#the-art-issue Stories

Parting Shot
Architecture Memes

An Instagram meme account has achieved the unthinkable: it has made architecture funny. Now tag...

Design
When Algorithms Become the Designer

Computers take the lead in Chinese designer Zhang Zhoujie's world.

Tickbait
Arm Candy

A collection of poppy wristwatches by Richard Mille is equal parts delightful and divisive.

Critical
Mark Foster Gage is the Most Prolific Architect of Buildings That Don’t Exist

Blade Runner meets The Wizard of Oz in the New York architect's fantastical work.

Surfacing
This Hammer Museum Curator Uses Cinema to Educate and Empower

Erin Christovale creates inclusive new communities around gender, race, and class.

The Art Issue
These Chinese Bookstores Feel Like Infinity Rooms

Li Xiang, the founder of Shanghai design firm X+Living, dreams up illusory bookstores that forge...

PERSONAL UNIFORM
The Fashion Bricolage of Job Smeets

The Dutch provocateur wears his irreverence on his sleeves.

UPSTARTS
Don’t Want No Scrubs?

Direct-to-consumer brand FIGS is giving the health care industry a dose of millennial cool.

SURFACING
A Japanese Design Studio Threads the Line Between Human and Nature

Takt Project’s lighting fixtures melt and grow like icicles.

The Art Issue
Kahlil Joseph is Challenging Representations of Black Life in America

With his riveting short films and installations, the video artist and filmmaker is emerging as one...

The Art Issue
A Letter From The Editor

Welcome to the new Surface Art Issue.

THE ART ISSUE
Wisdom: Artist Judith Bernstein on #MeToo, Female Rage, and Navigating the Art World

"Women have a lot of rage. I have a lot of rage. My mother had a lot of rage. We should own it."

Events
The Party Vol. 3

Surface hosted its annual party to cap Miami Art Week.

FROM ISSUE NO. 150
Inside Gentle Monster’s New Flagship Boutique, There’s Much More than Meets the Eye

"[We] deliver our most pure intentions and allow the space to curate emotions around the...

Events
The Surface x EMP Experience

The two-day culinary event hosted with Eleven Madison Park, and celebrating Surface’s...

Partnership
Surface and American Express Platinum Celebrate the Art Issue

American Express Platinum and Surface host a dinner in celebration of the magazine’s...