On Painting and the Nature of Work

Luminosity Lab
2026

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Amy Ellingson’s On the Nature of Work 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.

Structured with underlying grids like those that animate Ellingson's paintings, the design holds the tension between her analogue and digital practice. The cover’s mix of fluorescent ink on cloth creates a fluid movement between timeless, luminous and tactile that gives the object its charge. The interior typography grounded in it’s grid but never static gives a through line of Ellingson's structural rigor, bright color and expressiveness.

Creative Direction
Caleb Cain Marcus
Publisher
The Necessarian
Author
Amy Ellingson
Editor
Nancy Zastudil
Contributor
Bett Williams
Contributor
Terry Castle