Left, right, center: Regardless of partisan identity, the common wisdom is that some qualities and aspirations unite us all.

asks a young man named Tobey midway through Brian Castleberry’s “The Californians,” an ambitious, widescreen novel about the ugliness that often ensues when art and commerce collide.

Ed. 2024. Routledge. “Beauty and Ugliness in African Art and Culture: The Case of the Mande Kɔmɔ,” in The Language of beauty in African Art. Constantine Petridis. Ed. 2022. The Art Institute of ...