A Colossal Conversation: Arghavan Khosravi On Tension, Circumventing Censorship, and the Protest of Iranian Women
For Arghavan Khosravi, obscurity is the point. In a new conversation with Colossal, the Iranian artist recounts how she translates the experience of living a dual life—that of immigrating, of presenting differently when at school and at home, and of wanting to deny clear interpretations—into disjointed works that are equally alluring and destabilizing. She says:
I’m interested in this idea of contradiction in general, not just in how the paintings look. When I have imagery coming from different contexts—like historic, contemporary, Western, Eastern—this creates tension, which is like a visual translation of the tension Iranian people feel living in Iran.
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The 2023 Ocean Photographer of the Year Contest Highlights the Stunning Sights Above and Below the Surface
The waters surrounding the Philippines were fruitful for photographers this year, producing several winning images of the 2023 Ocean Photographer of the Year contest. From a boastful lizardfish to a tiny paper nautilus floating among volcanic debris, the lauded shots document marine life above and below the surface, glimpsing not only the stunning beauty of land and sea creatures but also the threats many face given a warming planet and rampant pollution. Some of our favorite photos are shown here, and if you’re in Sydney, you can see the full collection through May 26, 2024, at the National Maritime Museum. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/2023-ocean-photographer-contest/
Hera’s Imaginative New Murals Question the Animal Impulse to Migrate
A mouse-costumed girl sitting on a duffel bag, a bird balancing on a unicycle, and bright blue narwhals swimming along the train line in Stavanger, Norway, are a few characters in Hera’s new murals considering the nuances of immigration and movement. “We all are Birds of Migration. Some With Feathers, Some Without” is a collection of works that ask viewers to recognize that mobility and resettling have been essential to human survival for millennia. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/hera-stavanger-murals/
Lone Splendor: A Group Show Revels in the Wonder and Unknown of the Night Sky
What lies beyond the stars we see when we look up at the night sky? A group exhibition opening next week at Paradigm Gallery + Studio brings together the works of 18 artists who each capture the wonder of the unknown.
Christopher Jobson, Lone Splendor draws its name from John Keats’ poem “Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art” and conjures our enduring fascination with the cosmos and imagined worlds. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/lone-splendor-paradigm/
JR’s Dramatic Cave Intervention Emerges from the Center of the Palais Garnier in Paris
“Our role as artists is always to search for the light,” says French artist JR (previously) about the second act of his Retour à la Caverne project. “We know this much: You don’t chase away the darkness with more darkness. You chase it away with light, however tiny.”
Retour à la Caverne is an enormous trompe l’oeil facade, the first part of which depicts a cave carved into the grand structure that houses the opera. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/jr-retour-a-la-caverne/
Surreal Anatomies and Architectural Motifs Emerge from Elegant Sculptural Candles
Ten Lebanese designers have collaborated with artisans from the Beit Chabab Hospital Workshop to create a unique, limited-edition collection of sculptural candles. The initiative of the nonprofit House of Today, The Candle Project features ten carved, wax works in varying colors and styles, ranging from Aline Asmar d’Amman’s architectural “Aspiration” with winding staircases to LimbObject’s surreal entanglement of hands and arms. Each piece is available from House of Today, with proceeds benefiting the hospital and the nonprofit’s mentorship program. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/house-of-today-candles/
Moss, Pine Bark, and Roots Camouflage Tiny Refuges Among the Wild Swedish Forests and Farmland
Artist and architect Ulf Mejergren (previously) continues his interest in cozy, outdoor constructions with a new series titled Farm Art. Collaborating with farmer Robert Pettersson, Mejergren built several site-specific structures from materials found around Pettersson’s property in Grödinge, Sweden.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/ulf-mejergren-farm-art/
More Than 100 Photographers Team Up for Vital Impacts Print Sale Supporting Elephant Conservation
Since launching a few years ago, Vital Impacts (previously) has raised more than $2 million for conservation and humanitarian efforts. The nonprofit hosts annual print sales to raise funds for various causes, bringing together hundreds of photographers from around the globe who document the beauty and unexpected moments of the natural world. This year’s initiative encompasses images of both the minuscule and the vast, from a close-up of the tiny, bulbous tentacles of a blue button jellyfish to a stunning composite of a star being born. More
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Kendall Ross Gets Personal with Her Colorful Sweaters Embedded with Stories
Creating pieces that are part artwork and part fashion, Oklahoma City-based artist Kendall Ross of I’d Knit That imbues her knitwear with plenty of personality. “My I’d Knit That project got started because I thought the name was funny, and I was convinced I needed to claim the Instagram handle before someone else did back in 2019,” she tells Colossal. “Originally, it was a very casual way for me to share photos of what I was making and to organize knitting meet-ups with my friends from college. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/kendall-ross-id-knit-that/
Vital Impacts
Vital Impacts
Vital Impacts. More
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Vital Impacts appeared first on Colossal.
Kendall Ross Gets Personal with Her Colorful Sweaters Embedded with Stories
Creating pieces that are part artwork and part fashion, Oklahoma City-based artist Kendall Ross of I’d Knit That imbues her knitwear with plenty of personality. “My I’d Knit That project got started because I thought the name was funny, and I was convinced I needed to claim the Instagram handle before someone else did back in 2019,” she tells Colossal. “Originally, it was a very casual way for me to share photos of what I was making and to organize knitting meet-ups with my friends from college. More
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Kendall Ross Gets Personal with Her Colorful Sweaters Embedded with Stories appeared first on Colossal.
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/kendall-ross-id-knit-that/
Wander Through a Geometric Field of More Than 400 Pyramids in Jim Denevan’s ‘Self Similar’
For artist Jim Denevan, a paramount element of his creative practice centers on building experiences within landscapes through art and temporary events. Known for his large-scale land works that shape expanses of sand into precise geometries (previously), he allows time, weather, and changing tides to gradually reform the compositions back into natural terrain. Opening today in the capital of the U.A.E., Denevan’s expansive “Self Similar” is part of Manar Abu Dhabi, a new initiative celebrating public art and illuminating the city’s landmarks and vistas with light. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/jim-denevan-self-similar/
In a Documentary Short, Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley Wield ‘Paint & Pitchfork’ in the Studio
portraits of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were unveiled at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald were thrust into the spotlight. The portraits were formally installed in the White House in 2022, when filmmaker Christine Turner’s documentary short, “Paint & Pitchfork,” also debuted on The New Yorker. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/turner-sherald-wiley/
Remarkably Realistic Marine Invertebrates Made of Glass Surface at the Mystic Seaport Museum
From the mid-1800s to the 1930s, father-and-son artist duo Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka crafted thousands of glass models of flora and fauna (previously) in exquisite, scientific detail. Sea creatures were an area of particular fascination, as delicate spines, tentacles, and frills rendered in lifelike color extend from the bodies of squid and sea anemones. And at the Mystic Seaport Museum, a major exhibition of more than 40 of the remarkable specimens come to life in Spineless: A Glass Menagerie of Blaschka Marine Invertebrates. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/blaschka-spineless-mystic/
RISD Pre-Collegiate Programs Are Now Enrolling for Summer 2024
Rhode Island School of Design has opened registration for its residential summer Pre-College program and year-round online intensive Advanced Program Online.
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Pre-College, rising high school juniors and seniors can experience life as a RISD undergrad and work alongside hundreds of other creative, highly motivated students who will inspire them to push their limits and produce their best work. Students will follow a college-level curriculum inspired by the RISD first-year experience with day-long studio classes, visits to the Nature Lab and RISD Museum, critiques, and projects that will forever shape how they approach art and design. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/risd-pre-college-2024/
Botanical Patterns Spill from Shinji Ohmaki’s Existential Vessel
In “Gravity and Grace,” Japanese artist Shinji Ohmaki poses a broad, if not daunting, question: what does it mean to exist? The installation, which features an imposing vessel carved with flora and fauna, radiates from the center and casts shadows in varied sizes and opacities around the gallery. Bulbous near the base with a slimmer neck that reaches toward the ceiling, the work’s shape evokes the tower of a nuclear power plant and spills light in every direction. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/shinji-ohmaki-gravity-grace/
The Getty Digitizes a Rare 16th-Century Manuscript from Indigenous Mexico
In 1577, Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún finished a monumental encyclopedia of Mesoamerican culture. Working in collaboration with Nahua writers, artists, and elders, Sahagún documented life in the Aztec empire around the time of the Spanish conquest, together creating nearly 2,500 illustrations and 12 books recording the daily practices and culture of 16th-century Mexico. The text is widely regarded as one of the most important resources of Indigenous knowledge, especially considering most history is derived from colonial perspectives. More
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One of the Most Colorful Composites of the Universe Highlights Galaxies 4.3 Billion Light-Years from Earth
The groundbreaking James Webb Space Telescope and its predecessor the Hubble Space Telescope have collaborated on a new cosmic composite teeming with colorful galaxies. Using infrared observations from Webb and visible-light details from Hubble, astronomists stitched together an astonishing, panchromatic image of the MACS0416 cluster located approximately “4.3 billion light-years from Earth, meaning that the light from it that we see now left the cluster shortly after the formation of our solar system,” a release from the European Space Agency says. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/hubble-webb-macs0416-galaxies/
Introspective Figures Navigate Surreal Worlds in Simón Prades’ Illustrations
Stories come to life on the page and introspective figures explore inner worlds in the dreamlike illustrations of Simón Prades (previously). His surreal scenes often feature silhouettes of people peering into the unknown, whether toward a distant memory, the wilderness, or the future. Rendered in deep hues with an emphasis on the effects of light and contrast, he draws attention to human nature and universal, emotional experiences of hope, nostalgia, and wonder. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/simon-prades-illustrations/
Søren Solkær’s Enigmatic Photographs Capture Flocks of Starlings in Evening Skies
Since 2017, Danish photographer Søren Solkær has traveled Europe in search of the mesmerizing phenomenon of starling murmurations. Occurring before dusk during spring and autumn, cool weather and an instinct for safety gathers thousands of the black songbirds into enormous, undulating clouds. Solkær captures these enigmatic evening shows in his ongoing series Black Sun (previously), and a survey of these works opens at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle, Washington, next month. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/soren-solkaer-sort-sol/