In Delicate Detail, Ester Magnusson Meitculously Fashions a Human Skull From Lace
“I’m obsessed with lace,” says Swedish fiber and textile artist Ester Magnusson, who loves to deep-dive into the history of garment design. As she prepared her portfolio for a residency focused solely on bobbin lace, she conceived of the idea of a human skull made entirely from the dainty fabric. “Once you express an interest in lace, people come out of the woodworks to give you their grandma’s old collection, so I had a lot of thrifted and gifted material to work with,” she says. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/01/ester-magnusson-skor/
Vibrant Digital Illustrations by Muhammed Sajid Evoke Memories of the Artist’s Hometown
“The two things I love the most are observing people and playing with colours,” says Bangalore, India-based artist Muhammed Sajid, whose vivid digital illustrations highlight personalities, garments, and visual culture inspired by his home state of Kerala. Ornate fabrics and objects surround figures who gaze directly at the viewer or interact with flora and fauna, and symbolic references to vernacular architecture and art fill each vibrant composition.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/01/muhammed-sajid-illustration/
Ryan Villamael’s Cascading Floral Sculptures Reconsider Maps and Identity
Gathered in bunches and trailing like vines, Ryan Villamael’s paper-cut sculptures cascade through niches of interiors, history, and identity. Utilizing maps to create overgrowths of leaves, the artist addresses complex relationships between cartography and culture.
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New York City Ballet Art Series Presents David Michalek
David Michalek is an American visual artist and director whose work is closely tied to an interest in the contemporary person, which he explores through live performance, filmmaking, photography, drawing, installation, relational aesthetics, and public projects. He often concentrates on carefully staged marginal moments that develop density with minimal action. Examining notions of durational and rhythmic time, his works aim to engage and generate intimate yet open-ended narratives.
New York City Ballet’s 2024 Art Series, “SlowDancing/NYCB,” is a deep dive into the distinctive archive and style of a single ballet company that has become one of the most important artistic engines, and creative mainstays, of New York’s cultural fabric. More
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Curious Mutations and Scenarios Occupy Martin Jarrie’s Stylized Acrylic Illustrations
Elephants with blue scales and pipe-like trunks, a woman sporting an enormous bouffant filled with birds, and a farmer grasping a tree with roots evocative of veins or intestines are just a few of the otherworldly characters that populate Martin Jarrie’s illustrations.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/01/martin-jarrie-illustrations/
Pokémon and Japanese Craft Traditions Unite in a Fantastic Exhibition of 70+ Works
Two of Japan’s major cultural contributions converge in POKÉMON X KOGEI | Playful Encounters of Pokémon and Japanese Craft. On view at Japan House Los Angeles, the exhibition showcases more than 70 sculptures and installations that recreate the fantastical animated characters from Squirtle to Pikachu in ceramic, metal, fiber, and more.
Taiichiro Yoshida and Keiko Masumoto’s whimsical vessels in which heads and tails emerge from pots and plates. More
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Erin Milez Meditates on the Joyful Monotony of Parenthood
If we looked closely at the minutia of our lives, would we take comfort in repetition? Artist Erin Milez has built her practice around monotony and domestic habits, and in her most recent solo show, she asks us to find sanctity and humor in the mundane.
Round and Around We Go peers over shoulders and out of wardrobes to view the intimate, joyful, and sometimes exhausting experiences of parents and children. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/01/erin-milez-paintings/
Marija Tiurina’s Vibrant and Relatable Murals Foreground Community and Care
Marija Tiurina likens the experience of working on murals to “the feeling of conquering a giant and befriending something way beyond your own size.” The Netherlands-based illustrator (previously) has worked on myriad projects ranging from watercolors to puzzles to stereograms, and for the past several years, large-scale wall pieces have grown into a significant facet of her practice, which centers around the maxim that art should be available to everyone. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/01/marija-tiurina-murals/
Reflecting Time Passing, Chris Oh Reinterprets Works of the Northern Renaissance on Ephemeral Substrates
Shortly after the Renaissance swept through Italy in the 14th century, the Northern Renaissance began to take hold north of the Alps. In countries like Germany, France, Poland, and England, artists turned their attention toward humanism like their counterparts in Rome and Florence, although piety and the everyday trials of poor people dominated the north, while the wealthy and ruling classes featured more prominently in Italy.
Capsule Shanghai, artist Chris Oh draws on this tradition through a series of paintings that consider how stories, knowledge, and information are shared through generations. More
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Nastasya Shulyak’s Miniature Felted Friends Sprout and Smile with Joy
Wool artist Nastasya Shulyak felts a cast of curious creatures that carry one simple purpose: to bring others joy.
previously) spent the last year acclimating to her new home. As the artist embraced her surroundings, the mountains, minerals, and milieu along the southern coast of the Black Sea began to inform her work. Before long, she created “Pebbles,” the first creature to come into existence since her move. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/01/nastasya-shuljak-miniatures/
Archaeologists Discover an Extraordinary 2,100-Year-Old Mosaic Near the Colosseum
In mid-December, the Italian Ministry of Culture released news of a remarkable find in the heart of Rome at the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum. Along with the Colosseum itself, the area consists of the incredible Roman Forum, an aristocratic residential area on the Palatine hill, and Emperor Nero’s splendid Domus Aurea, built in the first century C.E.
Republican era, a luxurious townhouse in the neighborhood had been laden with designs made from shells, glass, white marble, and Egyptian blue tiles. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/01/colosseum-domus-mosaic/
Felines and Fine Art Make a Purr-fect Pairing in the 10th Anniversary of ‘Cat Art Show’
Marking its 10th anniversary this year, Cat Art Show (previously) returns to Los Angeles for a warm and fuzzy celebration of everything feline. “The intricacies of their ever-changing personalities, coupled with the beauty of their physicality, offer rich subject matter for artists to work with,” says curator and founder Susan Michals. Every year, the initiative donates a portion of its sale proceeds, with ten percent going toward an organization that cares for vulnerable animals in the shelter system. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/01/cat-art-show-10th-anniversary/
Thousands of Classic Films, Books, Illustrations, and Just Entered the Public Domain
From familiar classics to obscure treasures, a trove of literature, art, film, and music has just become easier to access. On January 1, thousands of books, films, plays, artworks, sound recordings, and more entered the public domain, which means they may be used freely without compensating or needing to obtain permission from the owner.
Steamboat Willie and the silent version of Plane Crazy. More
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Marvel at Tomohiro Okazaki’s Feature-Length Montage of Matches Performing Optical Tricks
Tomohiro Okazaki’s painstaking yet playful stop-motion animation. His new video features more than an hour of meticulously staged optical gymnastics using matches (previously), from simple balancing acts to hypnotic transformations in which the wooden sticks and red tops interact with words and materials like paper or acrylic. As the montage progresses, Okazaki’s compositions become increasingly distorted, stretching the imagination through hundreds of uncanny scenarios. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/01/tomohiro-okazaki-matches-montage/
Tang Shuo’s Vivid Paintings Conjure the Strife and Stories of His Native Boulder Hill
Many of Tang Shuo’s paintings begin with a memory. “I recall a story from the past that left a deep impression on me, extracting a moment from the story and arranging the relationships between characters,” he says. Inspired by his childhood pastime of “playing house,” Shuo renders hunters, snake catchers, and shepherds, imagining himself taking on the roles of his forefathers.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/01/tang-shuo-boulder-hill/
January 2024 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.
Booooooom Photo AwardsFeatured
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/01/january-2024-opportunities/
100 Years After the Original, ‘The New Brownies’ Book’ Revives a Beloved Children’s Publication for Black Youth
In 1920, sociologist and activist W.E.B. Du Bois published the first issue of The Brownies’ Book, a “monthly magazine for children of the sun.” He invited celebrated Black creatives to contribute to the periodical, reaching out to artists, songwriters, authors, and poets—Langston Hughes’ first published poems even appeared in the magazine. In his call for entries, Du Bois encouraged the highest quality writing, photography, illustration, and more, “so that Black children will know that they are thought about and LOVED.”
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/12/the-new-brownies-book/
In Danym Kwon’s Vibrant Paintings, Domestic Objects Transform Into Portals to Other Times and Places
Circling the surfaces of vessels or layered onto stacks of folded laundry, the scenes in Danym Kwon’s paintings evoke memories and emotions of togetherness and home. “The images I paint are all taken from everyday life, but through the use of pastel colors and surrealistic staging, they are transformed into more special scenes, recorded and cherished more dearly,” the artist tells Colossal ahead of her forthcoming solo exhibition at Hashimoto Contemporary, A Soft Day. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/12/danym-kwon-paintings/
In the Game ‘Nego,’ Fit as Many Cats as You Can into a Tight Space
From cardboard boxes to climbing up inside Christmas trees to lounging around entire islands, cats the world over have a penchant for taking up space. Japanese sculptor and author Yuka Morii has created a table game inspired by felines’ need to stretch, loaf, and nap in any available spot. Titled “Nego,” a play on the Japanese word for cat, neko, and the popular game of “Go,” the object is simply to fit the most cats on the board by taking turns placing them onto a small grid. More
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Light Undulates Through Delicate Sheets of Glass in Ben Young’s Sculptural Seascapes
Crystal-clear layers of aqua-tinted glass form cross-sections of deep oceans and dramatic geology in Ben Young’s sculptures (previously). Continuing his exploration of the relationship between humans and the natural world, the artist combines materials typically associated with industry and construction, like concrete, steel, and laminated float glass, into undulating shorelines and seascapes.
Delicate Space at Chesterfield Gallery appear like preternaturally still, miniaturized wedges of the earth, plucked from the surface and deposited onto pedestals or into bronze frames. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/12/ben-young-delicate-space/