As part of the 2025/2026 Recontextualize Series, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design (RMCAD) is thrilled to welcome esteemed editor and author of The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing, Adam Moss. RMCAD’s Visiting Artist, Scholar, and Designer (VASD) Program hosts Moss’ conversation with local curator and the book’s project manager, Mardee Goff, on Wednesday, February 10, at 5:30 p.m. MT.
Also taking place on February 10 is the reception for To Persevere or Surrender, an exhibition inspired by Moss’s book featuring local artists Frankie Toan, Chelsea Kaiah, Juan Fuentes, and Catie Michel. The exhibition will be on view in RMCAD’s Philip J. Steele Gallery from February 2, 2026 – March 27, 2026.
Adam Moss is a journalist, editor, and, according to him, sometimes (and with great frustration), a painter. From 2004-2019, he was editor-in-chief of New York Magazine. Under Moss’s leadership, New York and nymag.com won 41 National Magazine Awards, including Magazine of the Year, and a Pulitzer Prize for criticism. Moss’s book The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing is a New York Times bestseller published in 2024 by Penguin Press. The Work of Art is a collection of conversations with notable artists who create culturally significant works across a spectrum of genres. The book’s subjects include Stephen Sondheim, Kara Walker, Sofia Coppola, Barbara Kruger, Taylor Mac, Marc Jacobs, George Saunders, Amy Sillman, David Simon, Samin Nosrat, Shela Heti, and more.
Moss believes that how an artist makes their work is too often overlooked, saying “the end product is not the point.” Sharing about the many artists he has worked with, “what they were consumed by, why they did what they did is because they were consumed by the work.”
Both the artist talk and the exhibition are FREE and open to the public. Register for the conversation and exhibition reception now or watch the live stream online.
