecological, and creative relationships within the technological ecosystem of contemporary life. Ted Hiebert critiques the notion that images should primarily serve to verify or document the external world. He contends that these quantifiable perspectives, while rooted in historical trends towards technology and data, have become so pervasive that they represent a dominant ideological bias in the twenty-first century. In response to this data-driven consciousness, the book presents a series of exercises designed to cultivate an embodied experience with digital living - not in opposition to the flood of images but within it. Ultimately, Photographing Ambiguity encourages readers to understand photographs not as benchmarks of reality but as ambiguous constructions of our present and future imaginaries.
Silke Sch繹nfeld
Silke Sch繹nfeld's film works oscillate between installation, staging and documentation, emphasising ambiguities, questioning the authenticity of moving images and thus locating the viewer in a vague space between staged and documented film. The film works of Silke Sch繹nfeld (*1988) oscillate between installation, staged settings, and documentary. She engages with social media and the omnipresent flood of images: in this context, the artist highlights ambiguities, questions the authenticity of moving images, and thus situates the viewers in a vague space between staged and documented film. Sch繹nfeld is especially interested in places and situations so ordinary that we don't (or no longer) notice them - places we pass by without a second thought. These initially inconspicuous locations and situations serve as launch pads for the artist to reflect on larger, socially relevant topics. Sch繹nfeld skillfully interweaves personal stories with historical and societal contexts, subtly directing attention to social phenomena, rituals, ideologies, and processes. The publication is being issued on occasion of the eponymous solo exhibition at the HMKV Dortmund and showcases five large-scale video installations. Numerous photo spreads and introductory texts are accompanied by a detailed interview with the artist.
The Joy of Sharing
By Han Nefkens, Kyung-sook Shin, Marjorie Evasco, Nazli Ghassemi, Amanda Lee Koe, An Yu, Cristina Morales, Prabda Yoon, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, Wu Ming-Yi, Carol Bensimon, Faisal Tehrani, Eduardo Ruiz Sosa, Tomoka Shibasaki, Tsotne Tskhvediani, Manuel Forcano, Gaspar Pe簽aloza, Nguyen Thuy Hang, Inez Tan, Najwan Darwish, Mat穩as Candeira, Norman Erikson Pasaribu, Shalim M Hussain, Chikodili Emelumadu, Kyla Pasha. Many of the artists the Han Nefkens Foundation works with have been inspired by literature, but with this book the Foundation has turned it around. To celebrate the twenty-five years Han Nefkens has been an activist in the art world, the Foundation has invited twenty-five international writers and poets to write a piece inspired by one of the videos the Foundation has produced. Many of these writers had not looked at video art before and some were not familiar with art from cultures other than their own. Yet, all have written intriguing, often unexpected pieces which shows how moving images can spark imagination.
Nina Chanel Abney: Big Butch Energy/Synergy
Combining representation and abstraction, Abney's vibrant works reference gender, sexuality and pop culturePublished with Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami and Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. Committed to sharing social realities through fantastic, expansive forms, Nina Chanel Abney is an artist possessed of an iconic style and wit. Through stylized, cubistic and highly charged painterly symbols, she references radical traditions of graphic design and street art to communicate urgent political and cultural realities with immediacy to the largest possible audience. Abney's paintings and collages use dynamic color and form to draw viewers into complex narratives.Big Butch Energy/Synergy features Abney's recent exhibitions at ICA Miami and moCa Cleveland. In these works, Abney mines cinematic and media representations of student Greek life to explore how gender perception and performance is inspired by the legacies of social ritual and visual culture. The complex compositions reference scenes from popular slapstick comedy films such as National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) and Porky's (1981), while citing traditions of Baroque portraiture and fraternity composites. Inspired by her experience as a masculine-of-center woman, with this body of work Abney asks how viewers gender a figure in a work of art.Nina Chanel Abney was born in 1982 in Harvey, Illinois, and is based in New York, where she attended Parsons School of Design. Abney's work is held in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Bronx Museum, New York; the Nasher Museum of Art, North Carolina; and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, among others.
Of Thinking and a Poetic Alliance
Venet rearranges philosophy texts into radical poems, creating a new approach to both literature and existentialismPrimarily known for his large public sculptures, French artist Bernar Venet (born 1941) here reinvents his practice through text excerpts, from thinkers such as Nietzsche and Bergson, arranged in radical poems that approach existentialism in a new form.
