Accompanying the artist’s first solo exhibition at Greene Naftali, On Barnett Newman, 1991–2023 surveys Diao’s decades-long fascination with the Abstract Expressionist master. This richly illustrated catalog documents a cycle of paintings that tabulate the elder artist’s career, through lushly painted charts, lists, and diagrams that filter abstraction through the lens of tribute.

An original essay by Jeffrey Weiss details the complex blend of reverence and wry humor for which Diao has become known, citing this series as emblematic of his “foundational critical ambivalence regarding modernism—its role as a source of pleasure and skepticism in equal measure.”