PRE-ORDER: ON SALE DATE: November 25, 2025

Accompanying the largest UK survey to date of work by the legendary Chicago-based figurative painter

This volume is the most extensive publication on Kerry James Marshall to date, celebrating half a century of his work. It reveals the complex ways in which Marshall has transformed histories of Western painting, centering Black bodies in ambitious compositions set in barber shops, public housing projects, parks and beauty salons. It charts his use of portraiture to memorialize individuals such as Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman and Olaudah Equiano. A new series, illustrated here for the first time, looks at under-acknowledged aspects of the history of Africa. With lavish illustrations of all the works in the accompanying exhibition, the book also includes chapters on Marshall's Rythm Mastr project and his various public commissions, including his stained-glass windows for the cathedral in Washington, DC. A survey by Mark Godfrey is accompanied by shorter essays by Aria Dean, Darby English and others, plus an interview between Kerry James Marshall and Benjamin H. D. Buchloh.
Kerry James Marshall was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955, and later moved to Los Angeles. He taught painting for many years at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2013, he was named for the Committee on the Arts and the Humanities by President Barack Obama. In 2017, Marshall was included in the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. The National Cathedral in Washington, DC, is currently working with Marshall to create two new stained-glass windows. Marshall lives and works in Chicago.

Dedicated to Gilliam's late-career sewn and collaged fabric works, this colorful catalog embraces the artist's restless creativity and visionary approach to abstraction

A 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.

PRE-ORDER: ON SALE DATE: January 20, 2026

A gorgeous illustrated meditation on the homes of iconic Southern women, from Nina Simone to Carson McCullers

In These Long Shadows, writer Monica Nelson excavates the domestic narratives and mythologies contained within the publicly preserved homes of some of the American South's leading cultural figures.
In Virginia, readers are drawn into the garden and home of Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer and encounter modernist architect Amaza Lee Meredith's International Style residence, Azurest South. Journeying south, they encounter the North Carolinian childhood homes of both influential civil rights activist Anna "Pauli" Murray, and revolutionary singer-songwriter Nina Simone. In Atlanta, readers wander into the apartment of incendiary Southern author Margaret Mitchell. In Louisiana, they gaze upon the quietly profound folk art paintings of Clementine Hunter at Melrose Plantation, and take a pilgrimage to writers' homes from the Southern Renaissance, including Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston and Carson McCullers.
These Long Shadows assembles a constellation of new visions, narratives and readings with which to examine the nation's ever-metamorphosing historical landscape. Nelson's book constitutes the third volume of The Illustrated America, Atelier Editions' ongoing anthropological survey of eclectic chapters drawn from 20th-century America's cultural past.
Monica Nelson is a writer and graphic designer based in New York and Savannah. She has developed strategic visual narratives for publications, cultural institutions and brands, working with over 100 photographers. She was the founding creative and photo director of Wilder Quarterly, which fostered a floral-drenched view of the natural world, and the author of Edible Flowers (Monacelli Press, 2021).

PRE-ORDER: ON SALE DATE: December 23, 2025

A rich examination of the role of portrait photography in the construction of Africa as a political idea

At a moment of profound change marked by decolonization and the civil rights period of the mid-20th century, photographers across Africa and the African diaspora used the photographic portrait in order to fuel incipient ideas of Africa. Published in conjunction with a groundbreaking exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination charts international histories of resistance and liberation up to the present day in order to contend with the construction of Africa as a political idea, and the tools that artists used to forge it.
Featuring more than 100 photographs by renowned artists of the time, such as Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé and Jean Depara, and by contemporary artists of African descent, such as Samuel Fosso, Silvia Rosi and Njideka Akunyili-Crosby, this richly illustrated publication explores modes of Pan-African possibility in powerful images of everyday people, where the personal was undeniably political. With an introduction by curator Oluremi C. Onabanjo, excerpts from landmark texts by V.Y. Mudimbe and Brent Hayes Edwards, and a conversation between Yasmina Price and Momtaza Mehri, Ideas of Africa highlights the potential of the photographic portrait as both a creative endeavor and political mechanism.

PRE-ORDER: ON SALE DATE: October 21, 2025

A landmark survey of Black American photojournalism spanning 1945 to 1984, chronicling a critical period in the civil rights movements in the United States

This volume presents work by 57 Black photographers and contributions from scholars such as Joy Bivins, Tina M. Campt and Gerald Horne, chronicling historic events and daily life in the United States from the conclusion of World War II in 1945 to the presidential campaigns of 1984, including the civil rights movements through the 1950s, '60s and '70s. Drawn from archives and collections in the care of journalists, libraries, museums, newspapers, photographers and universities, the photographs in the catalog were circulated and reviewed in publishing offices across the country.
Responding to a dearth of stories about Black lives told from the perspectives of Black people, Black publishers and their staff created groundbreaking editorial and photojournalistic methods and news networks. During a period of urgent social change and civil rights advocacy, newspapers and magazines, including the Afro American News, Atlanta Daily World, Pittsburgh Courier, Chicago Defender and Ebony, transformed how people were able to access seeing themselves and their communities. Their impact on the media landscape continues into the digital present.
The catalog is published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name at Carnegie Museum of Art. The exhibition and catalog are both designed by artist David Hartt, and organized and edited by Charlene Foggie-Barnett, Charles ""Teenie"" Harris, community archivist, and Dan Leers, curator of photography, in dialogue with an expanded network of archivists, curators, historians and scholars.
Photographers include: Harry Adams, Anthony Barboza, Kwame Brathwaite, Don Hogan Charles, Adger Cowans, Guy Crowder, Roy DeCarava, Doris Derby, Bob Douglas, Louis Draper, Theodore Gaffney, Charles "Teenie" Harris, Chester Higgins, Kojo Kamau, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Marilyn Nance, Gordon Parks, Ming Smith, Bruce Talamon, Deborah Willis-Ryan.

PRE-ORDER: ON SALE DATE: September 2, 2025 

Drawing on new research, centring Black voices and perspectives, and celebrating Black Cambridge history, Rise Up focuses on the period from 1750 to 1850, when Britain became the world's first industrialised nation and one of history's largest empires. At the same time, Britain played a central role in the Atlantic slave trade, trafficking more captive African people than any other European power. Millions were forcibly abducted and transported to work on British-owned plantations in the Caribbean and Americas.

In Britain, Black and white anti-slaverygroups and individuals campaigned for abolition. Despite opposition, laws were gradually enacted to abolish the slave trade in 1807, and enslavement in 1833. However, other exploitative systems including apprenticeship and indentured labour took their place. Financial compensation was awarded to former enslavers while the formerly enslaved received nothing.

This is the story of the fight to end Atlantic slavery, its aftermath and ongoing legacies. It is told through the stories of individuals from across the Black Atlantic - many silenced or pushed to the margins. It interrogates historic objects and artworks from collections across the University of Cambridge and beyond, in conversation with responses from contemporary artists. Despite the passing of almost two centuries since Britain outlawed slavery, the struggles for autonomy, equality and social justice continue today.

PRE-ORDER: ON SALE DATE: October 21, 2025

Framing Fatherhood is a stunning and moving photographic celebration of culture, fatherhood, masculinity, and blackness from 30 of today’s prominent Black male photographers.

In Framing Fatherhood, acclaimed curator and producer Dr. Imani Cheers brings together the vision of 30 prominent and well-respected Black photographers to capture and share the beauty of Black fatherhood.
 
With photography from prolific visual storytellers devoted to capturing varying expressions of the Black experience, like Reginald Cunningham, Anthony Geathers, Steven John Irby, and Michael A. McCoy, Dr. Cheers has gathered together an inspiring group of men to share the often overlooked beauty found within seeing Black men as individuals, fathers, role models, and community members. Split into four themes of family, faith, friendship, and fatherhood, each artist uses their photography to answer the central prompt: “What does Black fatherhood mean to you?”.
 
A celebratory and thought-provoking collection, Framing Fatherhood is a must-have for lovers of art, photography, and the inherent goodness of the human spirit.

In Unfurled: Designing a Living Home, acclaimed plant stylist Hilton Carter invites readers into the heart of his home―a personal sanctuary that has evolved, layer by layer, to reflect his style, creativity, and love for plants.

Hilton takes readers on a behind-the-scenes journey through every room, from the tranquil primary bedroom to the plant-filled sunroom, the vibrant studio to the inviting guest room, and beyond. With his eye for design, he shares the inspiration that lies behind each space, talking the reader through the mood boards he creates when embarking on a room renovation and explaining the thoughts behind a design, both functional and decorative. Hilton shares how each room has ‘unfurled’ beautifully over time, discussing how to choose colour and texture, offering expert advice on room layout, and showing how to use plants to breathe life into the home. Alongside personal stories and design insights, Unfurled is filled with practical tips and ideas for ways to recreate these looks in your own home, whether you’re working with a spare bedroom or a compact shower room. With Hilton’s guidance, you’ll learn how to incorporate thoughtful styling, select the right plants for your rooms and cultivate a home that's nurturing, dynamic and alive.

A photographic look at Brooklyn's iconic Empire Roller Disco by photographer Patrick D. Pagnano.

Brooklyn’s Empire Rollerdrome opened its doors in 1941 and soon became the borough’s premier destination for recreational and competitive roller skating. But it wasn’t until the late 1970s that the celebrated rink reached iconic status by replacing its organist with a live DJ, installing a state of the art sound and light system, and renaming itself after the nationwide dance craze it had helped to originate: the Empire Roller Disco was born. In 1980, the acclaimed street photographer Patrick D. Pagnano went on assignment to document the Empire and its legendary cast of partygoers. The resulting photographs, gathered in Empire Roller Disco for the first time, capture the vibrant spirits, extraordinary styles, and sheer joys of Brooklyn roller disco at its dizzying peak.

PRE-ORDER: ON SALE DATE: September 2, 2025

A perfect book for young readers to discover lesser-known works of art and culture that have shaped Black history in the United States.

The Banjo Lesson. The Brownies Book. "Rapper's Delight." Throughout history, Black people have performed, created art, and broken barriers that helped propel the fight for equality forward. Celebrate little-known groundbreaking contributions to art and culture like these and learn about their social impact on American history in Overlooked Creations of Black Art and Culture.

ABOUT THIS SERIES:

This brand-new series is rooted in a profound commitment to shedding light on some of the important -- and often lesser-known -- aspects of Black history. From the Archives features landmarks, events, people, and artistic endeavors that have played a significant role in the Black experience in America and offers a chance to celebrate them. Written in a vivid, engaging style and featuring a colorful combination of photos and illustrations, each title serves as a powerful vehicle for education, inspiration, and empowerment for young readers.

Surveying the range of Sun Ra’s extraordinary creativity, this book explores how the father of Afrofuturism brought “space music” to a planet in need of transformation, supporting the aspirations of black people in an inhospitable white world.

Sun Ra said he came from Saturn. Known on earth for his inventive music and extravagant stage shows, he pioneered free-form improvisation in an ensemble setting with the devoted band he called the “Arkestra.” Sun Ra took jazz from the inner city to outer space, infusing traditional swing with far-out harmonies, rhythms, and sounds. Described as the father of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra created “space music” as a means of building a better future for American blacks here on earth.

A Pure Solar World: Sun Ra and the Birth of Afrofuturism offers a spirited introduction to the life and work of this legendary but underappreciated musician, composer, and poet. Paul Youngquist explores and assesses Sun Ra’s wide-ranging creative output—music, public preaching, graphic design, film and stage performance, and poetry—and connects his diverse undertakings to the culture and politics of his times, including the space race, the rise of technocracy, the civil rights movement, and even space-age bachelor-pad music. By thoroughly examining the astro-black mythology that Sun Ra espoused, Youngquist masterfully demonstrates that he offered both a holistic response to a planet desperately in need of new visions and vibrations and a new kind of political activism that used popular culture to advance social change. In a nation obsessed with space and confused about race, Sun Ra aimed not just at assimilation for the socially disfranchised but even more at a wholesale transformation of American society and a more creative, egalitarian world.

PRE-ORDER: ON SALE DATE: October 8, 2025

Selections from the extraordinary Studio Museum in Harlem Collection, accompanying the highly anticipated opening of the institution’s first-ever purpose-built museum

Meaning Matter Memory is a keepsake extension of the Studio Museum’s collection of artwork by artists of African descent. Beautiful illustrations of significant works by more than 250 artists are accompanied by original texts from more than 100 voices in the art world, including writers, scholars, artists, and critics.

Celebrating myriad voices and artistic media, styles, and eras, this handbook glimpses into the profound and manifold artistic achievements made by Black artists for over 200 years. The book exhibits and carries forward a principal tenet of the Studio Museum’s mission: to serve as the stewards of the work – old, new, and still to be created – by artists of African descent.

Featuring work by: Derrick Adams, Emma Amos, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Jordan Casteel, Elizabeth Catlett, Nick Cave, Samuel Fosso, Theaster Gates, Cy Gavin, Barkley L. Hendricks, Arthur Jafa, Rashid Johnson, Simone Leigh, Glenn Ligon, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, Gordon Parks, Martin Puryear, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Augusta Savage, Tschabalala Self, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, Kara Walker, and Carrie Mae Weems, among many more.

PRE-ORDER: ON SALE DATE: October 8, 2025

The highly anticipated debut monograph from trailblazing artist Nina Chanel Abney

Combining representation and abstraction, Nina Chanel Abney’s paintings capture the frenetic pace of contemporary culture. Broaching subjects as diverse as race, celebrity, religion, politics, sex, and art history, her works eschew linear storytelling in lieu of disjointed narratives. Through a bracing use of color and unapologetic scale, Abney’s canvases propose a new type of history painting. 

The first definitive monograph on this contemporary American artist presents a collection of more than 300 works, including large-scale paintings, works on paper, sculptures, installations, murals, and commercial collaborations, along with a behind-the-scenes look at the artist’s process. Insightful texts from influential art-world figures and writers underscore Abney’s artistic impact.

Strikingly designed, with an eye-catching acetate jacket, vibrant pages, double gatefolds, and curated inserts, Nina Chanel Abney is a celebration of the artist’s distinctively bold style and innovative approach.

PRE-ORDER: ON SALE DATE: November 12, 2025

‘[Casteel] captures everyday encounters with people and places in works that invite recognition of our shared humanity.’ – MacArthur Foundation

The first monograph on Jordan Casteel, one of the most critically acclaimed artists working today

Jordan Casteel is a New York-based artist known for her larger-than-life paintings, which highlight the humanity of her subjects while affirming ideas of social justice.

At once tender and powerful, Casteel’s intimate portraits include friends, family members, and classmates as well as diverse subjects whom she meets and photographs on the streets of her neighborhood, thus effectively transforming strangers into close friends and collaborators. This near-anthropological pursuit puts viewers into a position where they are asked to contend with their preconceived notions of masculinity and race.

Casteel’s debut monograph features nearly 150 beautifully reproduced images, with sections specially conceived and designed by the artist herself.

PRE-ORDER: ON SALE DATE: October 15, 2025

The highly anticipated first monograph on one of the most celebrated American contemporary artists

Through portraits, social scenes, photographs, sculptures, and immersive installations, Derrick Adams has developed an artistic practice that jocundly visualizes modern Black American life. 

Equally informed by popular culture as he is by the history of modern art, Adams’s work brings the everyday experiences of Black Americans to the forefront, capturing fashionable moments of joy, resilience, and celebration. His artworks are filled with color, energy, and complexity, whether they depict intimate, everyday moments or grand, sweeping statements.

Adams’s first-ever monograph includes 150 of the most significant works from his thirty-year career, along with four newly commissioned texts from cultural luminaries. Filled with beautifully reproduced images and presented in a cloth case with a painting tipped onto the front cover, this stunning book establishes Derrick Adams as one of the most important figurative artists working today.

PRE-ORDER: ON SALE DATE: October 29, 2025

The first book from artist Danielle Mckinney, featuring 50 prompts for self-reflection written by her mother and a 44-page journal for the reader to respond

Danielle Mckinney is a rising star in the art world. Her tender, intimate representations of Black women at rest have garnered her a broad and devoted following. 

This innovative debut book is a mother-daughter collaboration: 50 of Mckinney’s paintings appear in dialogue with journal prompts written by the artist’s mother, Barbara Mckinney, an educator who embraces the art of creative expression. Journal pages in the back of the book offer readers a chance to write out their responses to the prompts, inspiring a meditative practice. 

Beautifully designed and produced, Danielle Mckinney: Beyond the Brushstroke draws new inspiration from the work of this fresh voice in contemporary American art.

For the first time, take an intimate glimpse into the groundbreaking television show The L Word with behind-the-scenes photography taken by series star Jennifer Beals and ephemera from her personal archives.

Since its debut in 2004, The L Word has been a milestone of popular and queer culture. For six seasons, this iconic show broke barriers and brought on-screen visibility to the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community through the lives of a diverse group of women. Viewers followed the stories of beloved characters like Bette, Tina, Shane, Kit, and Alice, and their dynamic journeys with love, heartbreak, friendship, and triumph. Now, for the first time, Jennifer Beals invites you behind the scenes to witness the magic that took place during the making of this iconic show.

The L Word: A Photographic Journal showcases more than 400 rarely seen, extraordinarily candid photographs taken by Jennifer Beals on the set and behind the scenes of The L Word. These exquisite photographs, offer an intimate look into every aspect of the show, highlighting the real friendships, emotions, and creativity that contributed to its massive success. Also featuring a foreword and reminiscences from Jennifer, cast commentary, and intriguing ephemera such as scripts, call sheets, notes between actors, and production memos, this extraordinary book is the definitive portrait of the life, the laughter, and the love that was The L Word.

PERFECT GIFT FOR FANS, NEW AND OLD: With more than 200 hundred pages of artistic images and its sleek hardcover casing, this is an ideal gift that every L Word fan needs in their hands

RARELY-SEEN CANDID MOMENTS: Examine more than 400 candid images of the incredible cast and crew in moments of laughter, focus, conversation, and celebration as captured by Jennifer Beals

INSIGHTS FROM YOUR FAVORITES: Enjoy quotes and reflections shared by the actresses and actors who played your favorite characters, that offer even more insight into what it was like bringing this revolutionary series to life

Opening up the cosmos of an entire continent - New perspectives on Africa

This lavishly illustrated volume explores Africa from multiple points of view as it progresses beyond prejudice and stereotypes. Combining cultural history with contemporary art, it presents a diverse range of artistic voices and shifting viewpoints. Human history intersects with the colonial past and the omnipresent influence of Africa across the world.

A fresh lens capturing the cosmos of Africa and its everlasting presence in our global societies.

This lavishly illustrated volume approaches the vast continent of Africa from a variety of viewpoints; beyond prejudice and stereotypes, via cultural history and contemporary art: by means of permanent changes of perspective and a diversity of artistic voices. The history of humankind meets the colonial past and the omnipresence of aspects of Africa in many regions of the world.
 
On the one hand, surprising views of Africa are focused on from Europe. And on the other, works and installations by Africans or protagonists from the diaspora present ideas, impulses and identities which all signify Africa. The texts illustrate the broad time frame from the first humans to Pan-Africanism and Afro-Futurism, as well as present literary and philosophical narratives.

ARTISTS:
DELE ADEYEMO, JOHN AKOMFRAH, JAMES GREGORY ATKINSON, SAMMY BALOJI, ARÉBÉNOR BASSÉNE, MEMORY BIWA, MARÍA MAGDALENA CAMPOS-PONS, CATPC, OMAR VICTOR DIOP, SOKARI DOUGLAS CAMP, WILLIAM KENTRIDGE, KONGO ASTRONAUTS, SUSANA PILAR DELAHANTA MANTIENZO, ROMÉO MIVEKANNIN, ZANELE MUHOLI, JOSÈFA NTJAM, KALOKI NYAMAI, EMEKA, OGBOH, ZINEB SEDIRA, SANDRA SEGHIR, YINKA SHONIBARE, THE SINGH TWINS, GÉRALDINE TOBE, KARA WALKER, CARRIE MAE WEEMS

‘I may pay rent to a friend for my place in Greensboro, but the South’s my landlord; and I’m trapped in its stomach trying to get to its brain. Here, I see butterflies with Confederate flag-grown wings and minstrel vestiges of Daddy Rice collecting dough. I can’t move because I’m stuck in Aunt Jemima’s syrup.’ Spell, Time, Practice, American, Body is the highly anticipated first book by artist, filmmaker, and writer RaMell Ross. Bringing together Ross’s large-format photographs, sculptures, conceptual works, and selected films, together with illuminating texts by Ross and a host of writers, this ambitious publication presents a chronicle of the American South that is both mysterious and quotidian, a historical document and a radical imagining of the future. The book opens with a series of illuminating colour photographs from Hale County, Alabama, Ross’s adoptive home and the setting of his Academy Award-nominated documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018). It then moves through a series of photographic and mixed-media works and writings that examine, deconstruct, and rewrite visual representations of the South. Amidst these works, at the book’s heart, is Ross’s film Return to Origin, a remarkable conceptual work in which Ross freight ships himself in a 4x8-foot box – a nod to Henry Brown who shipped himself to freedom in 1849. With Spell, Time, Practice, American, Body, Ross creates a new visual narrative of the South, freed from its iconic meanings to reveal the earth, dirt, soil, and land beneath. With texts by RaMell Ross, Tracy K. Smith, Richard McCabe, and Scott Matthews

A loving and powerful photobook following the lineage of one Black family, interrogating the semiotics of family portraiture

This profoundly moving and visually ravishing photobook, the first major monograph by American photographer Nydia Blas (born 1981), is an exploration of one Ithaca-based Black family and its community across many generations. The book is also a formally rigorous examination of the taxonomy and syntax of family portraiture.
Blas’ contemporary works are integrated with selections from her historical family albums in order to tell an extended intergenerational story, and to bring forward the evolving and recurring nature of the portrait photograph throughout the medium’s history. Deploying doubling, repetition and more subtle echoing and mirroring, Love, You Came from Greatness builds a powerful line of feeling and thought across generations and photographic tropes and styles. It features an illustrated discussion among Blas, curator Kate Addleman-Frankel and Cornell art historian Cheryl Finley. The volume concludes with the republication of bell hooks’ seminal 1995 essay "In Our Glory: Photography and Black Life," a deeply personal text that expands on crucial themes of family, photography, and Black identity and community.

Combining representation and abstraction, Abney's vibrant works reference gender, sexuality and pop culture

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.

This book was published in conjunction with Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami/Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland

"The Chicago-born artist Charles White (1918–79) was celebrated during his lifetime for depictions of African-American men, women and children that acquired the name “images of dignity. White’s draftsmanship, his direct address of the social and political concerns of his time, and his commitment to media that gave his art wide circulation established him as a major artist, and one with significant influence both on his contemporaries and on later generations.

Beginning with White’s early days as an artist in the Chicago of the 1930s and ’40s, moving through his time spent developing his craft in New York in the late 1940s and ’50s, and closing with his final decades as a revered figure in Los Angeles, Charles White: Black Pope explores the artist’s practice and strategies through consideration of key works. It devotes particularly close examination to his late masterwork "Black Pope (Sandwich Board Man)," in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art. By creating visually compelling, ideologically complex works that engage audiences on many levels, White established himself as a key figure of his time, one whose work continues to resonate today."

The second book in a three-volume series on Black American artists, featuring work from the 1950s to the 1970s that responded to the cultural, political, and social concerns of the era

During the turbulent 1950s to 1970s, Black American artists, responding to increasing civil rights activism, challenged inequities in the art world. Artists created works that celebrated their racial identity, connected with Black audiences, and participated in the struggle for political, economic, and social equality. The establishment of artist collectives, such as Spiral, and museums devoted to Black art, including the Studio Museum in Harlem, alongside the emergence of art historians and critics such as David Driskell and Linda Goode Bryant, marked early steps to bring Black art into broader artistic discourse.
 
The book features 140 color illustrations of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by such celebrated artists as Romare Bearden, Sam Gilliam, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Howardena Pindell, and Alma Thomas, as well as by under-recognized artists. Essays provide an overview of the period and in-depth examinations of James A. Porter, an artist and art historian credited with establishing the field of African American art history, and Merton D. Simpson, an abstract painter, member of the Spiral group, and one of the most important dealers of African art in the United States.

Published in association with the Dixon Gallery and Gardens

Exhibition Schedule:

Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis
(October 22, 2023–January 14, 2024)
 
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento
(February 4–May 19, 2024)

As featured in The Wall Street Journal’s 2024 Holiday Gift Books: Fine Art

The definitive monograph of Sam Gilliam one of the great innovators in post-war American painting

An African American artist in the nation’s capital at the height of the Civil Rights movement, Sam Gilliam blazed a trail with his singular artistic vision. Gilliam emerged from the Washington, DC art scene in the mid 1960s with works that disrupted established artistic norms and styles.

Relentlessly experimental and inspired by the improvisatory ethos of jazz, Gilliam’s lyrical abstractions took on an increasing variety of forms, moods, and materials.

This book, made in close collaboration with the Sam Gilliam Foundation, is the first to comprehensively survey the breadth of his extraordinary career, and features never-before-seen archival materials an insightful newly commissioned texts that shine light on the artist, his life, and his work, together with examples of Gilliam's work spanning five decades.

*Ships/ready for pick up in 5-8 business days*

Originally published in 1971, Gordon Parks’ Born Black was the first book to unite his writing and his photography. It was also the first to provide a focused survey of Parks’ documentation of a crucial time for the civil rights and Black Power movements. Today, more than 50 years later, this expanded edition of Born Black illuminates Parks’ vision for the book and offers deeper insight into the series within it. The original publication featured nine articles commissioned by Life magazine from 1963 to 1970―some never-before published―supplemented with later commentary by Parks and presented as his personal account of these important historical moments. Born Black includes the original text and images, as well as additional photographs from each series, spreads from the 1971 book, early correspondence, reproductions of related Life articles, and new scholarly essays. The nine series selected by Parks for Born Black―a rare glimpse inside San Quentin State Prison; extensive documentation of the Black Muslim movement and the Black Panthers; his commentaries on the deaths of civil rights leaders Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.; intimate portrait studies of Stokely Carmichael, Muhammad Ali and Eldridge Cleaver; and a narrative of the daily life of the impoverished Fontenelle family in Harlem―have come to define his legendary career as a photographer and activist. This reimagined, comprehensive edition of Born Black highlights the lasting legacy of these projects and their importance to our understanding of critical years in American history. Co-published with The Gordon Parks Foundation

From the author of The Immortal King Rao, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize,a personal exploration of how technology companies have both fulfilled and exploited the human desire for understanding and connection

When it was released to the public in November 2022, ChatGPT awakened the world to a secretive project: teaching AI-powered machines to write. Its creators had a sweeping ambition—to build machines that could not only communicate, but could do all kinds of other activities, better than humans ever could. But was this goal actually achievable? And if reached, would it lead to our liberation or our subjugation?

Vauhini Vara, an award-winning tech journalist and editor, had long been grappling with these questions. In 2021, she asked a predecessor of ChatGPT to write about her sister’s death, resulting in an essay that was both more moving and more disturbing than she could have imagined. It quickly went viral.

The experience, revealing both the power and the danger of corporate-owned technologies, forced Vara to interrogate how these technologies have influenced her understanding of her self and the world around her, from discovering online chat rooms as a preteen, to using social media as the Wall Street Journal’s first Facebook reporter, to asking ChatGPT for writing advice—while compelling her to add to the trove of human-created material exploited for corporations’ financial gain. Interspersed throughout this investigation are her own Google searches, Amazon reviews, and the other raw material of internet life—including the viral AI experiment that started it all. Searches illuminates how technological capitalism is both shaping and exploiting human existence, while proposing that by harnessing the collective creativity that makes humans unique, we might imagine a freer, more empowered relationship with our machines and, ultimately, with one another.

A poignant, unflinching study of black grief as a form of elegy found in visual art, music, literature—everywhere, if you know how to see it.

In Black Elegies, Kimberly Juanita Brown examines the form of the elegy and its unique capacity to convey the elongated grief borne of sustained racial violence. Structured around the sensorial, the book moves through sight, sound, and touch to reveal what Okwui Enwezor calls the “national emergency of black grief.” With her characteristic literary skill, Brown analyzes the work of major figures including Toni Morrison, Carrie Mae Weems, Audre Lorde, and Marvin Gaye, among others.

Brown contemplates recognizable sites of mourning: forced migration and enslavement, bodily violations, imprisonment and death. And she examines sites that do not register immediately as archives of grief: the landscape of southern U.S. slave plantations, a spontaneous street party, a quilt constructed out of the clothing worn by a loved one, a dance performance to hold the memory of history, and an aeolian harp installed at an institute of European art, among others. In this, the book offers a framework of mourning while black, within the parameters of contemporary artistic production. Brown asks: How do you mourn those you are not supposed to see? And where does the grief go? She shows us that grief is everywhere: “It spills out of photographs and modulates music. It hovers in the tenor and tone of cinematic performances. It resides in the body like an inspired concept, waiting for its articulation.”

A picture book biography celebrating the first known Black female tattoo artist in the U.S., Jacci Gresham, co-authored by Jacci herself, and with stylish, accessible artwork by David Wilkerson

How to make your mark?
Express yourself: From coloring outside the lines to creating her own clothes, expressing herself through art made Jacci Gresham feel confident.
Keep an open mind: When Jacci started out, women getting tattooed was considered distasteful. Women giving tattoos was unheard of. And a Black woman tattoo artist? Jacci was the first.
Practice every day: Jacci studied her craft. She developed new inking techniques for Black and brown skin. And she welcomed everyone into her New Orleans shop, including women of every color, shape, and size.
Stand up for what you believe: From art class to artist, Jacci Gresham pushed boundaries, and she never took no for an answer. Jacci made her mark. How will you make yours?

Referencing everything from Erykah Badu to ancient Egyptian deities, Jamea Richmond-Edwards creates a brilliant multimedia panorama of Black history

Detroit–based artist Jamea Richmond-Edwards (born 1982) creates work in dialogue with Afrofuturism, mythology, history and Black fashion. Her vibrantly colored canvases take inspiration from the AfriCOBRA collective and are layered with collage and portraiture. This catalog follows her largest solo museum exhibition to date, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, and features a monumental painting, several large-scale paintings and a newly commissioned film. Using glitter, fabric and soft sculpture, these paintings depict the artist and her family reimagined as Egyptian deities, encountering dragons and paying homage to Indigenous leaders. The film Ancient Future uses a majorette performance superimposed against the cosmos activated by an experimental jazz soundtrack in collaboration with Richmond-Edwards’ son. The catalog features a selection of stills from the film and a gatefold of the new monumental work.

Examining aesthetic connections between the works of more than 50 Black artists from throughout the global diaspora

This book was born out of frustration with art histories that emphasize Black artists’ resilience over the aesthetic impact of their work. The experiences of oppression Black people endure are inconceivable, yet this focus on resilience often overwhelms critical attention to Black artists’ ideas, innovations or use of materials. Imagining Black Diasporas defines “diaspora’’ more broadly, understanding it as a dynamic term that evolves with Black experience. Through four themes, the book illuminates aesthetic connections among established and emerging US–based artists in dialogue with artists working in Africa, the Caribbean, South America and Europe.
Artists include: Mark Bradford, Lorna Simpson, Calida Rawles, El Anatsui, Josué Azor, Isaac Julien, Frida Orupabo, Theaster Gates, Yinka Shonibare, Wangechi Mutu.

A revelatory look at the life, work, and legacy of the legendary choreographer Alvin Ailey
 
Alvin Ailey is one of the most celebrated choreographers of the twentieth century. The creator of iconic works such as Blues Suite, Revelations, and Cry, he is widely recognized for the dance company he founded in 1958 when he was just twenty-seven years old. Ailey imagined and cultivated a platform for modern dance through his innovative repertoire, interdisciplinary sensibility, and support of dancers and choreographers. This expansive volume situates Ailey within a broader social, creative, and cultural context, looking at the artists who influenced and collaborated with him, the spaces and scenes he frequented, the dynamic themes within his dances, and how his vision and work changed contemporary dance.
 
Essays by artists, scholars, and critics cover topics ranging from the Black church, the South, and the Great Migration to nightclubs, musical influences, and queerness. With more than four hundred images including photographs of works Ailey choreographed, archival materials such as notebooks, sketches, letters, and never-before-published behind-the-scenes photos, and conversations about the legacy of the company with Sylvia Waters, Judith Jamison, and Masazumi Chaya as well as several contemporary dancers and scholars, this study offers an unprecedented full picture of one of the twentieth century’s leading artists and the way his work continues to inspire today’s generation of dancers.
 
Distributed for the Whitney Museum of American Art  
 
Exhibition Schedule:
 
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
(September 25, 2024–February 9, 2025)

Fifteen contemporary artists engage with the notion of space within Black culture

Following the eponymous exhibition at Gray Gallery, this publication gathers a selection of multimedia works by 15 artists exploring historical and emergent instances of Black space, including contributions by Dawoud Bey, McArthur Binion, Nick Cave, Coco Fusco, Theaster Gates and Rashid Johnson.