Meticulously Animated in Stop-Motion, ‘Up in Smoke’ Warns of Impending Climate Catastrophe from Burning Fossil Fuels
NOMINT (previously). Produced for WWF and presented this week as part of COP28, “Up in Smoke” follows a young woman as she floats on a melting ice floe, watches her home disintegrate, and witnesses wild animals unable to escape the toxic fumes.
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A New Book Contains Dozens of Rare Photos of Salvador Dalí’s Seaside Home and Studio
A perfectly ovoid egg perched atop a dovecote, a taxidermy rhino with a wide, outstretched wingspan, and a sleek pink couch in the shape of Mae West’s lips are not uncommon sights in the seaside home of Salvador Dalí (previously). Now compiled in a revealing new book published by Apartamento, rare photographs by Coco Capitán document the surrealist domain that vacillates between private space and architectural artwork in its own right. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/12/casa-dali-coco-capitan/
LaToya Hobbs Emphasizes the Tactile in Her Laboriously Carved Portraits of Black Women
The belief that rest is a fundamental human right grounds the works of LaToya Hobbs, a Baltimore-based artist who carves stylized woodblocks of Black women. Often using her family, friends, and self as subjects, Hobbs creates densely textured prints and paintings depicting quiet moments of affection and connection.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/12/latoya-hobbs-carving-a-new-tradition/
‘Power Figures’ Share Messages of Love and Healing in vanessa german’s Totemic Assemblages
Through found materials that range from feathers to glass bottles to astroturf, vanessa german (previously) assembles evocative, ritualistic sculptures that she describes as “power figures.” Often life-size or larger, german’s totemic sculptures are tied to the artist’s activism, confronting systemic racism and white supremacy, misogynoir, discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, and the destructive extraction of natural resources.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/12/vanessa-german-power-figures/
Join Us for a Colossal Workshop and Make Your Sweaters into Friends with Ýrúrarí
We’re thrilled to welcome artist Ýr Jóhannsdóttir, better known as Ýrúrarí (previously), for our first Colossal Workshop of 2024. During this one-hour session on January 27, Ýrúrarí will offer insight into her process and teach the needle-felting technique she often uses in her creative mending projects that transform sweaters into friends. The techniques are suitable for complete beginners, so just grab a needle and some wool and join in. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/12/yrurari-mending-workshop/
In Heavy Impasto Paintings, José Lerma’s Introduces Background Figures to the Fore
In just a few deft swipes of thick acrylic paint, José Lerma creates richly contoured portraits that, like a silhouette, impart enigmatic impressions of figures whose full identities remain a mystery. In the artist’s third solo exhibition with Almine Rech, he continues to explore the material quality of acrylic paint (previously), which he applies in a fast and laborious process before it dries. Delicate, flat outlines portray noses, lips, and brows, which the artist augments with heavy impasto paint for hair and accessories. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/12/jose-lerma-fichureos/
In ‘Wharenui Harikoa,’ Lissy & Rudi Crochet a Māori ‘House of Joy’ From 5,000 Balls of Wool
A decade ago, artist duo Lissy Robinson-Cole and Rudi Robinson, known also as Lissy & Rudi, began crocheting playful additions to their neighborhood in Auckland, New Zealand. The pair yarn-bombed local fences and covered their car in fiber, and by 2018, they were thinking even bigger, imagining a full-size wharenui—a traditional Māori communal house—made entirely from brightly-colored yarn. “Straightaway, the vision was very clear,” the artists told a local news outlet. More
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Zhongwen Hu Meditates on Presence and Emotional Sensitivity in Her Abundant Scenes of Nature
Throughout Zhongwen Hu’s most recent Day Tripper series, two things ceaselessly pervade: nature and contemplation. Abstract reflections ripple on a riverbank, umbrella-like trees provide communal shade, and figures trek across brilliant terrain in the Shanghai-based artist’s musing acrylic paintings.
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December 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.
$1,800 Innovate Grants for Art + PhotoFeatured
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/12/december-2023-opportunities-for-artists/
Faceted Limes and Apples with Scribbled Skin Shape Yuni Yoshida’s Vivid Photographs
Gem-like limes, hand-drawn apples, and sweet stilettos are just a few of the subjects of Yuni Yoshida’s vibrant photographs. Combining elements of design and commercial photography, the artist (previously) taps into preconceptions tied to the textures, shapes, densities, and ripeness of fruit and florals. She manipulates each item by hand, meticulously cutting, preserving, and arranging individual pieces. “I pay a lot of attention to food and flowers because I like things that are natural and have life,” she tells Colossal. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/yuni-yoshida-fruit-flowers/
Vibrant Figures Soar and Swing Above Buzzing Cities in Millo’s Vibrant Murals
Italian artist Francesco Camillo Giorgino, who works as Millo (previously), has a penchant for transforming featureless walls into emotive, airy scenes. Floating above black-and-white cityscapes dotted with clouds and airplanes, central figures pop with color as they soar on kites or swings, haul heavy loads, or interact with flora and fauna.
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In Rupy C. Tut’s Dreamlike Paintings, Figures Fold Into Landscapes in a Struggle to Belong
In a couple of Rupy C. Tut’s ethereal and symbolic scenes, a cloaked woman merges with a rocky outcrop above a stream, while another reclines above a vast mountain range, holding a single feather. Comprising her solo exhibition Out of Place at Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, the Oakland-based artist’s paintings feature figures who coalesce with their surroundings and the passing of time.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/rupy-c-tut-out-of-place/
Surreal Scenes Unfold in Sandy Skoglund’s Vibrant and Otherworldly Photographs
For more than five decades, Sandy Skoglund has explored a fusion of photography, installation, and conceptual art. The artist’s elaborately detailed scenes, built from a wide variety of materials, from furniture to papier-mâché to food, take months—sometimes years—to complete. One iconic image portrays two children in a blue bedroom, surrounded by bright orange goldfish, while in “Radioactive Cats,” we find ourselves peering at a couple in a gray kitchen as they go about normal activities among a clowder of glowing, green felines. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/sandy-skoglund-imaginary-worlds/
Build Your Own Bismuth Crystals With Nervous System’s Miniature Geometric Puzzles
Among the Earth’s metallic elements, bismuth is one of the most beguiling. Rarely encountered in nature, it can be synthesized for a wide variety of uses in medicine, cosmetics, and casting for things like printing type. When the material forms into hopper crystals—a stair-stepped pattern with a loosely conical shape—the oxide film on its surface interacts with light to produce astonishing iridescent colors. These patterns provide the basis of the latest miniature geometric puzzles by Nervous System (previously). More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/nervous-system-bismuth-puzzle/
A Heartfelt Stop-Motion Animation for Apple Reminds Us to Be Kind This Holiday Season
Karma comes quickly for the Scrooge-esque character in Anna Mantzaris’ “Fuzzy Feelings,” a touching stop-motion animation about loneliness and compassion. A holiday ad for Apple that’s set to George Harrison’s “Isn’t It a Pity,” the short film features the Swedish animator’s signature felted cast (previously), particularly a gruff, selfish man who steals change from a charity and experiences fast retribution. As we soon learn, though, that character mirrors the curmudgeonly boss of a young woman, who’s created the fictional scenes to take imagined revenge on her superior. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/fuzzy-feelings-anna-mantzaris/
Fleshy Gills and Spotted Caps Sprout from Ann Wood’s Lifelike Paper Mushrooms
You don’t need to head out to the forest to find plump morels or chanterelles. After years of cultivating a robust collection of paper flowers and produce, artist Ann Wood (previously) has turned her focus to fungi, sprouting myriad specimens within her Minneapolis studio. White-spotted red caps of the fly agaric mushroom, plum-colored mushrooms with thick, fleshy gills, and bright yellow spores spring from patches of moss and dried leaves or rest on a platter as if ready to eat. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/paper-mushrooms-ann-wood/
Faith XLVII Engages Humanity’s Shadows Through the Delicate Interplay of Light and Dark
Artist Faith XLVII (previously) describes a recent body of work as “a kind of scratching into the chiaroscuro of our souls.” Titled Clair-Obscur, the collection comprises wax-crayon drawings, stitched-map tapestries, installations, videos, and Polaroids that reflect on the fundamental duality between light and dark. Invoking the Jungian notion of shadow selves—the idea that people repress what they don’t like to acknowledge—Faith XLVII conjures both nature’s cycles and social and political issues, including environmental degradation, tyrannical rule, and human rights violations. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/faith-xlvii-clair-obscur/
Studio Ibbini Juxtaposes Negative Space and Botanical Filigree in New Laser-Cut Paper Works
Artist Julia Ibbini and computer scientist Stéphane Noyer of the Abu Dhabi-based Studio Ibbini (previously) continue to collaborate on intricately constructed works that fall at the intersection of art and mathematics. The duo creates vessels and flat pieces by layering laser-cut papers into complex structures replete with floral filigree and ornate patterning.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/studio-ibbini-paper-sculptures/
In ‘Nature Mart,’ Geoff McFetridge Queries Human Responsibility and Connection Through Minimal Paintings
Canadian artist Geoff McFetridge is known for his distinct aesthetic that privileges feeling over visuals, which he conveys through minimal shapes and clean lines. In his latest body of work titled Nature Mart, McFetridge takes on connection, empathy, fear, and exploitation as he explores what it means to be in a community.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/geoff-mcfetridge-nature-mart/
Ranjani Shettar’s Delicate Sculptures Entwine with the Lush Plant Life of the Barbican’s Conservatory
Emerging from the lush, jungle-like conservatory at the Barbican is a collection of otherworldly sculptures that transform the venue into a site of metamorphosis. Largely made of muslin, reclaimed teak, and steel, the works were born in the rural Karnataka, India, studio of artist Ranjani Shettar, whose interest in nature’s resilience and adaptation is on full display at the iconic London space.
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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 Ranjani Shettar’s Delicate Sculptures Entwine with the Lush Plant Life of the Barbican’s Conservatory appeared first on Colossal.
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/11/ranjani-shettar-barbican-conservatory/