The Artists’ Magazine: A Parallel Practice

The editors of magazine, Sreshta Rit Premnath and Avram Alpert, join Sunny Iyer—Program Director at and Fairs & Editions Coordinator at —for a conversation on artist-run magazines. Together, they will explore the role such publications play in fostering community and discourse outside the frameworks of commercial galleries, museums, and academic institutions.

Since its founding in 2004, Shifter has convened public dialogues and produced 25 serial publications engaging with contemporary art, critical theory, and experimental writing. Premnath and Alpert will reflect on the various forms Shifter took over its fifteen-year run, the communities it helped nurture, and the reasons behind their decision to conclude the project in 2021.

The Artists’ Magazine: A Parallel Practice also serves as the final program for the current exhibition at Asia Art Archive in America, which includes newly commissioned works by artist Sreshta Rit Premnath. The exhibition will be on view through July 25th.

Participant bios:

Sreshta Rit Premnath is an artist from Bangalore living in Brooklyn. His recent installations, videos, and paintings have explored the interdependent relationship between bodies, and the architecture that supports and confines them. He has had solo exhibitions at venues including MIT List Visual Arts Center, Contemporary Art Center Cincinnati, Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver and Nomas Foundation in Rome. He is the founding editor of Shifter, a platform that convened public discussions and produced topical publications at the intersection of art and theory from 2004-2021. He is an Associate Professor of Art at Williams College.

Avram Alpert is a writer of both fiction and nonfiction. He works to understand what values we can live by in our connected, chaotic, and potentially catastrophic times. His most recent book, The Good-Enough Life (Princeton University Press, 2022), was a Financial Times book of the year and has been translated into six languages. His writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and Dissent. From 2014-2021, he was co-editor of Shifter. He teaches in the Writing Program at Princeton University and is the Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Art and Theory Program in New York.

Sunny Iyer collaborates with others to produce art book fairs, workshops, spaces for alternative education, and other related projects. In her role as the Fairs & Editions Coordinator at Printed Matter, she co-organizes the NY and LA Art Book Fairs, presents at Art Book Fairs around the world, and contributes to the organization's print edition series. As Program Director of Wendy's Subway, she curates a wider range of events with a focus on writing workshops and reading groups both in-person and online. She organizes with Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG). Sunny grew up in the Bay Area and holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature and French from Oberlin College.

Light refreshments will be provided.

AAAinA’s general programming and operations are funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the Vilcek Foundation, and other foundations and individuals.

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