Book of the day > The Encyclopedia of Air Jordans: The Complete History and Definitive Guide. Limited Slipcased Edition. "The Encyclopedia of Air Jordans catalogs every model from their inception in 1985. With hundreds of photos, this is a must own for any sneaker-head. Crowdfunded through Kickstarter by author Jay Lawrence, The Encyclopedia of Air Jordans is the very first book of its kind, dedicated solely to the 29 year history of the Air Jordan sneaker. Every model, every colorway and every bit of history entailed in the Air Jordan line with this 500+ page hardcover book. Filled with history, sneaker profiles, information, over 1300 photos, archives, price guides, OGs, Retros and practically all up-to-date information of Air Jordans 1-29."

Book of the day > Dana Lixenberg - Imperial Courts 1993-2015. Roma Publications. “In 1992, Dana Lixenberg travelled to South Central Los Angeles for a magazine story on the riots that erupted following the verdict in the Rodney King trial. What she encountered inspired her to revisit the area, and led her to the community of the Imperial Courts housing project in Watts. Returning countless times over the following twenty-two years, Lixenberg gradually created a collaborative portrait of the changing face of this community. Over the years, some in the community were killed, while others disappeared or went to jail, and others, once children in early photographs, grew up and had children of their own. In this way, Imperial Courts constitutes a complex and evocative record of the passage of time in an underserved community."

Book of the day and book signing tomorrow (1/28. 5:30-7:30)! Details on our website > Carlos Betancourt: Imperfect Utopia. Skira | Rizzoli. “Mixed-media artist Carlos Betancourt and his influential studio, Imperfect Utopia, helped to launch the Miami art scene in the 1980’s. Betancourt’s oeuvre is a lush explosion of radiant, eccentric colors in which he explores the kaleidoscope (multi-racial, multi-lingual, trans-cultural) of Caribbean and American culture. His work alludes to issues of memory, beauty, identity, and communication.  He bends the lines between art, photography, and nature in his photographs, collages, painting, installations, and conceptual pieces.

Carlos Betancourt’s imagery reinterprets the past and present and offers it in a fresh context. He is inspired by Puerto Rico, Miami, and his extensive travels; also artist Ana Mendieta’s interventions in nature, Robert Rauschenberg’s assemblages, Andy Warhol’s perceptions, Neo Rauch compositions, and a Federico Fellini-esque cast of characters for his photo assemblages.

This exuberant volume explores Betancourt’s body of work, with more than 250 images and texts by art critic Paul Laster, art history professor Robert Farris Thompson and United States Inaugural Poet, Richard Blanco.

His artwork is included in the permanent collections of various museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Portrait Gallery, and The Smithsonian Institute.”

Book of the day > Mark Bradford: Tears of a Tree. Verlag für Moderne Kunst Nurnberg. “This volume documents three monumental collage paintings by celebrated Los Angeles-based artist Mark Bradford (born 1961), titled "The Tears of a Tree," "Falling Horses" and "Lazy Mountain," which were inspired by the artist's visits to Shanghai.”

Book of the day > Beauty: Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial. Cooper Hewitt. “Beauty--the book, born out of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum's 2015 Triennial of the same name, curated by Andrea Lipps and Ellen Lupton--showcases some of the most exciting and provocative design created around the globe during the past three years. These pages aim not to emphasize the hidden beauty in the everyday--a beloved teapot or favorite shoe--but to locate transformational beauty in contemporary design that is exuberant, ethereal, atmospheric, experiential, exceptional or sublime. Sixty-two designers represent a vast range of disciplines from architecture, fashion, digital, graphic, and product design, to interiors, hair, nail and lighting design. The objects featured cause us to take pause, catch our breath and get lost in our pursuit to understand or explain them.

Designed by the innovative Kimberly Varella, the book is itself a tactile, fluid and provocative interpretation of beauty. Varella's design provides unexpected points of entry, playing with the concepts of beauty by using reflective surfaces, hot pink thread weaving pages together and a "heart" of the book, from which all else flows. Ethereal, Intricate, Extravagant, Transformative, Transgressive, Elemental and Emergent Beauty are the seven themes. Each section includes the individual designers in conversation with the curators about her or his process and beauty's differing forms, punctuated by rich galleries of their work, generating the ultimate feast for the senses.”

Book of the day > Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust. Royal Academy of Arts.  “From a basement in New York, Joseph Cornell channeled his limitless imagination into some of the most original art of the 20th century. Designed to accompany the Royal Academy’s landmark exhibition, this book allows the reader to step into the beguiling world of this fascinating artist.

Bringing together Joseph Cornell’s most remarkable work including boxes, assemblages and collages and films, Wanderlust is a long overdue celebration of an incomparable artist, a man the New York Times called “a poet of light; an architect of memory-fractured rooms and a connoisseur of stars, celestial and otherwise.

A connoisseur of an astonishing array of subjects, Cornell’s captivation with bygone imagery encompassed astronomical charts and geographical maps, Italian and Spanish Old Master paintings, historical ballet, early film, literature, poetry, and ornithology.

Despite hardly venturing beyond New York State, the notion of travel was central to his art. His imaginary voyages began as he searched Manhattan’s antique bookshops and dime stores, collecting a vast archive of paper ephemera and small objects to make his signature glass-fronted ‘shadow boxes’.

This book is a landmark publication examining this remarkable work. It brings together some of Cornell’s most compelling assemblages and box constructions (including Medici slot machines, soap-bubble sets, and animal habitats). The contributors raise questions about Cornell’s artistic processes while drawing parallels with historical modes of inquiry such as connoisseurship, exploration, and classification.”

Book of the day > Sean Maung: Barber Shops and Pigeon Coops. @seanmaung

Book of the day > The Ceramic Presence in Modern Art. Yale. “This lushly illustrated volume is the first comprehensive examination of postwar ceramic sculpture alongside other fine art of the period. The catalogue features more than 80 objects by leading 20th-century ceramicists, including John Mason, Ken Price, Lucie Rie, and Peter Voulkos. Essays consider the art in connection with renowned paintings, sculptures in other media, and works on paper, by artists such as Willem de Kooning, Isamu Noguchi, Mark Rothko, and Ed Ruscha. Juxtaposing ceramics with non-ceramic works, both visually and conceptually, and examining the visual, historical, and theoretical affinities among the objects, the authors demonstrate that the finest ceramics share the formal sophistication of the most celebrated artworks of the postwar period. As ceramics increasingly are recognized as integral to the wider field of contemporary art, this book offers new opportunities for understanding this important medium.”

Book of the day > Viviane Sassen: Umbra. Prestel. “This latest book by Viviane Sassen, one of the world's most acclaimed photographers, explores the concept of shadow in a series of stunning images. Based on an award-winning exhibition, Viviane Sassen's new book focuses on a common theme in her photographs: shadow. In this book she leads us through a series of thought-provoking takes on the concept--shadow as metaphor for anxiety and desire; as a symbol of both memory and hope for the future; and as an evocation of imagination and illusion. Sassen's work is renowned for its deft interplay between realism and abstraction. Here that characteristic emerges in the dramatic use of light, shadow and color, as well as the adroit cropping of images and interventions on the prints. This lovely book brilliantly accentuates Sassen's contrasting color schemes to reinforce the idea of shadow creating an enthralling tactile and visual experience.”

Happy New Year! Book of the day > Jason Schmidt: Artists II. Steidl. “Artists II is the second volume of Jason Schmidt's ongoing photographic documentation of today's most significant artists. From young to old creative forces, emerging to career-peaking, world-famous or as yet unknown, Schmidt's images, captured over a period of twelve years, are an incisive look into the art world of today. Artists II depicts 166 artists, including John Baldessari, Ai Weiwei, Glenn Ligon and Cindy Sherman, in their studios or work environments, showing the practitioners in their most intimate moments—in the process of creation. A revealing text by each artist accompanies his or her portrait; some are literal descriptions of the encounter, others are poetic or enigmatic. Situated between portraiture and landscape, Schmidt's photographs show art and artist in constant transformation, and form a comprehensive archive of contemporary artistic practice.”