The Future of Art Book Publishing - Margaret Chace, Paul Chan, Sharon Gallagher, Chul R. Kim, Arezoo Moseni

Event Details

FREE - South Court Auditorium doors open at 5:30 p.m.

 A New Avant-Gard (Museum of Modern Art, NY)Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Gard (Museum of Modern Art, NY)

In the face of Amazon.com, bookstore closures, self-publishing options, and shrinking library budgets, who is publishing art books and how are they reaching consumers and researchers alike? Commercial publishers and distributors, as well as independent and grassroots organizations, must confront the sea-change in how readers interact with the printed word. E-books and other digital formats are gaining in popularity for fiction readers and an increasing number of academic disciplines, yet very few art books meet the digital demand, even as more images of art are available online. Moreover, art books remain expensive to produce due to the necessity of high-quality, and often high-priced, image reproductions, among other vexing issues.  

This panel, organized by ARTBOOK | D.A.P., ARLIS/NY and in collaboration with Arezoo Moseni, investigates how diverse publishers approach their long term viability in the commercial and academic marketplaces

The panel features leading figures in the rapidly changing world of art book publishing, including Margaret Chace, Associate Publisher, Skira-Rizzoli; Paul Chan, artist, Founder of Badlands Unlimited; Sharon Gallagher, President and Publisher of ARTBOOK | D.A.P.; and Chul R. Kim, Associate Publisher, The Museum of Modern Art. The discussion is moderated by Arezoo Moseni Senior Art Librarian at The New York Public Library.

Urs Fischer (Skira-Rizzoli)Urs Fischer (Skira-Rizzoli)

Margaret Chace has worked in art book publishing in New York as an editor and in various management positions since 1983. Currently she is Associate Publisher of Skira Rizzoli, an imprint of Rizzoli International Publications that specializes in art and museum books. She joined Rizzoli in 2010 after 8 years as Managing Editor at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she helped manage the publication program of exhibition and collection catalogues, quarterly member bulletins, wall signage, and edited the Metropolitan Museum Journal for 6 years. Prior to the Met, she was Vice President and Managing Editor at Abrams, where she worked for 18 years both editing a diverse range of titles and serving on the management team. 

Paul Chan is an artist who lives and works in New York. His work has been exhibited widely in many international shows including: Documenta 13, Kassel, 2012; Before The Law, Ludwig Museum, Cologne, 2011-12; Making Worlds, 53rd Venice Biennale, Venice, 2009; Medium Religion, ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2008; Traces du sacrê, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2008 and the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of Art, New York, 2006. Recent solo exhibitions include Paul Chan: The 7 Lights, Serpentine Gallery, London and New Museum, New York, 2007–2008. In 2007, Chan collaborated with the Classical Theatre of Harlem and Creative Time to produce a site-specific outdoor presentation of Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot in New Orleans. Chan’s essays and interviews have appeared in Artforum, Frieze, Flash Art, October, Tate etc, Parkett, Texte Zur Kunst, Bomb, and other magazines and journals. Chan founded Badlands Unlimited, a press devoted to publishing artists writings and writings about art in paper and digital forms in 2010.

 Atlas (D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers)Gerhard Richter: Atlas (D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers)

Sharon Gallagher is the President and Publisher of ARTBOOK | D.A.P., the publishing and art book distribution company she co-founded in downtown New York in 1990, then known simply as D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers. Over the last 20 years, the company has selected, catalogued, publicized and distributed more than 12,000 titles on art, photography, architecture, design and visual culture from the world's most respected museums and fine arts publishers. Under Gallagher's editorial guidance, the D.A.P. Publishing imprint has also published or co-published dozens of major monographs, writing collections and surveys, including Gerhard Richter: Atlas. She is also the co-publisher of Metropolis Books, the urbanism, architecture and design imprint. Since 2008, Gallagher has served as the Executive Director of ARTBOOK, which sells books directly to consumers through its website ARTBOOK.COM, at permanent locations like ARTBOOK @ MoMA P.S.1 and at temporary locations like Frieze New York, Art Basel Miami, the Hong Kong International Art Fair and many others. Under Gallagher’s stewardship, ARTBOOK | D.A.P. has embraced not just distribution, but also digital books, publishing, retailing and event management. Prior to founding D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, she held positions as the Rights Director and Managing Editor at Abbeville Press. She is a graduate of Yale University, summa cum laude, with honors in Philosophy and in the joint Economics and Political Science Program. She holds an M.A. in Philosophy from Columbia University, where she was a University Fellow.

Chul R. Kim is Associate Publisher at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where he oversees the digital-publishing strategy and international collaboration for both print and digital projects. He previously served for nine years as Director of Publications and Editor-in-Chief of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. He earned his MA in French Literature at New York University and was a Fulbright Scholar in France.

American artist Arezoo Moseni (born in Iran), received a BFA at Utah State University, a MA and MFA at the University of New Mexico, and a MLIS at Pratt Institute. Her work has been exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions at major venues in the United States and abroad, and it is held in numerous public and private collections including the Brooklyn Museum, Bibliotheque nationale de France, Mead Gallery and Musee de La Photographie. She is the recipient of several fellowships and grants including the Carnegie Corporation of New York | New York Times award, Kentler International Work on Site grant, Yaddo Fellowship and Artists Space Independent Project grant. As NYPL's senior art librarian she curates exhibitions and events at New York Public Library where she has initiated several exhibition and program series featuring the work of emerging and renowned artists, authors, critics, designers and others.