TheWrapBook: The Art of Television 2026

The Art of Television 2026 SARAH PIDGEON WEARS DRESS BY ALAÏA. ALL JEWELRY BY CHANEL. PHOTO BY ROMAN KOVAL “There was a time when cinema was our clearest reflection of the culture. Today, that conversation increasingly belongs to television. Perhaps it’s the rhythm of the medium itself. Television unfolds over weeks and months rather than hours, allowing characters to evolve with a complexity that mirrors our own lives. It has become the place where we wrestle with questions of identity, ambition, power, intimacy and belonging — not as fixed ideas, but as ongoing negotiations. The most memorable series of the past year don’t offer easy answers. Instead, they invite us to sit with contradiction. We hope this issue reflects that spirit: a celebration of the artists, craftspeople and storytellers redefining what television can be, and a reminder that the most compelling stories are often those that help us better understand ourselves.” —Andrew Wren and Michaela Dosmantes, Co-Editorial Directors LAMORNE MORRIS WEARS SUIT BY BRUNELLO CUCCINELLI, JEWELRY AND WATCH, HIS OWN. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROMAN KOVAL Faces of 2025 A museum in Los Angeles, a gallery in New York and 12 of the year’s most compelling actors. At LACMA and Sprüth Magers, we photographed the performers who defined this season of television—and asked them what art has to do with it. SARAH PIDGEON WEARS JACKET, TROUSERS, SHOES AND ALL JEWELRY BY CHANEL. PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAURENCE ELLIS A Love Story The stars of FX’s record-breaking show have brought Camelot’s most talked-about romance back to life, capturing its glamour, longing and inevitable heartbreak. LOUISA JACOBSON WEARS DRESS BY BOTTEGA VENETA. EARRINGS BY POMELLATO. PHOTOGRAPHY BY NAGI SAKAI Being Louisa As Marian Brook on HBO’s The Gilded Age, Louisa Jacobson has spent three seasons transforming from a penniless ingenue into a woman slowly finding her place among New York’s elite. BLADE RUNNING (HARRISON FORD) Cotton 35 x 27 x 1 INCHES Franco Franco James and Tom Franco were born a few days shy of two years apart, to parents who met as painters at Stanford and then both stopped. Their sons didn’t. EXCELLENCES & PERFECTIONS (POSTED ON 19 JUNE 2014)DIGITAL IMAGE COURTESY OF AMALIA ULMAN AND RHIZOME AT THE NEW MUSEUM Performing the Self When posting yourself online becomes a job, who’s really doing the watching? NECKLACE BY BVLGARI. Valerie’s Reflection For 20 years, Lisa Kudrow has embodied Valerie Cherish in fleeting bursts—three seasons spread across as many decades. After The Comeback’s final run, Kudrow reflects on how age has softened Valerie’s desperation into something closer to grace, and why saying goodbye to a character this enduring might not really be goodbye at all. UNTITLED, 2003 (VIDEO STILL) SD VIDEO TRANSFERRED TO DIGITAL FORMAT, SILENT, 60 MIN. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND MARIAN GOODMAN GALLERY Holding the Line Antiheroes are out. TV has handed the lead to exhausted professionals patching institutions too broken to fix. MAIA & JEREMY ON THE TUBE, 2026 OIL AND GEL TRANSFER ON LINEN 11 X 9 INCHES BY ELMER GUEVARA L.A. Confidential I Love LA has spent its first season skewering and celebrating the ambition, chaos and codependency that comes with trying to make it in Los Angeles. TRASH DOLL (USA), 2023 COLORED PENCIL, WATERCOLOR, ACRYLIC, BEER, HUMAN HAIR, BLOOD, BAKING SODA, BURN HOLES ON PAPER12 X 14 INCHES Aurel Schmidt, Trash Dolls Since 2019, Aurel Schmidt has drawn her Trash Dolls: figures assembled from the detritus of downtown New York—plastic baggies, candy wrappers, human hair, the odd Swarovski crystal. PLURIBUS ARTWORK BY DAMIEN NICOLAS ROUX Material World Inside the invented universes of four of the year’s most transporting shows, built from real brick, salvaged fuselage, 3D-printed marble and hardware that could pass for NASA’s. GRETCHEN BENDER, TOTAL RECALL, 1987, 8-CHANNEL VIDEO INSTALLATION: 24 MONITORS, 3 PROJECTIONS, COLOR, SOUND, 18:00 MIN, COURTESY OF SPRÜTH MAGERS GALLERY Little Screens Everywhere As the world moves increasingly online, contemporary artists and institutions are seemingly becoming more and more enamored with television’s rapidly outmoding place in our homes and our hearts—as a rash of TV-centric exhibitions this year suggests. RICHARD PRINCE, SURFING NURSE #2, 2003 INKJET PRINT AND ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 78 1/4 X 91 INCHES PHOTOGRAPHY BY MAGNUS UNNAR A Curious Eye Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer opens his Los Angeles home to talk Warhol, Richter and a Murakami he bought over Instagram. FEEDING THE TURTLE 2016 OIL ON LINEN 66 X 78 X 1 1/2 INCHES © 2026 ERIC FISCHL / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY Members Only Sometimes, the sweet thing you’re after is actually poison. JAMES BURROWS ARTWORK BY LARA APPONYI In Memoriam: James Burrows The television legend directed more than 1,000 episodes of TV and won 11 Emmys, but few viewers ever knew his name. The Cheers co-creator, who died in June at 85, spent five decades perfecting the multi-cam sitcom. Buy an original print copy of TheWrapBook vol. 6 HERE. TheWrapBook Digital Edition