Nari Ward Freedom Gallows

In the hands of sculptor Nari Ward, a host of found materials like shoestrings, baby strollers and shopping carts are recontextualized into thought-provoking art pieces that challenge pressing social and political issues. From Ward’s We the People meditating on American democracy to his award-winning Amazing Grace installation confronting the AIDS crisis and drug epidemics of the 1990s, he has tackled the complexities of race, poverty, consumer culture and national identity.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Ward moved to New York City in the 1970s and earned a bachelor’s degree from the City University of New York in 1989 and a Master of Fine Arts in 1992. He created his breakthrough piece, Amazing Grace, while attending a residency in 1993 at the Studio Museum in Harlem. The work involves 365 abandoned baby strollers and fire hoses installed in a ship-like shape while Mahalia Jackson’s version of the famous hymn plays over a speaker.

Ward combats social injustices by looking for ways to transform these ideological concepts into a physical form. Frequently, he is struck by an object found on the street in which he sees a story. Ward uses different materials to create a dialogue and play on themes like healing, reclamation and violence. In Iron Heavens, scorched baseball bats signify brutality and rejuvenation, while over 300 oven pans symbolize a night sky. 

His decades of dedication to his practice have included commissions from the United Nations and World Health Organization. His many exhibitions include shows at MCA Denver, New York’s New Museum, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and the 45th Venice Biennale in Italy. Both private and public collectors around the world seek out Ward’s art, with his work held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the National Gallery of Victoria in Southbank, Australia. 

Ward has received a number of accolades over his career, including a fellowship from the United States Artists, the Vilcek Prize in Fine Arts from the Vilcek Foundation, the Joyce Foundation’s Joyce Award and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Rome. 

On 1stDibs, find a collection of Nari Ward’s prints and multiples.

Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.

Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.

The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.

Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.

Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.

Decorating with fine art prints — whether they’re figurative prints, abstract prints or another variety — has always been a practical way of bringing a space to life as well as bringing works by an artist you love into your home.

Pursued in the 1960s and ’70s, largely by Pop artists drawn to its associations with mass production, advertising, packaging and seriality, as well as those challenging the primacy of the Abstract Expressionist brushstroke, printmaking was embraced in the 1980s by painters and conceptual artists ranging from David Salle and Elizabeth Murray to Adrian Piper and Sherrie Levine.

Printmaking is the transfer of an image from one surface to another. An artist takes a material like stone, metal, wood or wax, carves, incises, draws or otherwise marks it with an image, inks or paints it and then transfers the image to a piece of paper or other material.

Fine art prints are frequently confused with their more commercial counterparts. After all, our closest connection to the printed image is through mass-produced newspapers, magazines and books, and many people don’t realize that even though prints are editions, they start with an original image created by an artist with the intent of reproducing it in a small batch. Fine art prints are created in strictly limited editions — 20 or 30 or maybe 50 — and are always based on an image created specifically to be made into an edition.

Many people think of revered Dutch artist Rembrandt as a painter but may not know that he was a printmaker as well. His prints have been preserved in time along with the work of other celebrated printmakers such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol. These fine art prints are still highly sought after by collectors.

“It’s another tool in the artist’s toolbox, just like painting or sculpture or anything else that an artist uses in the service of mark making or expressing him- or herself,” says International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) vice president Betsy Senior, of New York’s Betsy Senior Fine Art, Inc.

Because artist’s editions tend to be more affordable and available than his or her unique works, they’re more accessible and can be a great opportunity to bring a variety of colors, textures and shapes into a space.

For tight corners, select small fine art prints as opposed to the oversized bold piece you’ll hang as a focal point in the dining area. But be careful not to choose something that is too big for your space. And feel free to lean into it if need be — not every work needs picture-hanging hooks. Leaning a larger fine art print against the wall behind a bookcase can add a stylish installation-type dynamic to your living room. (Read more about how to arrange wall art here.)

Find fine art prints for sale on 1stDibs today.