If Ware sees cities as incubators of despair, German-born artist Christoph Niemann has turned his love affair with urban life into a source of bottomless fun. Abstract City is, in part, a thrillingly imaginative mash note to Niemann's adopted home of New York, where he lived for more than a decade while making his name as a graphic designer and illustrator. Compiled from the visual blog he authors for the New York Times, the

—John McAlley