As fall brings a chill to northern climes, the publishing world heats up with a flurry of new art books arriving just in time for the holidays. Among the notable releases is a work from photographer Pacifico Salino, an enchanting debut by makeup artist Marcelo Gutierrez, and Gorgeous!, a collection of Mel Odom’s bold, sensual paintings and drawings. Whether for a friend, a family member, or someone who seems to have it all—maybe that’s you!—everyone can use an art book, a.k.a: a gallery exhibition you can visit in your pajamas, a portal to far-off places, a new way of seeing the world…
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Top L: Tina Barney, Marina’s Room, 1987; from Tina Barney: Family Ties, Aperture; Bottom L: Tina Barney, Graham Cracker Box, 1983; from Tina Barney: Family Ties, Aperture, 2024. All: Courtesy of Aperture.Family Ties by Tina Barney
Beginning in the 1970s and spanning three decades, Family Ties outlines Tina Barney’s impressive career in 60 large-format photos. Known for applying her distinct style to both posed and candid portraiture, Barney places the viewer inside the subject’s world: sometimes onto a bed with a father and daughter, other times, inviting us to make eye contact with a family’s teenage daughter while her mom proudly looks on and her brother sits idly reading. Family Ties effectively transports readers into the upper-middle-class milieu that Barney has embedded herself in. (Aperture)
Shadow Cast by Pacifico Salino
Shadow Cast is, itself, a work of art. Hand-bound and risograph printed, the edition, limited to just 500 copies, is comprised of stills Salino captured from vintage gay pornographic films, blown up to life-size—an exploration of and commentary on masculinity and queer identity. Most are intimate black-and-white “portraits,” framed traditionally at three-quarter and obscured through rasterization and the grittiness of the film grain, contributing to the sense of ambiguity and tension. (Loose Joints)
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Courtesyf of the artist and Apartamento Publishing.Gorgeous! By Mel Odom
Bursting with vibrant pastels, airbrush-like gradients, muscular bodies, and full lips, painter Mel Odom’s Gorgeous! is an invitation to indulge. From the delicate line of a cheetah’s whiskers to the stars behind a fabulous Statue of Liberty, his signature precision shines through in these paintings and drawings. Amidst the striking and luxurious images is a tender conversation between Odom and Luis Venegas ( of Apartamento), his friend and collaborator. “I drew who I wished I was,” Odom says of his work. (Apartamento)
Nothing Precious by Marcelo Gutierrez
In this celebration of New York’s fashion scene, makeup artist Marcelo Gutierrez’s metier appears in vibrant photographs by Renell Medrano and Aidan Zamiri. Gutierrez, who has made up cover stars for Dazed, Elle, and Vanity Fair, as well as faces on countless runways and red carpets, has a formal background in fine art. “He works from the inside out, not the other way around. He knows there is no blueprint for ‘good makeup.’ It is something that is deeply personal, specific to each individual,” Lily-Rose Depp, actress and longtime collaborator of Gutierrez, writes in her introduction to the book. Featuring subjects like Paloma Elsesser, Lourdes Leon, and Joan Smalls, Nothing Precious champions the work of not only Gutierrez but of the people around him. (Nothing Precious)
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Courtesy of the artist / Mother Tongue.Extreme Pain, Extreme Joy by Maggie Shannon
In an America where women’s healthcare and bodily autonomy are increasingly under threat, photographer Maggie Shannon’s Extreme Pain, Extreme Joy stands as a bold and radical statement. This intimate celebration of birthing bodies—the first installment in a series by publisher Mother Tongue, which aims to present rich perspectives on women’s stories—explores birth as both an ordinary and extraordinary experience. Shot in black and white, the photographs capture midwife-led home births in early March 2020, when the world entered lockdown, providing a rare and powerful glimpse into the transformative moment of women becoming mothers. “This story is not just about medical procedures but also the social, emotional, and psychological journeys that people go through.” Shannon writes. (Mother Tongue)
Gure Bazterrak (Our Land) by Anne Rearick
Gure Bazaterrak (Our Land), photographed by Anne Rearick, is set in the Basque hinterland, nestled between Spain and France. Rearick first visited the region in 1990 and has spent the past 30 years returning to Donibane, a small village in the area. While the book includes sweeping landscapes of this almost fantastical mountainous terrain, Rearick’s photographs focus less on the land itself, and more on the deep connection the Basque people have to it: farming and the human-animal relationship in the region, as well as how homes are organically nestled into the landscape rather than dominate it. Rearick’s technical expertise is evident in her lush grayscale images, which balance rich blacks and bright whites. Yet, her perspective on the people is tender, offering them space to play and stand tall with dignity. (Deadbeat Club)