Smoked Volume 1

by Warren Rubin Nearly a year old, Smoked Volume 1 is still a platform for the importance of pipe blowing within the glass blowing industry. Connecting pipe blowers to a broader audience, the book aims to highlight how pipe blowing pushes the boundaries of the art form, testing the medium's limitations whenever possible and placing it as a driving force among glass art and sculpture. …

Grifted Boutique

by Ashley Eldridge Stuffed Mao Zedong dolls and candy wrapper curtains beckon from the windows of the Grifted shop on Beijing's famed Nanluoguxiang. Inside, irreverence reigns. Barack Obama, decked out in a Superman suit (all the more fitting post-Nobel), nestles up against Fidel Castro and miniscule Napoleon dolls. (The little dictator doesn't come full-size.) Bedazzled Buddhas and reindeer pandas dot pre-cut squares of wrapping paper. …

Paolo Ventura: Winter Stories

by Anna Carnick Photographer Paolo Ventura’s new book "Winter Stories" follows an old circus performer’s visions as he looks back on his life during his final moments. Wonderfully, Ventura built the protagonist’s haunting and melancholy world with his own bare hands, constructing incredibly detailed miniature sets from props he collected at flea markets, and then photographed them to appear life-size. The result is a dark …