The book will coincide with the first Ashmolean NOW exhibition in Gallery 8, opening in July 2023. The Ashmolean NOW Program features exciting works by prominent early to mid-career artists based in the UK, seeking to attract new audiences interested in contemporary art. Artists who have established international reputations and emerging artists whose international status is anticipated with a strong degree of confidence are approached pro-actively. In addition to exhibiting their existing works, all artists are invited to create at least one new work as a response to the museum and/or its collections. This first exhibition presents two linked solo shows: paintings/drawings by Flora Yukhnovich, and paintings/drawings by Daniel Crews-Chubb. The double-sided style of the book will mirror the exhibition concept, while presenting itself as a unique, well designed object that has a life beyond the exhibition.

This beautifully designed book is a celebration of one of the world's most creative, dynamic and fascinating cities: Tokyo. It spans 400 years, with highlights including Kano school paintings; the iconic woodblock prints of Hiroshige; Tokyo Pop Art posters; the photography of Moriyama Daido and Ninagawa Mika; manga; film; and contemporary art by Murakami Takashi and Aida Makoto. Visually bold and richly detailed, this publication looks at a city which has undergone constant destruction and renewal and it tells the stories of the people who have made Tokyo so famous with their insatiable appetite for the new and innovative - from the samurai to avantgarde artists today. Co-edited by Japanese art specialists and curators Lena Fritsch and Clare Pollard from Oxford University, this accessible volume features 28 texts by international experts of Japanese culture, as well as original statements by influential artists.

Ravens & Red Lipstick shortlisted for Photography category in the British Design and Production Awards Ravens & Red Lipstick provides a visually bold survey of Japanese photography's recent history. Drawing together extensive research and a succession of engaging dialogues with both emerging and established photographers, Lena Fritsch traces its development chronologically from the severity of post-war Realism to the diverse ingenuity of photography in contemporary Japan, via the work of movements and groups such as Vivo in the 1960s and'Girl Power' in the '90s. Interspersed are fascinating original interviews with some of the most influential photographers of each era, from Daido Moriyama to Nobuyoshi Araki and Rinko Kawauchi. Interrogating the business, education and art-institutional backdrops to each movement, Fritsch masterfully demonstrates the centrality of these contexts to the form and reception of a cross-section of Japanese photographic works. Fritsch's great achievement is to bring observations from a range of disciplines to bear on her commentary with imagination and clarity. As a result, this comprehensively illustrated volume is both an accessible introduction and an illuminating work of analysis for general readers and aficionados alike.