Arion Press

06/27/2024

🐳 📖 “The limited edition from Arion Press in 1979, illustrated and engraved by the esteemed Barry Moser, is gorgeous from the first sentence, where a prophetic
wave curls over the capital C in “Call me Ishmael.” Every fourth page bears a small watermark of the s***m whale, suggesting the omnipresence of existential dread, the whale lurking deep in the sea of life.” Read more about the exhibition currently on view through January 4, 2026 at the link in bio.

06/23/2024

Exploring the intersection of art and literature: “For me, it’s about the beauty of the object” 📖✨Dive into our stunning collaboration with artist Alison Saar in Jessica Zack’s beautiful interview via San Francisco Chronicle. Link in bio.

04/08/2024

Please join us for a compelling conversation on the power of literature to defy censorship as we welcome Azar Nafisi for the second edition of the 2024 Kirkpatrick Speaker Series on Wednesday, May 8th. Tickets available at the link in our bio.

Bestselling author Azar Nafisi will appear in conversation with novelist Ingrid Rojas Contreras to discuss the recent wave of book bannings in America and how reading offers a form of resistance. The talk will draw inspiration from Dr. Nafisi’s most recent book “Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times.”

The Kirkpatrick Speaker Series is made possible by the generous support of Taylor Kirkpatrick.

Cover art from “Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times” by Azar Nafisi.

02/20/2024

Please join us on March 6th for an enriching conversation on the cultural weight of paper as Arion welcomes author Nicholson Baker as the first Kirkpatrick Speaker of 2024. Tickets available at the link in our bio.

Celebrated novelist and culture critic Nicholson Baker will deliver a spirited talk titled “The Weight of Paper” exploring the cultural and physical gravity of the paper book in a digital century. The talk will take inspiration from Baker’s upcoming book “Finding a Likeness: How I Got Somewhat Better at Art.”

The Kirkpatrick Speaker Series is made possible by the generous support of Taylor Kirkpatrick.

01/08/2024

Announcing “the old ways” Broadside | Now Available for Sale at Link in Bio

Arion Press is proud to offer a rare opportunity to acquire moving and beautifully composed verse by Pulitzer-finalist poet Evie Shockley, with a striking linocut image by artist Alison Saar.

The broadside is sponsored through the generosity of Carol Davis and Lenore Davis to join the larger cultural dialogue about reproductive justice and women’s health. Proceeds from its sale will support the work of The Brigid Alliance, a nonprofit organization supporting access to abortion. 

Each broadside has been printed by hand from handset types in 5 colors with 8 press runs on Stonehenge 250 gsm Fawn, 24 x 18 inches. All copies are signed by the poet and artist.

The edition is limited to 100 copies for sale at a purposely accessible price of $200, with 50 additional copies reserved as gifts for The Brigid Alliance and 15 complimentary copies reserved hors commerce for the project’s participants.

12/18/2023

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our “Artistry & Access” event at the Press, featuring Pulitzer-finalist poet Evie Shockley, scholar and author aracelis grimy, non-profit leader Serra Sippel, and moderated by artist Dorka Keehn. The evening celebrated the launch of a limited-edition broadside with a Linocut image by Alison Saar and an original poem by Evie Shockley inspired by the societal dialogue around reproductive rights in today’s charged political climate.

Thank you again to for partnering with us on this incredibly enlightening event.

Only 100 of Evie & Alison’s breathtaking broadside are available for sale — you can pre-order one now at the link in our bio.

10/31/2023

The Western Flyer, made famous in Steinbeck's "Sea of Cortez," returns to its home port in Monterey this Saturday after 75 years away. In 2020, Arion honored the 80th anniversary of Steinbeck's voyage with a limited-edition run of the "Sea of Cortez” with artwork by Richard Wagener, and incorporated salvaged wood from this same vessel in the deluxe slipcase.

The Welcome Home celebration will be held at Monterey's Old Fisherman's Wharf on November 4th from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and will offer tours of this historic boat.

You can purchase a copy of our Fine Press edition of “Sea of Cortez,” or a print of Wagener’s wood engraving of the Western Flyer, on the Arion website.

10/18/2023

Arion's partnership with The Drawing Center kicked off Monday night with a conversation between bestselling author Marlon James and artist Vincent Valdez. The two discussed Kurt Vonnegut, connections to the novel, and their artistic histories and processes. Valdez's artwork for our upcoming edition of "Slaughterhouse-Five" is currently on display at The Drawing Center, along with a selection of our limited edition novels. We were humbled by the presence of Jill Krementz in the audience, and grateful to everyone who made this event such a success. Thank you especially to everyone at , and to and for treating us to such an engaging discussion!

Come celebrate the opening of the two week pop-up this Thursday, October 19th from 5-7 pm at the Drawing Center, and get a sneak peek at a sample copy of our limited-edition run of “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut.

Photo credit:

10/12/2023

Please join us in sending a huge congratulations to María Magdalena Campos-Pons who recently won the 2023 MacArthur Genius Award, given annually to only the most talented and creative people as an investment in their future work. This astounding achievement comes alongside her first career-spanning survey of work in 16 years, “Behold,” which opened in September at the Brooklyn Museum.

We had the honor of collaborating with Campos-Pons along with four other LatinX artists, including Candida Alvarez, Nicolás Guagnini, and Enrique Chagoya, to contribute artwork for our limited-edition “100 Love Sonnets by Pablo Neruda” published in 2022. This book was a hallmark publication for the Arion Press team and is an example of the stunning work that can only be created here.

Visit the links in our bio to read the full article about “Behold” in the New York times, or to order your own copy of “100 Love Sonnets.”

10/05/2023

10/03/2023

Congratulations to whose drawing for our 2022 edition of “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe has been acquired by . We are also honored to have the deluxe edition of our publication accompany Natalie's artwork in the Morgan's collection.

Natalie contributed seven vibrant drawings in gouache and chalk pastel to “The Raven,” which was printed as a companion volume to our publication “Poe’s Phantasia” (2022). Follow the link in our bio to learn more about the book, and to order your own copy with Natalie's stunning images!

09/21/2023

Gallery Opening Party for (un)BANNED | October 14th at 6 p.m.

Books connect human beings across time, space, and experience; they open paths to empathy and act as bulkwards against xenophobia and ignorance. Books are particularly essential to the shaping of young minds. The dramatic rise in attempts to ban books from library shelves and classrooms threatens to escalate divisions, prejudice the next generation, and further marginalize groups that have already suffered cultural censorship and societal silencing. Books about racism, sexuality, gender, religion and history, and those written by authors of color, by LGBTQ+ authors, and by women are most in the line of fire. Arion Press celebrates these books and writers by calling upon 10 Bay Area artists to celebrate the enduring power and importance of stories that celebrate the freedom to know, to see, and to speak truth.

Featured artists: , , , , Lang, , , .is, ,

Photo and design by Brian Singer

09/14/2023

In Conversation with Kenturah Davis | Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery | September 17th at 2pm EST

If you’re in DC this weekend, join Rhea L. Combs (), director of curatorial affairs at the National Portrait Gallery, in conversation with Kenturah Davis ( ) about her signature style of “text drawings.” Two recent projects exemplify how she fuses the acts of writing and drawing: her portraits of Janie Crawford in Arion’s own edition of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and her acclaimed portrait of Ava DuVernay currently on view in the museum’s “Portrait of a Nation” exhibition. Discover how Davis’s work marks cultural histories by inscribing text and language onto intricately layered portraits, all while investigating black identity.

For more information and to reserve your FREE ticket, follow the link in bio

06/28/2023

After-Hours Viewing | Spotlight: Kenturah Davis
Wednesday, June 28, 5-7 PM

FLAG | 545 West 25th Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10001

The Spotlight exhibition series includes a new or never-before-exhibited artwork accompanied by a commissioned piece of writing. It is the hope of this series to create focused and thoughtful dialogues between the visual arts and critics, poets, scholars, etc. In this iteration, the Spotlight features Kenturah Davis’s planar vessel XVII, 2023, with a text by writer and critic Zoë Hopkins.

On view until July 14, 2023

thank you for the beautifully crafted essay. you’re a 💫!

04/26/2023

Please join us in raising a glass to five local authors and members of the Arion Press community who have published books over the past year. At our publication party we’ll mingle and hear informal remarks from our authors, and have the following fantastic new books on hand to sign: Marriages, a collection of stories by Judith Ayn Bernhard, Strangers We Have Known, poetry by John Briscoe; The Shining Mountains, a novel by Alix Christie; Reconceptions: Modern Relationships, Reproductive Science and the Unfolding Future of Family by Rachel Lehmann-Haupt; and On Location, a limited-edition artist book made by Charles Hobsonand built around the Barry Lopez essay of the same name. The reception begins at 5:30 pm, remarks at 6 pm.

03/23/2023

Arion Press Gallery’s Slaughterhouse 5x5 opens on April 15. Reserve your spot for the opening party using the link in our bio.

To celebrate the release of our upcoming edition of Slaughterhouse-Five, the Arion Press Gallery commissioned five Bay Area artists to create new work in response to Kurt Vonnegut’s anti-war classic: Taraneh Hemami, Oliver Hawk Holden, Kevin Keaney, Josué Rojas, and Cate White. 


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The work of each artist will be inspired by the novel’s themes of war, death, incarceration, time travel, science fiction, and masculinity in a contemporary context. This exhibition will be presented by Arion’s Curator-in-Residence Tamsin Smith

03/22/2023

Today the Arion Press is announcing the launch of the King Artist in Residency—a new initiative in honor of the Grabhorn Institute’s late board chair Kevin King. The King Residency will bring visual artists to Arion’s historic facility to create and conceive book and print projects alongside the Press’s team of expert craftspeople. Artists will have the opportunity for hands-on training and collaboration with Arion’s foundry, pressroom, and bindery and enjoy access to unique printmaking equipment, archives, and resources located at the historic press. The King Residency has committed funding for three years and has assembled a Steering Committee of community leaders to guide the program. Each residency will be for up to six weeks, with studio and living space provided for the artist. 

The inaugural artist-in-residence is Texas-born painter Vincent Valdez, who will be working closely with the Arion staff to create the artwork for the Press’s upcoming edition of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (set to be published in September 2023). Valdez will be in residence at the Press from March 13 to April 17. 

03/20/2023

We are thrilled about our new partnership with with the launch of their new box boutique for artist editions, multiples and prints at .

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We are thrilled to launch , our jewel box boutique for artist editions, multiples, and prints from key partners such as and . We are particularly honored to offer two incredible projects published by Arion Press from acclaimed South African artist and current artist-in-residence : Frank Wedekind’s “The Lulu Plays” and Nikolai Gogol’s “The Nose.”

Kentridge’s gorgeous artist books and prints are available now through EXiT, with artist books from $1,250 - $2,000, and prints from $4,150 - $5,500.

Scroll through to see two of Kentridge’s woodcuts from “The Lulu Plays,” as well as photographs from today’s mind expanding conversation at with Kentridge and the inimitable Judith Butler, moderated by . Thank you, Shannon and , for organizing today’s talk and for reminding us why the humanities matter.