The Necessarian + Company specializes in monographs and artist-authored titles.
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Jay Shinn’s practice begins with a question: What do we see? With a focus on the past twenty years, this career monograph examines the work of American painter Jay Shinn (b. 1957), who has distinguished himself by exploring minimal geometric abstraction and spatial illusion through color, line, and light projection. The limits he sets on his practice—rules that individual works and bodies of work must follow—open up a vast field of visual expression and possibilities, all in pursuit of the soul or spirit of his art.
With contributions from Alison de Lima Greene, Peter Soriano, and Jeremy Strick.
Hardcover, 9 x 12 in. / 144 pages, full color
Design by Mortimer Lebigre; printing by die Keure
ISBN 979-8-9913467-0-2
$60 + $10 domestic shipping (free pick up in Dallas) or $20 International shipping
In Search of Alluvium is a conversation between an artist and the Los Angeles River, an exchange that takes place at the River’s liminal space, documenting the interplay of the natural world and the human world. Author and photographer Avital Oehler returned to the Los Angeles River again and again in an attempt to understand how it fits into the metropolis, and how the metropolis fits into it.
In Search of Alluvium is also an experiment in book design. Oehler’s minimal aesthetic not only questions the book medium itself, breaking it down to its essential parts, but also lays bare the necessity of seeing the River at this pivotal moment in its history – torn between those who want to rewild it, those who want to freely live at its banks, and those who are concerned with their property values.
Approximately 6.5 x 5 inches / color and black-and-white images
Design, printing, and assembly by the artist
Published September 2025
ISBN: 979-8-9913467-1-9
$50 + $5 Domestic shipping; 4 - 7 business days or $20 international shipping: 7 - 14 business days
Artist Amy Ellingson recounts and examines the events of a year-long flow state, shaped by the intense pressure of preparing a major exhibition, during which she contends with the deep mysteries of painting, reckons with her artistic forebears, and wrestles with existential questions.
In 2016, Amy Ellingson embarked on the task of mounting a major solo exhibition of paintings. As she prepared to push herself to the limit in the studio, a chance encounter with a hummingbird hovering inches from her face spurred an extended flow-state experience.
In this state, time is elastic. Perception sharpens, dreams intensify, and a pattern of synchronicities and signals accumulates around the work. Companion guides—both real and fictional—appear, prompting a deep questioning of what it means to spend a life making art. Ellingson intersperses the logistics of creating paintings with poetic association and inquiry, opening onto the larger questions of devotion, mortality, and meaning.
Recounted with candid sensitivity through prose and poetry, and supported by generous artwork reproductions, On Painting and the Nature of Work proposes that the rigors of artmaking can be genuinely, unforgettably transformative.
"This is a gripping and alive integration of influences, magical transmissions, insights into composition and vision that open doors for the reader to help us see our own world with more color and clarity. Amy Ellingson's zest for life frees her to be self-aware about her aesthetics and her emotions with an infectious sincerity and commitment to understand. In the tradition of Anne Truitt's Prospect, this could easily become a classic for painters and art lovers alike." —Sarah Schulman
2026 STA 100 Winner (Society of Typographic Awards)
With contributions from Terry Castle and Bett Williams.
Hardcover, 6.3 × 9.5 in. / 288 pages, full color
Design by Luminosity Lab; printing by robstolk
ISBN 979-8-9913467-2-6
PRE-RELEASE PRICE UNTIL JULY 22 ONLY: $48 + $10 shipping (4 - 7 business days)