The Goods: Art on the shelf, at the shows, and in the archives
It’s been a minute since the last rendition of The Goods (August 2024, if we’re counting). This series is my running list of what’s caught my eye lately—shows, essays, artists, even the occasional framing trick. Think of it as the grab bag: some things will push your collecting eye, some will just be good to know, and all of them shape how I’m thinking about art right now. All tying back to the idea that taste is a moving target. What matters is building the muscle to notice, and then notice again.
Framing Trick I’m Loving
Not tucked inside the shelf for display, but frames mounted to the shelf face so the artwork hovers in front of the books. A tiny move that changes the whole rhythm of a room, adding depth and making even the most ordinary shelving feel curated. This doesn’t have to tie to a specific art style or interior design - I’ve seen it across styles and spaces. Some of my favorite examples below.
How to play with it at home:
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Proportion is everything. Large enough to be focal, small enough not to block the books. Bonus: use it to hide a router or the stack you don’t want on display.
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No holes required. Command hooks, Velcro strips, or a wire slipped over a hidden nail on top.
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Scale it right. ~60–70% of the column width, with 2–3” of breathing room on the sides.
The Other Art Fair (LA): Four Artists Who Stuck With Me
Paula Pietranera — origami-as-sculpture (Argentinian-American)
Trained as an architect, Pietranera studied Renzuru in Kyoto, a technique where multiple cranes unfold from a single sheet of paper. The works look delicate but hold a quiet power filled with connection, intimacy, and presence.
IG: @paulapietranera
Bella Wattles — Still life painting with a twist (American)
Wattles blends humor and nostalgia—books, toys, fruit, light—into scenes that feel familiar but tip into magical realism. They’re portraits disguised as still life, and the idea of commissioning one with your own anchors is irresistible.
IG: @bellawattles
Juana Céspedes — watercolor miniatures (Spanish)
These are wonderful worlds worth leaning into. Céspedes paints tiny figures in plazas and imagined cities, each scene alive with rhythm, humor, and chance encounters. Joyful and self-taught, her watercolors invite a pause from the everyday.
Sihyeon Park — Reimagined immigrant narratives (Korean-American)
Park paints American still lifes with Korean Hanji paper and natural pigments, creating images that feel both familiar and strange. Comfort recast as something fresh and luminous.
Shows to See
Sangram Majumdar — The Sleep of Reason at Nathalie Karg (through October 6th in NY)
Majumdar paints from the fracture of being Indian and American — neither fully at home nor a stranger. His canvases splice Persian miniatures, Hindu iconography, even children’s tape drawings into layered scenes where figures feel both visible and obscured. Identity is explored through a collage that fits together and refuses to ever fully align.
Upcoming in LA
Hammer’s seventh edition of the biennale Made in LA opening this Saturday with 28 local artists who capture the city’s “cacophonous disorder”. This year in particular, the city has been pulled and pushed the city from fires to ICE raids and beyond so expecting some loud noise. (Details; Opening Party October 4, Exhibit Opens October 5)
Another anticipated show opening later this month at the MOCA and The Brick is Monuments, which juxtaposes Confederate statutes that have been recently toppled around the country with sculptures made by contemporary artists that ask: who get remembered and who decides? (Exhibition details; Opens October 23).
Archive to Bookmark: AWARE
’s September Palette was a delicious read yesterday (highly recommend!) and dutifully sent me down the rabbit hole of this incredible database of women artists, AWARE.
A few favorites:
An Invisible Crown: the voice of Olinda Reshinjabe Silvano — Shipibo-Konibo artist and community organizer on kené, collective practice, and visibility in Lima’s Cantagallo.
Pedagogy is political: the Women’s School of Planning and Architecture (WSPA) — 1975–79 summers where space, care, and power were taught together.
Lina Bo Bardi — from architecture to furniture and jewlery design, proof that humble materials can carry civic life and be the epitome of chic.
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