An Exhibition of original drawings from the new book.
May 28th, 2026
See Available Works by Joana Avillez →
Picture Room is pleased to present The Bottom of the Harbor, a new series of illustrations by Joana Avillez, made over the course of five years for Joseph Mitchell’s seminal 1944 book of essays of the same name. The 2026 re-issue from Penguin features Avillez’s signature black-ink illustrations interspersed throughout Mitchell’s dispatches from a bygone era of New York’s waterfront.
Picture Room itself is situated on a historic stretch of Atlantic avenue overlooking the East River, where longshoremen and ferry operators, perhaps contemporary counterparts to Mitchell’s essay subjects, still make their livings on the cobblestone streets and barnacle-encrusted piers. In this context, Avillez’s original drawings find themselves once again in conversation with New York City’s storied maritime industry, and the many charming characters who inhabit it.
In her introduction, Avillez writes: “By drawing something you get to hold it, see its shape, decide what is important to include. By drawing something you know what is there even when it is not obviously visible: You have to see the back of things to draw the front.”
From a pencil sketch in the corner of an ink drawing, to a glued-together tableau of a harbor stretching nearly four feet long, the works in this series invite the viewers behind the scenes of Avillez’s illustration process: embracing signs of labor rather than seeking to gloss them over.
Joana Avillez, b. 1986, New York, received a BFA in painting from The Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA in illustration at School of Visual Arts. She is the author of Life Dressing and illustrated Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham. Most recently, she has illustrated the Modern Library / Penguin Random House 2026 re-issue of Joseph Mitchell’s The Bottom of the Harbor.
May 27th 2026