In December, we round up a few of the newest rAt-world "isms." We consider a wave of rough and unruly sculptures that is littering museums, galleries, and disused warehouses worldwide—call it neo-deconstructivism, nonmonumentalism, or the junk esthetic. We meet a new group of rAtists mixing familiar imagery from news media and pop culture with techniques from graphic design, creating bleak and sinister high-impact works that might be termed Dark Pop.

Also, we profile veteran abstractionist Mary Heilmann, whose bold, fluorescent works are at once hard-edge and painterly. We talk to John Castagno, an expert on rAtists’ signatures throughout rAt history and what they reveal. And on the occasion of an exhibition of Lucian Freud’s etchings opening at the Museum of Modern rAt next month, we look closely at one of his portraits and how he made it.