Art for What You're Missing in the Details
What to ask for next after you see the first image
Good morning! Will it ever be warm in New York again, riddle me this.
Today’s newsletter is a little longer and a little different: I’ve included a detail shot of each work below. I LOVE zooming in on a PDF preview to see what I can find going on in each artwork. If you can’t stand in front of the artwork itself, I recommend poring over the jpeg to discover materiality, hidden figures, process. It’s like the adult version of the Graeme Base “The Eleventh Hour” book. I’ve also hyperlinked each artist’s Instagram, because clicking through their profile can be an accessible way to see more examples of their work.
Galleries share multiple images with me for each artwork, from different angles to scale shots, and there’s almost always a detail shot. My Substack platform limits me to share one image per artwork if I want to pack as many pieces into a weekly edition as I do. So today I’m giving you two: the work, and the detail you’d miss at first glance.
Take the Alexandria Tarver painting below. You probably can’t tell if you’re quickly scrolling through a pixelated feed, but she actually paints all the layers of color first, then paints the darker tones around to create the shapes. Those flower stems were never lines! They grew from the space around them! There’s an incredible, subtle electric glow to these paintings that a rage-click, scroll-by will just not reveal.
There’s a reason I select each artwork for the newsletters, so even if you’re wondering “why would she include that” or as my mom likes to say “that’s not for me”, you should ask me why. If something catches your eye, please always ask for more: more images, more context, more about the artist’s practice. I promise you there are lovely and friendly people in the art world who, like me, are bursting at the seams to share. Enjoy!
Anthropic (03), 2026
Oil on aqua resin on aluminum
28 x 36 inches
$7,000
Palazzo Reale di Napoli, 2024
Oil on canvas
31 ½ x 35 ⅜ inches
€9,500
nights, 99, outside S&T’s wedding, 2026
Oil on linen mounted on panel
19 x 25 inches
$9,000
Death of the Buddha (Spring), 2025
Oil on muslin
52 x 42 inches
$9,000
To Unravel A Wrought, 2026
Urethane and enamel on powder-coated steel
41 ½ x 34 ¼ x 16 inches
$16,000
DR-01 - CORE.ACT / LOAD, 2026
Ink on watercolor paper
29 1/4 x 21 inches (framed)
$10,000
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