The Drifters Project Harnesses Community to Clean the Oceans and Visualize Global Plastic Pollution
In 2006, Pam Longobardi traveled to Ka Lae, the southernmost tip of Hawaii’s Big Island, for a residency. Cradled by a rugged coastline and high cliffs towering over the Pacific Ocean, the point marks a confluence of currents where marine life and debris gather on shore, making it a popular fishing spot and unintentional waste collection site. “There I saw an immense multitude of colors and forms of plastic that was being vomited out of the ocean, piled so deep it was beyond my arm’s reach to the bottom,” Longobardi tells Colossal. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/drifters-project-pam-longobardi/
Open Call: Empower Your Practice With the NOT REAL ART Grant for Artists
Let your art shine: Calling all creative minds working in the realm of visual art! The NOT REAL ART 2024 Grant Program is now accepting submissions. If you’re ready, so are we. Submit your work today for a chance to win an unrestricted cash award of $2,000, and more in PR and marketing support. There is no application fee.
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In ‘Heirloom Machine,’ Kate Van Vliet Catalogues Daily Routines One Eggshell at a Time
Kate Van Vliet’s Fault Lines series began with a neighborly gesture. “While sequestered at home during the pandemic with twin infants, our neighbors started giving us fresh eggs from their backyard flock,” she says. “The colors of the eggs were so beautiful, and as the shells accumulated on our kitchen counter each day, I knew I wanted to use them in my artwork.”
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/kate-van-vliet-heirloom-machine/
Victoria Rose Richards Surveys Land From Above in Atmospheric Embroidered Landscapes
Aerial fields of vision emerge from Victoria Rose Richards’ embroidered landscapes. Setting scenes from up above, the artist (previously) uses thread to achieve a variety of patterns and textures, implementing satin stitches and french knots to form curiously shaped fields, patches of trees, and bodies of water. The majority of her pieces take at least 10-25 hours each, with every meticulous detail shining through at the end.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/victoria-rose-richards/
Play Meets Ink in Roy Scholten’s Ongoing LEGO Letterpress Bird Series
Roy Scholten is wrapping up a years-long printing project with dozens of playfully rendered fowl. 50 Birds is an ongoing series that uses LEGO in place of lead type to create curved beaks, long tails, and rounded bellies. With only three species—hawfinch, reed bunting, and kingfisher—remaining, The Netherlands-based artist and designer has nearly a full flock of the letterpress creatures, all nested inside 6 x 6-inch paper.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/roy-scholten-lego-letterpress/
In Calida Rawles’ New Paintings, the Next Generation Transcends Darkness
Tufts of a pink skirt, a soaked evening gown clinging to a knee, and a few fingers and toes gently breach the water’s surface in Calida Rawles’ A Certain Oblivion. On view this month at Lehmann Maupin, the new body of work is transcendent and monumental, with canvases scaling nine feet of rippling blues and blacks. The paintings return to the artist’s interest in water memory theory and the idea that the life-giving liquid preserves moments of time. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/calida-rawles-a-certain-oblivion/
A New Documentary Follows the Ohio Environmentalists Making Paint from Toxic Mining Runoff
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/toxic-art-true-pigments/
A Forgotten Vault Where Michelangelo Hid and Sketched For Months Opens for the First Time
In 1530, Michelangelo went into hiding after receiving a death sentence from Pope Clement VII. The iconic Renaissance artist had been caught in the political strife of his patrons, the Medici family, who had just returned to Florence after being overthrown by a populist revolt in 1527. During their exile, Michelangelo worked with the short-lived republican government to help secure the city’s defense walls and so became an enemy of his powerful supporters.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/michelangelo-florence-vault/
Monumental Paper Installations by Marianne Eriksen Scott-Hansen Bring Vibrant Flora Indoors
Enormous blooms crafted from thousands of sheets of creased, textured, and twisted paper explode in Marianne Eriksen Scott-Hansen’s vibrant installations. The Copenhagen-based artist (previously) draws inspiration from real blossoms like peonies or dahlias, adding fantastical, patterned embellishments to the pistils and stamens. The artist emphasizes larger-than-life sculptures, often creating painstakingly detailed displays that radiate from floor to ceiling.
Illum department store. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/marianne-eriksen-scott-hansen-flowers/
A Photo Preservationist Saved a Trove of 4,000 Glass Plate Negatives That Nearly Went Into the Trash
It’s estimated that people around the world will take a whopping 1.6 trillion photographs this year. With lenses built in to our digital devices, a quick snap has never been easier. In the second half of the 19th century, though, before film was even invented, taking a picture required technical skill and access to expensive equipment and supplies. Some of the earliest large- and medium-format cameras used delicate glass plates to capture black-and-white portraits and landscapes in fine detail. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/terri-carpucci-glass-plates/
November 2023 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for Artists
Every month, Colossal shares a selection of opportunities for artists and designers, including open calls, grants, fellowships, and residencies. If you’d like to list an opportunity here, please get in touch at hello@colossal.art. You can also join our monthly Opportunities Newsletter.
$3,500 Artist Grants | The Hopper PrizeFeatured
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/november-2023-opportunities/
Cosmic Creatures Meet Mystical Geometry in Bunnie Reiss’ Murals and Illustrations
For Bunnie Reiss, the studio can take her anywhere. From her art-filled desert home near Joshua Tree, California, to walls in cities around the country, her surroundings transform into her canvas. “I want to be the sort of artist that gives people something to look at for free and make it accessible,” she tells Colossal. From murals to paintings to moving sculptures, she takes a prolific approach, constantly experimenting with different media.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/10/bunnie-reiss-cosmic-creatures/
Paint Whirls Through a Sea of Color and the Melodies of Chopin in a New Video by Thomas Blanchard
Thomas Blanchard’s latest video. Sliding around to the sounds of Chopin’s “Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 (E Flat Major),” glittering spheres roll mesmerizingly across shimmering fields of color, which Blanchard (previously) captures in high-definition, slow-motion elegance.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/10/thomas-blanchard-colorful-liquids/
Kinetic Botanical Sculptures by William Darrell Wriggle and Writhe in Hypnotic Motion
William Darrell describes his kinetic sculptures as “mechanically abstracted organisms,” animated forms that pulse, shimmy, and spin with lifelike motion. The London-based artist is inspired by the relationship between the organic and the mechanical along with the enticing, mesmerizing qualities of movement that can coax “fear or fascination” from the viewer. “There are cuttlefish that hypnotise their prey in order to catch them,” he says. “As an artist, I follow a similar method.”
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/10/william-darrell-kinetic-sculptures/
An Elegant ‘Bamboo Cloud’ Floats Over Manhattan’s Gansevoort Plaza
Earlier this month, a couple of airy clouds floated over Gansevoort Plaza in Manhattan, although unlike those you’d usually see wafting overhead, these clouds descended a bit closer to Earth. NYCxDESIGN invited Shanghai-based architecture studio llLab. to design a pavilion as part of New York City’s annual architecture festival, Archtober.
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Folkloric Figures Emerge in Malene Hartmann Rasmussen’s Shapeshifting Ceramics
“Folklore relating to Scandinavia is a great inspiration and something I have grown up with during my childhood and adolescence in my native Denmark,” says Malene Hartmann Rasmussen, whose enigmatic ceramics draw from personal memories, nostalgia, and ancient customs. “Harvest rituals such as the tradition of making corn dollies, at Christmas-time when you have to make sure the gnomes are happy and well-fed, the Lucia processions we did every year in school, Jule-bukken—the yule-goat—that was the more sinister predecessor of Santa Claus, and trolls of all sorts are all things I remember from my childhood.”
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/10/malene-hartmann-rasmussen-ceramics/
Ýrúrarí’s Knit and Felted Characters Are Cheeky Additions to Mended Garments
Ýr Jóhannsdóttir moves through the world with a second set of eyes—and teeth and brows. The Icelandic artist, who works as Ýrúrarí, has spent the last few years crafting an extensive cast of felted and knitted characters to accompany her throughout the day. Many of her designs take the idea of tongue-in-cheek humor literally, with balaclavas encircled with mouths and masks embellished with playful grins.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/10/yrurari-cheeky-sweaters/
‘Ghost Rivers’ Visualizes a Mile-Long Stream Buried Deep Beneath Baltimore
How much do we really know about the land we walk on each day? For those of us in urban areas, pavement and buildings mask what were once prairies, forests, or glaciers, with any natural terrain often disguised in swaths of concrete and blacktop.
daylight the streams and rivers that were buried underground during development as a way to reduce pollution from urban runoff and prevent disastrous flooding. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/10/ghost-rivers-bruce-willen/
Otherworldly Lifeforms Weightlessly Float Through Yellena James’ Vibrant Ecosystems
Rendered in vivid shades of blue, pink, and orange, Yellena James’s unearthly organisms populate environments brimming with life. The Portland-based artist (previously) uses a mix of acrylic paints, gouaches, and inks to create precisely patterned compositions that take an otherworldly approach to creatures found on land and sea. Buoyant forms evocative of coral, kelp, and flowers overlap and collide on the canvas, adding density and texture to the majestic ecosystems. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/10/yellena-james-weightless/
Ugo Rondinone’s 20-Foot Bolts of Lightning Pierce Through a Tempestuous Gallery
Artist Ugo Rondinone (previously) captures the explosive energy of lightning as part of his latest exhibition bright shining light. On view through November 9 at Gladstone Gallery, a trio of bronze sculptures stand more than 20 feet tall, piercing the otherwise gray gallery. Painted in dayglo yellow, the bold hue evokes a radiant incandescence of striking bolts as they branch down from the ceiling. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/10/ugo-rondinone-bright-shining-light/