EVENT IS FREE BUT RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED: keith@rarenestgallery.com or 708-616-8671

Join Rare Nest for a reception and highly visual presentation celebrating the publication of The Art and History of the Toothpick.

The best collectors develop focused knowledge over time, nurture their passion and build connoisseurship around a specific area. They hunt for fine examples, from dusty attics to commercial marketplaces - a process that is thrilling and sometimes excruciating. If they are diligent, they build groups that illuminate the corners of human history through material culture.  In some very rare cases, great collections describe epochs of human creativity and culture.  Dr. Steven Potashnick is a great example of this rare breed and his Collection illuminates human history as a whole through something small and seemingly insignificant.

Publisher’s statement: “This 340 page hardcover book fills a long ignored void as it references over 1,500 toothpicks and compendiums that includes toothpicks dating from classical antiquity to the late Victorian Era. It is probably the largest collection of toothpicks that presently exists. The book shows over 2,800 high quality images demonstrating the vast diversity in style, complexity, and creativity of toothpicks as an art form for such a historically utilitarian instrument. This book is a conversation starter. You will be surprised, entertained and educated by its contents. It is a  must have addition to a home coffee table, an office reception area and a personal antiques and collectables reference library.

Rare Nest is delighted to present a new novel by Gallery friend Robert Archambeau. We’ve read the galleys of Alice B. Toklas is Missing and can report that this is a fascinating, intense and deep dive into the art world of 1920’s Paris - with connections to Chicago’s North Shore. Please join us as we celebrate with the author. Advance copies will be available or preorder from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

ALICE B. TOKLAS IS MISSING is a novel of comic suspense set among the artists, writers and musicians of Jazz Age Paris.

When aspiring painter Ida Caine’s wanna-be writer husband Teddy drags her to Gertrude Stein’s famous artistic salon in Paris, she finds herself exiled to a corner with the wives of swaggering male geniuses. Will this be her fate? Before Ida can summon the courage to prove herself as an artist, she stumbles onto a plot to kidnap Gertrude Stein’s romantic partner, Alice B. Toklas.

Soon after Alice disappears, Teddy vanishes as well, and Ida is drawn into a world of subterfuge, jealous artists, and outsized literary egos. Surrealism, a young T.S. Eliot, and a journey through the eerie catacombs of Paris lead Ida to the discovery of an avant-garde plot to destroy the Louvre and all the art within it.

 Aided by a cast of sharply-drawn historical figures, Ida must foil the plot, and discover whether Teddy really is the man she thought he was. The action comes to a head at the premiere of Ballet Mécanique, a concert of modern music where rival factions of artists and writers battle in the aisles.

 Alice B. Toklas is Missing combines the American-in-Paris Jazz Age milieu of Midnight in Paris with the satiric bite of Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle and takes us on one woman’s voyage to discover art, love, and her own hidden courage and talent.

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Robert Archambeau is the author of two books each of poetry, literary essays, and academic scholarship. He has worked as a professional art critic, and his work has appeared in Hudson Review, Poetry, Boston Review, and many other venues, and he has received awards and grants from the Swedish Academy, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Academy of American Poets. He chairs the English department at Lake Forest College, keeps adding to his burgeoning art collection, and will soon complete a sequel to Alice B. Toklas is Missing set in the London of Virginia Woolf and her peers, The Bloomsbury Forgery.

January 18th - March 29th, 2020

Born 1927, Princeton Illinois. John Miller’s career - seven decades long - formed a graceful arc of thoughtful conceptualization, experimentation and mastery of arcane media. Rare Nest’s exhibition will offer an exploration of the enormous Miller archive including early work through 2004, when the artist's symptoms of Alzheimer’s became pronounced. With curatorial contributions from Lynne Brown, among others.

The Miller Family and Rare Nest will partner in donating a percentage of all sales to the Alzheimer's Association. This exhibition will be accompanied by additional events and discussions around the disposition of artist's studios - a growing problem. A panel discussion, "Inherited Collections: Blessing or Curse" will be moderated by Dr. David Sokol, alongside leading curators and the heirs to large estates. Visit rarenestgallery.com/events for info.

Opening Reception Saturday, January 18th, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Reservations are required for all events:

keith@rarenestgallery.com or 708-616-8671 / rarenestgallery.com