Events Posted May 15, 2021

Show & Tell with Jason E.C. Wright!

Starting on Wednesday 5/26 at 5:00 PST we are delighted to host a monthly Instagram “Show & Tell” moderated by Jason E.C. Wright of @burntsiennaresearchsociety! You are in for a real treat so gather up your art books, design books, coffee table books or rare magazines and come nerd out with Jason.
 
Here’s how it works: Jason will be live @arcanabooks sharing some of his favorites with you. Raise your hand to share and he will tap you in. Chat about your most influential book or bookshop. Enjoy the hour, meet some interesting people, and support your local bookstore. There’s nothing like a little book fun in the middle of the week.
 
Jason E.C. Wright is the Founder of Burntsienna Reseach Society, a critical-thinking research consultancy for design histories, intangible culture, and reference materials. Jason is Indiana born and raised, who now considers Los Angeles home. He is an accomplished designer, researcher, writer, with 20+ years as a retail and fashion professional, who takes his love of books seriously, serving as librarian-in-residence at home in Treehouse Hollywood.
 
* You can watch the 5/26 show and tell through our instagram post here.
Book of the Day Posted May 14, 2021

Book of the Day > Ellen Sheidlin

● Purchase ● Russian artist and model Ellen Sheidlin provides an almost limitless exploration of millennial culture with her Instagram feed. Her conceptual self-portrait photography is both whimsical and weird, and the young woman also uses her doll-like appearance to induce more disturbing, bizarre undertones and thought-provoking social commentary in her creations. The many different layers of Ellen’s absurd and beautiful dreamscapes point to the perils of social media and our obsession with technology, or hint at more troubling topics like the situation of LGBTQ+ people in Russia and today’s global existential angst. Escape into her chameleonic fantasy world with this mind-bending collection.
Book of the Day Posted May 13, 2021

Book of the Day > Rashid Johnson: The Hikers

● Purchase ● A massive compendium on the multimedia art of Rashid Johnson, tackling themes of Black history, literature, philosophy and material culture
 
Rashid Johnson (born 1977) is renowned for challenging the assumptions often present in collective notions of Blackness. Based in New York, Johnson is among an influential group of American artists whose work employs a wide range of materials and images to explore themes of art history, literature, philosophy, and personal and cultural identity. After beginning his career working primarily in photography, Johnson has expanded into a variety of mediums, including text work, sculptural objects, installation, painting, drawing, collage, film, performance and choreography. Drawing on a dizzying array of historical, cultural, literary and musical references, Johnson ultimately invites audiences to find connections to their own lives.
Book of the Day Posted May 12, 2021

Book of the Day > By Design: The World's Best Contemporary Interior Designers

● Purchase ● A richly illustrated, authoritative global survey of the best and most creative interior designers and decorators working today
 
Our surroundings are the key to our comfort and happiness, and we're endlessly inspired by the creative professionals that show us how to put a personal stamp on the spaces we inhabit. This gorgeous book is a timely, comprehensive showcase of the most exceptional, innovative, and groundbreaking interior designers working today, nominated by an esteemed group of industry experts and thoughtfully curated to demonstrate why the world of interior design continues to raise the bar of creative practice.
 
Nominators include: Felix Burrichter, Aric Chen, Amy Fine Collins, Francisco Costa, Ronnie Fieg, Marianne Goebl, Laila Gohar, Niki Haas, Gert Jonkers & Jop van Bennekom, Lorena Mosquera, Hanya Yanagihara, and Rachel Zoe.
 
Featured designers include: Beata Heuman Ltd, Kelly Wearstler Studio, Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, Neri & Hu, Norm Architects, Romanek Design Studio, Studioilse, Studio KO, Studio Shamshiri, Faye Toogood, and Vincent Van Duysen.
Book of the Day Posted May 11, 2021

Book of the Day > Lucio Fontana: Walking the Space

● Purchase ● Documenting the first-ever reconstruction of Fontana’s immersive installations
 
Lucio Fontana’s (1899–1968) Ambienti spaziali, or Spatial Environments were immersive installations that include neon crystal tubes, paint that glows under black light and captivating pa-pier-mâché sculptures. Fontana’s use of technology pushed the boundaries of art beyond the canvas to “paint” with light and invite viewers into the physical space of the work itself. In spring 2020 Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles staged the first comprehensive presentation of Ambienti spaziali in the United States, carefully reconstructing the installations as they initially appeared from 1948 to the final years of the artist’s life. This accompanying volume is edited in collaboration with Milan’s Fondazione Lucio Fontana and includes a survey of Fontana’s contributions to the evolution of conceptual art, tracing his influence on other legendary figures as Piero Manzoni, Yayoi Kusama and James Turrell.
Book of the Day Posted May 08, 2021

Book of the Day > Dawoud Bey: Street Portraits

● Purchase ● From 1988 to 1991 Dawoud Bey made a series of portraits of African Americans in the streets of various American cities. Using a large format tripod mounted camera and a unique positive/negative Polaroid film that created both an instant print and a reusable negative, he asked a cross section of the populations of these communities to pose for him, creating a space of self presentation and performance in the streets of the urban environment. As part of every encounter, Bey gave each person a small black-and-white Polaroid print for themselves as a way of reciprocating and returning something to the people who had allowed him to make their portrait. Defying racial stereotypes, the resulting portraits reveal the Black subjects in all of their psychologically rich complexity, presenting themselves openly and intimately to the camera, the viewer, and the world.
Book of the Day Posted May 07, 2021

Book of the day > Harry Gruyaert: India

● Purchase ● “For more than thirty years, Harry Gruyaert has been recording the subtle chromatic vibrations of Eastern and Western light. His photographs attest to his singular vision: his interest in story, public space and unexpected scenes.
 
This book brings together 125 of Gruyaert's photographs of India, many published here for the first time. From Gujarat to Kerala, Gruyaert captured the quintessence of this multifaceted country. Streets bustling with activity in New Delhi or Calcutta; modest villages in Tamil Nadu or Rajasthan; ghats of the great religious city of Benares; women in saffron and purple saris beating grain, dyers busy at smoky vats, an encampment of nomadic shepherds at twilight… Gruyaert’s India is saturated with colour, light and noise – and sometimes silence too.
 
These images move beyond stereotype to present the plurality of India. ‘Taking a photo means both seeking contact and refusing it, being at once the most and the least present,’ says the photographer. It is a question of teasing out wonder, of capturing what characterizes places. The search for density within the frame makes photography a physical experience – one that is particularly well represented here, in this multi-sensorial journey through India.” Published by Thames & Hudson.
 
Please consider a donation of any size to help the dire crisis in India : https://covid.giveindia.org/ 
Book of the Day Posted May 06, 2021

Book of the Day > Cig Harvey: Blue Violet

● Purchase ● Blue Violet is a vibrant meditation on the procession of seasons, sensory abundance, and the magic in everyday life. Part art book, botanical guide, historical encyclopedia, and poetry collection, Blue Violet is a compendium of beauty, color, and the senses. Plants, flowers, and our experience of the natural world are the threads that tie this unique book together. Exploring the five senses, Blue Violet takes the reader on a personal journey through nature and the range of human emotions. As with her previous three titles–You Look At Me Like An Emergency, Gardening at Night, and You an Orchestra You a Bomb–this book invites the reader to pause, laugh, cry, create, and become more aware of the natural world. Images and text in a variety of forms (prose poetry, recipes, lists, research pieces, diagrams) focus on immediate experience to understand the vibrancy of the senses on memory and feelings.
Book of the Day Posted May 05, 2021

Book of the Day > Reggie Burrows Hodges

● Purchase ● The debut monograph on the haunting, tenebrous figuration of the acclaimed Maine painter
 
Reggie Burrows Hodges (born 1965) explores storytelling and visual metaphor, often drawing inspiration from his childhood in Compton, California. Starting from a black ground, Hodges develops the scene around his figures, who materialize in the recessive space with foggy, ethereal brushwork.
 
Hodges's figures are "forms that are made sharper, and more haunting, not because we see those things in their eyes, but because we see it in their bodies, their postures, the endless desire for humans not to be alone, and to connect," Hilton Als writes. "To that Hodges adds all that wonderful blackness. This fully illustrated catalog features a selection of works made between 2019 and 2020; a newly commissioned essay by Hilton Als; and an interview between the artist and Suzette McAvoy, Executive Director at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art.
Book of the Day Posted May 04, 2021

Book of the Day > L.A. Graffiti Black Book

● Purchase ● This collection of unique works by 151 Los Angeles graffiti and tattoo artists represents an unprecedented collaboration across the city’s diverse artistic landscape.
 
Many graffiti artists carry sketchbooks, called black books, and they ask crew members and others whose work they admire to inscribe their books with lettering or drawings. A few years ago, the Getty Research Institute invited artists, including Angst, Axis, Big Sleeps, Chaz, Cre8, Defer, EyeOne, Fishe, Heaven, Hyde, Look, ManOne, and Prime, to consider the idea of a citywide graffiti black book. During visits to the Getty Center, the artists viewed rare books related to calligraphy and letterforms, including works by Albrecht Dürer and Leonardo da Vinci. The artists instantly recognized the connections to their own practices and were particularly drawn to a liber amicorum (book of friends), a form of autograph book popular in the seventeenth century. Passed from hand to hand, it was filled with signatures, poetry, and coats of arms, like a black book from another era.
 
Inspired by this meeting of minds across centuries, these artists became both creators and curators, crafting their own pages and inviting others to contribute. Eventually 151 Los Angeles artists decorated 143 individual pages. These were bound together into an exquisite artists’ book that became known as the Getty Graffiti Black Book. This publication reproduces each page from the original artists’ book and recounts the story of an unprecedented collaboration across the diverse artistic landscape of Los Angeles.
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