ICONS vol.2

ICONS vol.2 Shintaro Kago – Historical Figures as Specimens

ICONS vol.2 Shintaro Kago is a compact A4 illustration artbook published by The Mansion Press. It presents 52 colour portraits of historical figures, treated not as icons in the reverential sense, but as subjects: observed, fixed, and rendered with deliberate formal control. The tone is clinical. The colour is precise. Nothing is incidental.

About the Work

The premise of the ICONS project is consistent across volumes: historical figures are approached as specimens rather than symbols. In this second volume, Kago applies his characteristic formal discipline to the portrait format — each image contained, each colour decision accountable. The softcover with French flaps gives the object a portfolio quality. It is thin by design, and it reads as a sequence rather than a collection of isolated images.

The volume functions as a standalone publication. It does not require prior familiarity with the series. It also locks into the larger 4-volume ICONS project without redundancy — the logic of the set becomes clearer when this volume is read alongside ICONS vol.1. Each volume is governed by the same hand, the same restraint, and the same refusal of decoration.

Publisher

ICONS vol.2 is published by The Mansion Press, a publisher whose output is represented in the Lokator100 catalogue through a selection of carefully produced artist publications.

Collection Context

This title is held within the Artbooks & Artist Publications section of the shop — a category that brings together illustration books, artist-led projects, and publications that sit at the boundary between print object and visual document. Further titles by Shintaro Kago are available in the shop.