In the News Posted Mar 25, 2024

Denim Tears African Diaspora Goods Library

Renaissance men Tremaine Emory and Theaster Gates have created a show-stopping flagship store with the Denim Tears African Diaspora Goods (176 Spring St, NYC).
 
We're thrilled that the African Art book collection we’ve been building for 40 years has found its home in this singular space.
 
“African Diaspora Goods will function as a cultural hub, expanding on Denim Tears’ narrative storytelling on the Black diaspora. The store’s design was a collaborative effort between Denim Tears’ founder, Tremaine Emory, and Theaster Gates.
 
Inspired by Gates’ decades-long artistic practice of archiving, elevating, and making publicly accessible historic Black images and objects, the store also serves as a community space housing a collection of over one thousand, five hundred publications on the history of the Arts of Africa alongside the label’s seasonal collections. Denim Tears invites visitors to not only shop the brand’s latest wares but also to enrich themselves with this robust selection of books curated by Lee and Whitney Kaplan, owners of the Culver City-based art book store Arcana: Books on the Arts
 
African Diaspora Goods will double as a comprehensive research library filled with books, exhibition catalogs, and periodicals published in Africa, Europe, The Americas, and Asia, documenting the visual and performative cultures of the Indigenous peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa. Assembled by Arcana over a span of nearly forty years, this unique resource includes material from publishers, booksellers, art dealers, and the libraries of several major collectors and academics. Denim Tears' flagship will house one of the most significant American collections of such documentation within a non-institutional setting, similar to Gates’ Johnson Publishing Company Library at his celebrated Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago  This book collection serves as a physical testament to Denim Tears' genuine commitment to storytelling, aligning with their ethos and dedication to using fashion as a vehicle to tell impactful stories about the African diaspora.”
 
 

 

Events Posted Feb 23, 2024

Dawoud Bey - ELEGY Booksigning & Discussion 3/2/24

Please join us this Saturday, March 2nd for a book signing with Dawoud Bey to celebrate his new Aperture publication, Elegy. The afternoon's event is presented in collaboration with the Getty Research Institute, and will include Mr. Bey discussing his work and career with the Getty Research Center's Dr. LeRonn P. Brooks.

If you cannot attend and would like to purchase a signed copy of Elegy - or some earlier titles - to have shipped or to pick up at the shop, please place your order here.

We look forward to seeing you!
 
"On the occasion of the landmark exhibition and publication Elegy, renowned American artist Dawoud Bey joins Getty curator and scholar Dr. LeRonn P. Brooks in dialogue at Arcana: Books on the Arts in Culver City. The conversation will address ways in which Bey has reimagined photography's capacity for considering and evoking the now invisible history of the Black presence in the American landscape.

Dawoud Bey is a groundbreaking American artist and MacArthur Fellow who examines the Black past and present, mining the histories of Black communities and their people. His photographs and film installations have been the subject of numerous major museum and gallery exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, including his recent landscape retrospective Dawoud Bey: Elegy at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Dr. LeRonn P. Brooks is curator of the African American Art History Initiative at the Getty Research Institute as well as curator of African American collections and acquisitions. His interviews and essays on African American art have been featured in Callaloo, The International Review of African American Art, and the Aperture Foundation, as well as in many exhibition catalogues: Dawoud Bey: Elegy (2023), Torkwase Dyson: A Liquid Belonging (2023), and A Long Arc: Photography and the American South Since 1845 (2023), among others."
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Events Posted Feb 14, 2024

Save The Date: Dawoud Bey Book Signing 3/2/24!

 
 
SATURDAY, MARCH 2nd, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
DAWOUD BEY: ELEGY
MR. BEY IN DISCUSSION WITH DR. LERONN P. BROOKS + BOOK SIGNING
 

Please join us Saturday, March 2nd for a book signing with Dawoud Bey to celebrate the publication of Elegy. 
 
If you cannot attend and would like to order a signed copy to have shipped or to pick up at the shop, please place your order here.
 
The signing will be preceded by a discussion regarding the work between Mr. Bey and Leronn P. Brooks from the Getty Research Center. 
 
This event is presented in collaboration with the Getty Research Institute.
Events Posted Feb 13, 2024

Book Signing with Yelena Yemchuk for "Malanka" This Saturday at Arcana!

We are excited to invite you to join us this Saturday (2/17, 4-6) for a book signing with Yelena Yemchuk to celebrate the publication of Malanka!

 

If you cannot attend and would like to order a signed copy to have shipped or to pick up at the shop, please place your order here.

 

We look forward to seeing you!

 

"Ukrainian-born, Brooklyn-based photographer and painter Yelena Yemchuk is most commonly known for her fashion and portrait photographs, which have appeared in Italian and Japanese Vogue, V, the New Yorker and The New York Times. Yemchuk makes images that teeter on the threshold between her Eastern European heritage and her daily life in New York; between fiction and reality; between the grand beauty of 1960s cinema and the social and built environments of post-Soviet realms. As with all of her work, "Malanka" is a personal, feminine, surrealist and magical project. The eponymous tradition is a pre-Christian folklore ritual driving out winter and welcoming spring, an ancient custom reminiscent of Persephone’s return in Greek mythology. It is celebrated on January 14th, the old New Year in the Julian calendar, by ethnic Romanians in western Ukraine. In 2019 and 2020, Yemchuk traveled to Crasna (Krasnoilsk in Ukrainian) to document the night-long festival. Accompanying Yemchuk's striking photographic documentation is a poetic essay by Romanian cultural journalist Ioana Pelehatai."

 

Events Posted Feb 05, 2024

Publish Your Photography Book with Mary Virginia Swanson!

Please join us this Saturday for a book signing with the iconic Mary Virginia Swanson to celebrate the publication of the newly updated edition of the ever-popular Publish Your Photography Book! Ms. Swanson will be signing and taking your questions in a discussion moderated by Radius Books' Isabella Beroutsos.

If you cannot attend and would like to order a signed copy of Publish Your Photography Book to have shipped or to pick up at the shop, please place your order here.
 
We look forward to seeing you!
 
The first book to demystify the process of producing and publishing a book of photographs, Publish Your Photography Book was first released in 2011 and subsequently sold out two editions. This highly anticipated third edition guides photo-based artists through the steps involved in publishing a book of their work. Industry insiders Darius D. Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson survey the current landscape of photography-book publishing and point out the many avenues to pursue and pitfalls to avoid. This updated, expert guide covers: a history of the photobook; an overview of the publishing industry; the process of bringing your project to book form (with both traditional publishing and self-publishing options); how to market a photography book (including a dialogue with collectors on the limited edition and artist-made books); case studies with published photographers; and valuable resources on production materials, publishing and marketing timelines.

Filled with educational wisdom, the book features interviews and contributions from artists, agents, editors, designers, printers, publishers, distributors, booksellers, curators and librarians who share their experiences and provide advice about each step on the path to publication and placement. A removable workbook helps readers address book preparation, draft submission guidelines, production timelines and marketing plans. With over 50 years of combined industry experience and insights, the authors also provide both historical context and contemporary expertise about the international photobook scene, including awards, fairs and grants.

The contributors include: Regina Maria Anzenberger, Bob Aufuldish, Julia Borissova, Barbara Bosworth, Frish Brandt, Sonel Breslav, Joan Brookbank, Jane Brown, Jason Burstein, David Campany, Alejandro Cartagena, Bruno Ceschel, Nelson Chan, Lewis Chaplin, Clément Cheroux, David Chickey, Joshua Chuang, Mary DelMonico, Sarah Espenon, Jon Evans, Chloe Ferres, Tricia Gabriel, Susan kae Grant, Kris Graves, Hans Gremmen, Nathalie Herschdorfer, Todd Hido, Deborah Hollis, Tiffany Jones, Christina Labey, Joan Liftin, Michael Lundgren, Lesley A. Martin, Christopher McCall, Lisa McCarty, Clifton Meador, Dan Milnor, Arezoo Moseni, Colleen Mullins, Azu Nwagbogu, Martin Parr, Cecile Poimboeuf-Koizumi, Alan Rapp, Rixon Reed, Ruth R. Rogers, Laura Russell, Markus Schaden, Mike Slack, Søren Solkær, David Solo, Gerhard Steidl, Alan Thomas, Ian van Coller, Anne Wilkes Tucker, Amy Wilkins, Deborah Willis, Denise Wolff, Nancy E. Wolff, Carl Wooley, Sophie Wright and Philip Zimmermann
Events Posted Jan 27, 2024

WINOGRAND COLOR!

DISCUSSION AND BOOK SIGNING
WITH EDITOR MICHAEL ALMEREYDA AND GEOFF DYER
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3rd, 4:00 - 6:00 PM

Please join us for a discussion about the fabulous new Twin Palms book WINOGRAND COLOR with the book's editor Michael Almereyda and Geoff Dyer!
 
The discussion will begin at 4:15 followed by a book signing with Mr. Almereyda.
 
If you can't make it, you can order a copy of WINOGRAND COLOR signed by Michael Almereyda here.
 
Garry Winogrand is known primarily for his spontaneous and energetic street photography in black-and-white. What is lesser known is that Winogrand also shot more than 45,000 color slides between the early 1950s and late 1960s. These photographs were often taken between assignments, when the photographer, working on his own, developed and refined an approach to his medium that was increasingly open, independent, and radical. He routinely photographed with two cameras strapped around his neck, one loaded with color film, the other with black and white. "Winogrand Color" presents one hundred and fifty photographs selected from the archives at the Center for Creative Photography by the American film director, Michael Almereyda and former Museum of Modern Art curator, Susan Kismaric. It is the first monograph dedicated to the artist's rarely seen color work. We look forward to seeing you!
Events Posted Jan 10, 2024

Book Signing With Todd Hido AND Mark Steinmetz 1/20/24

On Saturday, January 20th we start 2024 off in style by presenting a special dual book signing with longtime Arcana favorites - and pals - Todd Hido and Mark Steinmetz. Each has a lovely hot off the Nazraeli Press offering in The End Sends Advance Warning and France 1987, and we have them both here at the shop for the afternoon!
 
If you cannot attend and would like to order a copy of Todd Hido's The End Sends Advance Warning or a signed copy Mark Steinmetz's France 1987, or both to have shipped or to pick up at the shop, please place your order here.
 
We look forward to seeing you!
 
None Posted Dec 12, 2023

BOOK SIGNING WITH DOUG AITKEN!

PLEASE JOIN US THIS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16TH, 4-6 FOR A BOOK SIGNING WITH DOUG AITKEN!
 
Between 2017 and 2021 artist Doug Aitken presented his site-specific installation entitled “Mirage” in the California desert outside Palm Springs, at a defunct Detroit bank, and nestled in the Swiss Alps. “Mirage” takes the form of a ranch-style suburban American house whose exterior is entirely clad in reflective mirrored surfaces that camouflage it in landscapes far removed from the familiar lawn and picket fence. The book is an immersive chronicle of the three installations, featuring photographs, architectural drawings, and other materials related to the project accompanied by a text by Neville Wakefield as well as an interview with the artist. Published collaboratively by the LUMA Foundation, Zolo Press and JRP  Editions, and handmade with cold foils, silver printing, an exposed spine, and bound as a leporello, this extraordinary document is a tour de force of the bookmaker’s art."
 
If you cannot attend and would like to order a signed copy of Mirage and/or  his recent and most spectacular Doug Aitken: Works 1992-2022, please place your order here!
 
We look forward to seeing you!
 
 
 
"Living and working in Los Angeles, Doug Aitken is an American artist and filmmaker. Defying definitions of genre, he explores every medium, from film and installations to architectural interventions.
 
His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions around the world, in such institutions as the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Vienna Secession, the Serpentine Gallery in London and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. He participated in the both the 1997 and 2000 Whitney Biennials, and earned the International Prize at the Venice Biennale in 1999 for the installation “electric earth”. Aitken received the 2012 Nam June Paik Art Center Prize, and the 2013 Smithsonian Magazine American Ingenuity Award: Visual Arts. In 2016 he received the Americans for the Arts National Arts Award: Outstanding Contributions to the Arts. In 2017 Aitken became the inaugural recipient of the Frontier Art Prize, a new contemporary art award that supports an artist to pursue bold projects that challenge the boundaries of knowledge and experience to reimagine the future of humanity.
 
In September 2016, a major survey of Aitken’s work opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles. The survey exhibition subsequently traveled to The Modern, Fort Worth in May 2017. December of 2016 marked the installation one of his most ambitious projects to date, a trio of Underwater Pavilions tethered to the seabed off the coast of Catalina Island, California.
 
Mirage, a site-specific sculpture that takes the form of a home completely covered in mirrors and set in the heart of the Californian desert was installed in 2017. It has also been installed in Detroit, MI (2018) and in Gstaad, Switzerland (2019-2021). In July 2019, he launched the project New Horizon, a multifaceted art event challenging the notion of art in the 21st-century. The project was composed of a series of live events across the state of Massachusetts, centered around a stunning reflective hot air balloon and gondola. In 2022, a large scale survey of his artwork was featured in a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney."

 

Events Posted Dec 04, 2023

DEAN WAREHAM + ED TEMPLETON BOOK SIGNING!

Saturday, December 9th between 4:00 and 6:00 PM, Dean Wareham and Ed Templeton will be joining us for a very special book signing celebrating the publication of their elegant new Nazraeli Press edition, Hearing Voices - Selected Lyrics 1987-2021.
 
"This is the first published collection of Dean's lyrics, and is the result of collaboration with the artist Ed Templeton, who created the illustrations for the book. The songs presented here span his entire career from Galaxie 500 and Luna to his recent solo work."
 
 
We look forward to seeing you!
 
"Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Dean Wareham moved to New York City as a teenager, in August 1977. It was here, in high school, that he met future bandmates Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang. All three went on to attend Harvard University, and in 1987 founded Galaxie 500, for which Wareham was the singer, guitarist and principal songwriter. Galaxie 500 released three albums For Rough Trade between 1987 and 1991 that have only grown in stature and influence. Wareham’s next band Luna recorded seven albums for Elektra and Beggar’s Banquet, followed by four albums with wife Britta Phillips as Dean & Britta, and three simply as Dean Wareham, including his most recent album I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A. Also a writer, Wareham’s memoir, Black Postcards, was published by Penguin, and he has contributed to Salon, Pitchfork, the Talkhouse and Counterpunch."
 
"Ed Templeton is known for his interdisciplinary practice, most notably of photographs documenting people and street life of his Huntington Beach, California neighborhood, intimate portraits of his wife Deanna, and paintings depicting the psychological complexity of American suburbia. He first gained recognition as a teenage skateboard prodigy in the late 1980s and learned to photograph using disposable cameras while actively touring for competitions. He later expanded to incorporate his artwork and graphics for his skate company Toy Machine. Templeton has exhibited both his photography and artwork extensively worldwide, and his work is included in the permanent collections of Museum Dhondt-Dhaenes, Deurle, Belgium, Museum Het Domein, The Netherlands, The Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana, CA, and the Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK".
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Events Posted Nov 28, 2023

Jacob Samuel Book Signing, Saturday 12/2!

JOIN US SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2nd, 4:00 to 6:00 PM
FOR A BOOK SIGNING WITH JACOB SAMUEL!
 
 
Saturday, December 2nd between 4:00 and 6:00 PM, renowned master printmaker Jacob Samuel will be joining us for a very special book signing. Available will be the hot-off-the-press New Ground: Jacob Samuel and Contemporary Etching, the awesome new hardbound catalogue of works published by Edition Jacob Samuel between 1988 and 2015 that accompanies the retrospective currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In addition to hanging with Jacob - one of Arcana's oldest and dearest friends - you'll be able to bask in the sonic stylings of artist and DJ extraordinaire, Dave Muller.
 
If you cannot attend and would like to order a signed copy of New Ground to have shipped or to pick up at the shop, please place your order here!
 
We look forward to seeing you!
 
"What makes a five hundred-year-old printing process new? Master printer and publisher Jacob Samuel has brought etchings - prints created by transferring ink from a metal plate to paper - into the 21st century through collaborations with more than sixty contemporary artists. Some of the artists had never made prints; others had previously hated the process. But with Samuel’s guidance, they all adapted this historic technique to their artistic visions. New Ground: Jacob Samuel and Contemporary Etching gathers the resulting books and print portfolios to show the flexibility of etching and its reinvention for a contemporary world.
 
Jacob Samuel’s career began in the printshop of painter Sam Francis. It was there that he determined the type of etching projects he wanted to publish: small scale, serial, and generally printed in a single tone. Soon, Samuel began to work on prints at his own Santa Monica studio with a group of diverse and remarkably influential artists that includes the likes of Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Nancy Rubins, Chris Burden, Charlene von Heyl, Christopher Wool, Shio Kusaka, Jonas Wood, James Welling, Wangechi Mutu, Jannis Kounellis, Rebecca Horn, Gabriel Orozco, Dave Muller, Ed Moses, Joe Goode, Cristina Iglesias, Richard Tuttle, Meredith Monk, Tom Sachs, Marina Abramović, and Barry McGee. Encompassing abstraction, figuration, and a diverse range of visual styles and approaches, the works in New Ground reflect Samuel’s success in making the tradition of old master printmaking relevant and inspiring today."

 

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