Higher Love

Phaidon and Artspace are proud to present Higher Love, 2026, a new limited-edition silkscreen print by Michael Kagan. Known for his distinctive painting style that is rooted in both figuration and abstraction, Kagan frequently draws from imagery of space exploration, focusing on astronauts as contemporary icons. In Higher Love, the astronaut figure is rendered through layered, angular mark-making, a process that has become central to the artist’s practice for nearly two decades. Working from photographic source material, Kagan builds his compositions through fractured planes of color, translating moments of stillness into something more dynamic. As the artist explains, “I want the paintings to function both instantly and slowly. Ideally there’s an immediate impact — boom, image. You recognize the astronaut instantly. But as the viewer gets closer, the brush marks begin to take over, and the image starts to fall apart. That tension between clarity and collapse is important to me.” Produced as a full-bleed silkscreen and signed on the front, Higher Love features a beautiful deckled edge and measures 30 x 20 inches. Proceeds from the sale of the edition will benefit the non-profit organization Animal Haven, as chosen by the artist, which works to find permanent homes for abandoned cats and dogs.