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    Conrad Bakker Recreated All 1,100+ Books in Pioneering Land Artist Robert Smithson’s Personal Library

    Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 2014. All images courtesy of Conrad Bakker, shared with permission

    Conrad Bakker Recreated All 1,100+ Books in Pioneering Land Artist Robert Smithson’s Personal Library

    October 16, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    An autodidact and polymath, Robert Smithson cemented himself as one of the pre-eminent land artists in his short lifetime. Along with his fellow artist and wife Nancy Holt, Smithson pioneered a new way of working that explored connections to the landscape and place and endlessly probed the formation of knowledge.

    When he died in a plane crash in 1973 at just 35 years old, he left behind a vast personal library that represented his broad interests: there were books on crystals and rock minerals, dinosaurs and insects, myths and children’s rhymes, and classics like James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake and Jorge Luis Borges’ Ficciones. Holt donated the entirety of Smithson’s collection— approximately 1,120 books—to the Archives of American Art after his death, where it’s still housed today.

    ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ member Pep Fernàndez, holding his book in Barcelona, Spain

    There’s also, though, another way to peek into the narratives and materials that shaped Smithson’s thinking and practice. In 2019, Conrad Bakker completed a five-year-long project of recreating every title in that original collection on a 1:1 scale. Presented in museums and galleries from Utah to Arkansas to New York, “Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club” is both a painstaking ode to the pioneering artist and a bold consideration of how we access and consume information.

    “I can’t really remember my first encounter with Robert Smithson, but I’ve always been a fan of his artwork and, in particular, the way he oriented his sculptures to coexist inside the physical space of a gallery and outside in the landscape,” Bakker says. He first encountered the artist’s library through Ann Reynolds’ Robert Smithson: Learning from New Jersey and Elsewhere, which provided a comprehensive catalog of each title and edition in the collection.

    “I was captivated by this wonderful list of books and curious about the diversity of his research subjects, the intensity of his self-education through books,” Bakker says, adding that the library also serves as a “time capsule of artistic research of the 1960s. I imagined this collection of books as an extension of Robert Smithson’s mind, his curiosity, and thinking.”

    This prompted one component of Bakker’s ongoing Untitled Projects, a practice of recreating everyday objects like chocolate bars or VHS tapes to explore facets of economic systems, production, and consumption. Using images from online booksellers, he carved and painted wooden replicas of each edition.

    Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed in the exhibition ‘Extra Taste at International Objects,’ NYC, 2024

    Displayed in cardboard-like boxes and stacked on the floor, Bakker’s collection has taken many forms, from room-sized installations to a full-scale bookstore in the storefront of the Famous Hardware building in Springdale, Arkansas. While the library remains intact in his studio, the “Book Club” also allowed collectors to purchase a second sculpture for a time. He created about 350 additional works for this element of the project.

    The library is just one part of Bakker’s interest in books as objects, which includes a used paperback sale and an archive of self-help titles from the 1970s. For the artist, these objects offer numerous lines of inquiry from “books as historical records of culture and personal memories, books ascommodities, bookstores as public spaces, books as (outdated) technology, and books as portable containers of information, instructions, and ideas,” he writes.

    Bakker is currently working on several projects, including a full-scale copy shop (think 1980s-era Kinko’s) for The Weather Station in Lafayette, Indiana. In early 2026, he’ll also show a piece connecting capitalism and climate change at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. The library is likely headed to Stockholm in the coming months, but keep an eye on the project’s Instagram for more.

    You might also enjoy Bernie Kaminski’s papier-mâché objects and Matt Stevens’ Good Movies as Old Books.

    Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed in the exhibition ‘Extra Taste at International Objects,’ NYC, 2024

    Installation view of ‘Untitled Project: Smithson’s Books’ installed in the storefront windows of the Famous Hardware building in Springdale, Arkansas, 2021

    ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ member Ruth Lopez holding her book

    Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 2014

    Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed in the exhibition ‘Extra Taste at International Objects,’ NYC, 2024

    Installation view of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed in the exhibition ‘Extra Taste at International Objects,’ NYC, 2024

    Conrad Bakker inside ‘R. Smithson Books.’ Photo by Meredith Mashburn Photography

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    Raul De Lara’s Whimsical Wooden Sculptures Defy Borders

    “Cavale II” (2023), walnut, cedar, hemu,
    Hermés saddle, horsehair, lacquer, pigment, and
    urethane, 50 x 64 x 19 inches. All images © Raul De Lara, shared with permission

    Raul De Lara’s Whimsical Wooden Sculptures Defy Borders

    September 23, 2025

    ArtSocial Issues

    Grace Ebert

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    Why can plants be considered native to more than one nation while people can’t? This line of inquiry grounds a large-scale exhibition by Raul De Lara in which he presents his surreal sculptures that merge flora and furnishings.

    HOST, on view now at The Contemporary Austin, brings together a collection of works that call into question belonging and identity and rejects the idea that state borders are fixed and natural. Using wood endemic to Texas and Mexico, De Lara sculpts potted monsteras sprouting from chains, a schooldesk covered in long spines, and a cactus disguised as a child’s rocking horse.

    The resulting pieces translate what should be a common object—a shovel, for example, or an enormous cluster of daisies in a vase—into the strange and uncanny. Many works are also rendered unusable, including a spiked ladder even the bravest among us would hesitate to climb.

    Detail of “Wilt” (2022), walnut, pine, red oak, urethane, pigment, and polyurethane, 125 x 25 1/4 x 45 inches

    Now based in Ridgewood, Queens, De Lara grew up near Austin as a child of Mexican immigrants. He first learned woodoworking in his family’s shop, which he describes as “a world where each tool has its own language, each piece of wood shows the passing of time on its skin, and where one is able to communicate through their hands.” A strong belief in animism, luck, and the paranormal pervaded this sacred space and taught the budding artist that he could harness the energy of a particular material to create beautiful objects.

    Today, he sees woodworking as a mode of storytelling, one in which magical realism flourishes. “I welcome the idea that artworks can hold their own spark of life and extend it to us,” De Lara says, adding:

    When I make my work, I remember childhood memories of when I would see local carvers turn branches into saints. I always wondered at what point inthe carving process does the ghost enters that piece of wood. I strive to make works that invite a certain kind of trust and acceptance from the viewer, that let them live without our realm.

    As global concerns about immigration and human rights intensify, De Lara’s work is all the more relevant. The artist has DACA status and knows firsthand the precarity and swift change that comes with a new administration.

    “Lotion In Your Lungs” (2019), pine, oak, wood glue, sand from Mexico/US border, acrylic, andlacquer, 72 x 24 x 50 inches

    His sculptures capture a sense of whimsy and play that might seem in opposition to this reality, but for De Lara, woodworking, and traditional craft more broadly, is a superpower. “It cannot be taken away from you as it is not tied to location, politics, or laws. You carry it with you and can practice anywhere, with anyone, and oftentimes, it disarms differences amongst us,” he says.

    See HOST through January 11, 2026. Keep up with De Lara’s work on Instagram.

    “For Being Left-Handed” (2020), pine, Chiclets gum, acrylic, brass, steel, and particle board, 24 x 13 x 13 inches

    Installation view of ‘HOST: Raul De Lara’ at The Contemporary Austin (2025). Photo by Alex Boeschenstein

    Detail of “For Being Left-Handed” (2020), pine, Chiclets gum, acrylic, brass, steel, and particle board, 24 x 13 x 13 inches

    “20 Years Later / 20 Años Después” (2024), walnut, ash, steel, Polyx-wax, and polyurethane, 39 x 8 x 5 inches

    “Familia” (2024), walnut, Polyx-wax, and polyurethane, 40 x 41 x 26 inches

    De Lara with “La Escalera”

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    ‘Companions’ Celebrates Our Animal Friends and Colleagues

    Misato Sano, “なるほど! /  Oh, I see!” (2025), camphor wood and oil paint

    ‘Companions’ Celebrates Our Animal Friends and Colleagues

    September 22, 2025

    ArtPartner

    Joy Machine

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    “Play between humans and pets, as well as simply spending time peaceably hanging out together, brings joy to all the participants. Surely that is one important meaning of companion species.” –Donna Haraway, ‘Companion Species Manifesto‘

    Companions is a group exhibition celebrating our closest animal friends and colleagues. Featuring works across media by Lola Dupre, Debra Broz, Roberto Benavidez, Misato Sano, William Mophos, and Nicolas V. Sanchez, this show revels in the ways we share our lives with non-human species.

    Debra Broz, “Horse Boxer” and “Boxer Horse” (2025), secondhand ceramic figurines and mixed media

    Each artist translates their furry and feathered subjects in a distinctively human way: Dupre and Broz distort any realistic likeness in favor of surreal, exaggerated amalgamations, while Benavidez translates a small kitten into the celebratory form of a piñata. Sano similarly gouges small pieces of camphor wood to carve a range of expressive pups, which she then paints in oils.

    Although their renderings take a more realistic approach, Sanchez and Mophos utilize substrates embedded within human life, the former gravitating toward the blank pages of a sketchbook and the latter scouring the streets of São Paulo for architectural remnants that become small jagged canvases.

    In this way, these artists present companionship as a bridge between nature and culture. They see their companions as being both of their own making–in that any relationship is influenced and created by both parties– and as independent beings with big personalities all their own.

    Companions opens on September 27, 2025. RSVP to our opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday.

    Roberto Benavidez, “Medieval Kitten” (2025), paper, paperboard, wire, glue, crepe paper, fallen cat whiskers, 5.5 x 6 x 3 inches

    Lola Dupre, “Geordi” (2025), paper collage, 12 x 16 inches

    William Mophos, “Tom Tom” (2025), acrylic painting on wall fragments in an acrylic frame with cement board backing, 16.6 x 21 x 7.5 centimeters

    Nicolas V. Sanchez, “Mariana with lambs” (2018), color ballpoint pen on paper, 5.5 x 10.5 inches

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    Yoshitoshi Kanemaki’s Sculptures Sport Kaleidoscopic Expressions in Their Search for a ‘True Self’

    Detail of “Breathing Caprice A,” paint on Torreya, 135 x 75 x 55 centimeters. All images courtesy of the artist and FUMA Contemporary Tokyo, shared with permission

    Yoshitoshi Kanemaki’s Sculptures Sport Kaleidoscopic Expressions in Their Search for a ‘True Self’

    September 2, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Yoshitoshi Kanemaki is no stranger to human emotions, imbuing his playful sculptures with not one but several expressions all at once. The Tokyo-based artist is known for his “glitched” sculptures carved from single pieces of timber, and in his ongoing current series Prism, he continues to explore the nature of distortion, reflection, and self-consciousness.

    Insight Prism, the artist’s solo exhibition opening at FUMA Contemporary this month, combines two concepts the artist dovetails in his chiseled-wood compositions.

    “Insight Prism,” paint on Japanese nutmeg and katsura, 170 x 72 x 67 centimeters

    “The word ‘insight’ carries the meaning of seeing into the essence of things with clarity, while ‘prism’ metaphorically refers to elucidating what is complex,” Kanemaki says. Through a fragmented triangular motif, he highlights warped features that refract, separate, and reassemble—much like the ever-evolving nature of human consciousness and social interactions.

    Insight Prism marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in two years, presenting the largest sculpture he’s yet created in the Prism series—the namesake of the show. Kanemaki delves into the multiple roles we all play in our daily lives, switching between different versions of ourselves to contend with different situations or environments. He says:

    While such shifts can be seen as a necessary social manner to keep life running smoothly, there are times when we lose the vision of our “true self.”… The idea for my new sculptures began with the question: What might the form of searching for one’s “true self” look like?

    Insight Prism opens on September 12 and continues through September 27 in Tokyo. Find more on the artist’s Instagram.

    “Breathing Caprice A,” paint on Torreya, 135 x 75 x 55 centimeters

    Detail of “Insight Prism”

    “Reflection Prism,” paint on Torreya, 170 x 53 x 51 centimeters

    Detail of “Reflection Prism”

    “Ulala Caprice 3rd,” paint on Japanese nutmeg and camphor wood, 100 x 34 x 34 centimeters

    Detail of “Ulala Caprice 3rd”

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    Sthenjwa Luthuli’s Spiritual Paintings Excise Intricate Patterns in Bold Color

    “Marks Of Identity” (2025), hand carved super wood block mix media, and paint, 136 x 92 centimeters. All images courtesy of Unit London, shared with permission

    Sthenjwa Luthuli’s Spiritual Paintings Excise Intricate Patterns in Bold Color

    August 15, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    Through swirling ribbons of color, headless figures dance among densely patterned backdrops, their hands grasping and open. Dressed in tight, form-fitting costumes, these anonymous protagonists are bound by their elaborately carved environments, a metaphor for the experience of South African communities that artist Sthenjwa Luthuli (previously) finds fruitful.

    Luthuli is known for his wood-block paintings brimming with vibrant color and texture. Through a meditative, meticulous process of gouging small pieces of MDF, he renders dense, intricate motifs that envelop his figures in a swath of markings. The artist is particularly interested in African spiritualism and the tenuous relationship between freedom and control for minority communities.

    “Reborn” (2025), hand-carved super wood block mix media and paint, 138 x 184 centimeters

    Next month at Norval Foundation in Cape Town, Luthuli with present a collection of works made between 2010 and 2015. His first institutional solo exhibition, Umkhangu uses African cosmology and symbolism as its guide, considering how a birthmark can be seen as an ancestral presence or a sign of one’s destiny.

    Umkhangu opens on September 11. Find more from the artist on Instagram.

    “The Genetics” Ulibofuzo (2025), hand-carved super wood block mix media and paint, 138 x 184 centimeters

    “Unfinished Business” (2025), hand-carved super wood block mix media and paint, 136 x 92 centimeters

    “Stories We Wear” (2025), hand-carved super wood block mix media and paint, 136 x 92 centimeters

    “Palmistry” (2025), hand-carved super wood block mix media and paint, 136 x 92 centimeters

    “Inner Spark” (2025), hand-carved super wood block mix media and paint, 136 x 92 centimeters

    “Reincarnation” Ukphinda Uzalwe (2025), hand-carved super wood block mix media, and paint, 138 x 184 centimeters

    “Nature’s Unique Signatures” (2025), hand-carved super wood block mix media and paint, 185 x 185 centimeters

    “Past Life Origins” (2025), hand-carved super wood block mix media and paint, 138 x 184 centimeters

    “Diverse Nations, Different Calling” (2025), hand-carved super wood block mix media and paint, 275 x 184 centimeters

    “Continuous Legacy” Ukuqhubeka Kwefa (2025), hand-carved super wood block mix media and paint, 138 x 184 centimeters

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    Found Objects Hold Puerto Rican Lineage in Adrián Viajero Román’s Layered Portraits

    “Aguas De Libertad” (2012), graphite on wood, cardboard, pastel, 36 x 24 inches. All images courtesy of Adrián Viajero Román, shared with permission

    Found Objects Hold Puerto Rican Lineage in Adrián Viajero Román’s Layered Portraits

    August 13, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    “The objects I use often serve as memory keepers,” says Adrián Viajero Román. “Sometimes they find me—objects with history, decay, or presence—and I build a piece around them. Other times, I begin with a story I want to tell and seek materials that can hold that narrative.”

    Román finds an intuitive balance between object and idea, allowing each to influence the other as he melds two-dimensional portraiture with three-dimensional forms like wooden frames, religious iconography, frayed chicken wire, and even an empty can of Goya black beans. These found—and seemingly mundane—items hold stories that reflect the artist’s ongoing interests: memory, migration, and the genealogies we can trace through the objects that accompany us or that we leave behind.

    “Picking Up The Pieces” (2018), portrait of Maria Kerialys Aldea de Jesus of Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, graphite on wood, terry cloth, plastic bottles, newspaper, 24 x 18 inches

    Based between Brooklyn, New Jersey, and Puerto Rico, Román frequently reflects on the experience of the Puerto Rican diaspora and the bifurcated way of living that can emerge when people leave their homelands. He’s deeply interested in the correlations between belonging and displacement and how preserving the past is essential to telling honest stories about ourselves and communities.

    The artist’s works often feature children, who appear as both innocent and supremely knowing. Staring at the viewer with serious eyes, these youthful protagonists might be steadfastly engaged in a game or otherwise posed in a way that suggests impermanence. The child in “Picking Up The Pieces,” for example, grasps a white terrycloth towel in her pudgy hand while sitting atop crunched plastic bottles, a precarious seat that will only hold for so long. Román shares:

    The children become physical, dimensional presences, symbols of possibility and resilience that inhabit our space as reminders of hope and imagination… I often depict children because they carry both the innocence of potential and the clarity of truth. In these works, the children aren’t passive. They’re dreaming, resisting, surviving. They become living monuments, carrying the weight of history while pointing us toward the future.

    In his solo exhibition titled Archivos Vivos at The National Puerto Rican Museum in Chicago, the artist presents his mixed-media sculptures and installations as a sort of journey through Puerto Rican identity. As its name suggests, archival imagery and objects appear frequently to illustrate the various influences on this collective experience.

    “Niño Santo” (2011), graphite and charcoal on wood, window frame, wire, rope, iron claw foot

    As part of this exhibition, Román facilitated a pair of workshops that invited community members to reflect on their own experiences and encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and then create either a paper airplane or boat. Participants also responded to a more profound, enduring question: “What does citizenship mean—especially for Puerto Ricans, whose U.S. citizenship was imposed, not chosen?”

    “This workshop came at a time of heightened urgency,” Román says, noting that just days before the gatherings, federal agents visited the museum unannounced. “It was a chilling reminder that our communities are still being surveilled, targeted, and threatened. This is why we must keep telling our stories—why we gather in these spaces to remember, create, and resist.”

    Archivos Vivos is on view through January 17, 2026. A new installation in his Caja De Memoria Viva series will open this October at the National Portrait Gallery, with a replica to follow for Puro Ritmo at the Smithsonian Latino American Museum in April. Until then, keep up with the artist’s work on his website and Instagram.

    “Mi Caridad” (2010), charcoal and graphite on wood, vintage objects (trunk, photos, toys, washboard, and books), 24 x 36 x 24 inches

    “Caja De Memoria Viva II, Sobrevivientes: Digna Quiles” (2018), charcoal on wood, 48 x 49 x 48 inches

    Interior detail of “Caja De Memoria Viva II, Sobrevivientes: Digna Quiles” (2018), charcoal on wood, 48 x 49 x 48 inches

    “Si Yo Sueño,” graphite on wood, vintage suitcase, wood frame, book, twine, wood toy, 17 x 29 x 6 inches

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    Donald Wasswa’s Delicate Wooden Creatures Emerge from a Speculative Future

    “Lutamaguzi” (2025), Albizia, ebony, and copper, 22 x 17 x 14 centimeters. All images courtesy of the artist and Circle Art Gallery, shared with permission

    Donald Wasswa’s Delicate Wooden Creatures Emerge from a Speculative Future

    August 12, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Using the wood of silk trees, ebony, and embedded copper details, Donald Wasswa conjures bold forms evocative of imagined living beings. Based in Kampala, Uganda, Wasswa explores the relationships between—and evolution of—science, technology, society, and environmental transformation. Loosely resembling tentacled jellyfish yet somewhat unsettlingly dark and sharp, his sculptures evoke a distinctive tension between familiarity and the unknown; sentient creatures and the stuff of science fiction.

    Through the process of manipulating materials, Wasswa considers the secret lives of familiar objects “and how they might in turn determine future humans,” says Circle Art Gallery, which represents the artist. If you plan to be in London this fall, see Wasswa’s works at contemporary African art fair 1-54, which runs from October 16 to 19.

    “Kayondo” (2025), Albizia, ebony, and copper, 40 x 26 x 28 centimeters

    Detail of “Kayondo”

    “Muganzi” (2025), Albizia, ebony, and copper, 40 x 34 x 20 centimeters

    “Muhangi” (2025), Albizia, ebony, and copper, 30 x 38 x 30 centimeters

    “Gyagenda” (2025), Albizia, ebony, and copper, 34 x 24 x 20 centimeters

    “Kyomuhendo” (2025), Albizia, ebony, and copper, 38 x 36 x 25 centimeters

    Alternate view of “Muganzi”

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    Through Stacks of Laundry and Humble Vessels, Danym Kwon Cherishes the Mundane

    “Dear Moments” (2025), acrylic gouache on canvas, 51 1/4 x 114 1/2 inches. All images courtesy of Hashimoto Contemporary, shared with permission

    Through Stacks of Laundry and Humble Vessels, Danym Kwon Cherishes the Mundane

    August 11, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    For Danym Kwon, the concept of home is mutable. The artist (previously) recently relocated to San Jose from her native Seoul, having spent just a few years back in South Korea before realizing that she longed to return to the Bay Area where she lived while her children were young.

    “I may never have had a place to stay forever. But wherever we were together became a home,” Kwon says about her move and the paintings and sculptures that emerged from the experience. “These works are my way of holding onto that—of cherishing the moments that pass too quickly.”

    “A Message of Comfort” (2025), acrylic gouache on canvas in cherry wood foldable frame, 22 1/8 x 33 1/2 x 1 1/8 inches

    On view at Hashimoto Contemporary in New York, Dear Moments presents Kwon’s tender, pastel-hued recollections of family life. Tucked within her signature stacks of laundry are small vignettes of siblings digging in the sand at the beach, a couple wandering through an art museum, and a parent snuggled up in bed with their child and a book. The artist’s vessels are similar, depicting a woman strolling along a candy-colored path or a young boy playing with blocks and a toy car.

    Having worked largely on canvas, she ventures into birch sculpture for this exhibition, plucking the doting characters common within her paintings and presenting them in three dimensions.

    Seemingly mundane, these familial scenes become magical and revered in Kwon’s hands. She beckons viewers into a world where even chores like folding clean clothes offer space for reflection and calm. While we might not treasure such simple moments in the present, Kwon suggests, we should hang on dearly to the small embraces and quiet acts of togetherness that ultimately make us feel at home.

    Dear Moments is on view through August 30. Find more from Kwon on her website and Instagram.

    “Looking together” (2025), acrylic gouache on birch plywood, 9 1/4 x 7 1/4 x 1 1/8 inches

    “A Still Life of You” (2025), acrylic gouache on canvas, 35 3/4 x 28 5/8 inches

    “Sand, Stories and a Small House” (2025), acrylic gouache on canvas, 17 7/8 x 17 7/8 inches

    “Sunday” (2025), acrylic gouache on birch plywood, 12 1/2 x 21 3/4 x 1 1/8 inches

    “My Favorite Path” (2024), acrylic gouache on canvas, 35 3/4 x 28 5/8 inches

    “Little Reader’s Nest” (2025), acrylic gouache on paper in cherry wood frame, 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches

    Detail of “Dear Moments” (2025), acrylic gouache on canvas, 51 1/4 x 114 1/2 inches

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