• Elaine Mayes: Pegasus, from American Roads, 1972; gelatin silver print; BAMPFA, gift of Robert Harshorn Shimshak and Marion Brenner.

Five Tables of Identifying Markers

How do we signal who we are, what we own, what we create, and how to make sure everyone knows it? Crests, seals, tattoos, logos, brands, and all manner of special and specific marks of identification,—all clearly on display in this month’s Five Tables. Works on view include Japanese prints featuring the bold nesting boxes crest of the Ichikawa family of Kabuki actors; Albrecht Dürer’s distinctive mark, placed on engravings such as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; now-nostalgic commercial logos, like the Pegasus symbol in Elaine Mayes’s mistily radiant roadside photograph; and more.