Icy Mushroom Clouds Spring from a Tiny Geyser in Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains
While road-tripping on the Pamir Highway a few years back, Øystein Sture Aspelund scouted out a small geyser in the mountainous landscape. Near a lake at about 4,000 meters above sea level, the spring periodically burst, producing short-lived formations that evoke mushroom clouds and paint splatters. “I was really fascinated by these sculptures and how they appeared along with their remote backdrop scenery. I set my camera shutter speeds very fast, enabling me to ‘freeze’ and capture some of these sudden shapes,” Aspelund tells Colossal. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/oystein-sture-aspelund-photos/
A Rainbow Office Building Brightens Up the Tokyo Streets with Prismatic Color
If you, like us, were envious of the kiddos attending this kaleidoscopic kindergarten a few years back, we have good news. The architecture firm behind the school has another project with a similarly bold outlook.
SAKO Architects, tucked a vibrant building in the middle of a bustling Tokyo street, this time designed for professionals. Titled “Vertical Rainbow Office Building,” the narrow construction was completed in 2019 and is cloaked with a vivid facade of tempered laminated glass. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/sako-architects-tokyo-office/
No Foraging Necessary: Grow Mushrooms at Home with GUS, a Modular Countertop Garden
Meet GUS, a tabletop companion that helps you harvest fresh mushrooms at home. From the team at Good Growing, the minimal vessels hold what’s known as a fruiting block—a mix of sawdust, grains, and mycelium spores—that within a few days, burst with thick clusters of fleshy fungi.
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Birds Flutter Around Tiny Houses and Commune with Forest Creatures in Paintings by Gigi Chen
Drawing on her training in animation and a love for the the work of Renaissance painters who expressed symbolism through atmospheric scenes and still lifes, Gigi Chen merges realistic depictions of birds with surreal settings.
Antler Gallery in Portland, Oregon, Chen continues to incorporate tiny houses or cottages into the crooks of trees or otherworldly landscapes. She often illuminates neon signs or geometric shapes (previously), juxtaposing the natural wildness of the feathered creatures with elements of the human-built environment, which encroaches on their habitats or makes for peculiar nesting sites. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/gigi-chen-bird-paintings/
Cynthia James Portrays Otherworldly Pollinators and Plants in Her Dreamlike ‘Bee Series’
In the 1901 book, The Life of the Bee, Nobel prize-winning author Maurice Maeterlick wrote, “If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.” Regardless of determining an exact range of years for such a catastrophe, the insect’s extinction has been a great concern for well over a century. We’ve become increasingly aware of the devastating consequences of living without bees, a dreadful outcome scientists are continually reckoning with. More
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Anastassia Zamaraeva’s Surreal Ceramics Revel in the Relationships Between Making and Meaning
For London-based artist and art therapist Anastassia Zamaraeva, ideating and working with her hands is as important as the finished pieces. “I have learned that trusting my process and intuition is the best way to make work that feels honest and reflective of who I am,” she tells Colossal. “I trust the images and ideas that pop into my mind and go along with them, even if I don’t initially understand them. The making process helps me to unravel the meaning behind the work.”
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/anastassia-zamaraeva-ceramics/
Yoonmi Nam Venerates the Insignificant with Her Ceramic Sculptures of Disposable Containers
Most of us quickly dispose of late-night takeout evidence or the abruptly empty box from the cookies we polished off in a single sitting, but Yoonmi Nam preserves the remnants of her consumption in unforgiving ceramic.
previously) has spent the last few years collecting single-use containers like aluminum pans, egg cartons, and styrofoam cups that she slip casts, creating archeological sculptures of their interiors. “I am a collector of trash,” Nam says about her works, which put our relationship to consumerism and disposability front and center. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/yoonmi-nam-disposable-ceramics/
Dramatic Dualities and Emotional Entanglements Unfold in the Metaphysical Realm of Moonassi’s ‘Murmures’
Pensive faces, ambiguous light sources, and mysterious spaces characterize the atmospheric drawings of Moonassi, whose solo exhibition Murmures at Vazieux Gallery delves into the surreal world of memory and emotions.
hanji paper, portraying deep contrasts, dualities, and tensions. Rich, black shadows reveal glowing hands and faces, exploring relationships between light and dark, awareness and the unconscious, presence and absence, and the known and unknown. More
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Meow Wolf Announces the 40+ Artists Transporting Viewers to a Strange Alternate Reality in Houston
More than 40 local and international artists have signed on for the fifth iteration of Meow Wolf Houston, an immersive exhibition vaulting viewers into an otherworldly universe of color and chaos.
Ana María Ortiz will create a new work for the project that departs from what she’s done previously. The mural will be “closer to elements and ideas that I often keep reserved in my head. More
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Marvel at Hundreds of Mathematician Max Brückner’s Remarkably Precise Models of Polyhedra
If you’re a mathematician who specializes in geometry, you might be called a geometer. No other term could so neatly describe the meticulous focus of German scholar Max Brückner (1860-1934), who was lauded during his lifetime for his remarkable collection of polyhedra models.
Vielecke und Vielflache, Theorie und Geschichte, or “Polygons and Polyhedra, Theory and History,” which dives into great detail about the mathematically exact, three-dimensional shapes. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/max-bruckner-polyhedra/
A Forthcoming Documentary Examines How Civic Life in America Is a Matter of ‘Join or Die’
“This is Bob. Bob is a big fan of clubs,” the narrator opens in the trailer for the forthcoming documentary Join or Die. “And this is a film about why you should join one and how Bob discovered that the fate of America depends on it.”
Robert D. Putnam, is an acclaimed political scientist who has deeply influenced our understanding of how society and government work. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/join-or-die-documentary/
Colossal + Domestika: Learn to Embroider, Felt, and Build Portraits with Seven Fiber-Focused Courses
Whether you’re the type of person who has oodles of sewing thread tucked away for a rainy day or a fiber art enthusiast wanting to learn some new techniques, our latest class bundle in partnership with Domestika is a perfect way to reignite your practice. By unlocking all seven courses included in Colossal Fiber: Get to Embroidery, you’ll have access to more than 17 hours of valuable instructional content to work at your own pace, with more than 84 additional resources. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/domestika-fiber-courses/
Amir H. Fallah’s Puzzles Together Monumental Narratives in His Bold Maximalist Paintings
“Most of my work begins from an extremely personal place,” says Amir H. Fallah. “When I speak on politics or the environment, I start with my own experiences and try to create something that has a broader reach. It’s the only way I know to make work that feels sincere.”
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/amir-fallah-paintings/
Osborne Macharia Spans Geologic Phenomenon and Beauty in ‘Daughters of the Rift’
Kenyan photographer Osborne Macharia traverses the realms of Afrofuturism and Eastern African geography through his newest series, Daughters of the Rift.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/osborne-macharia-photos/
Alex Trice Treads the Line Between Beauty and Brutality in Otherworldly Oil Paintings
Prismatic pools, strings of pearls, seashells, and elemental interactions characterize the work of Alex Trice, whose oil paintings illuminate both the beauty and the brutality of nature. Sly predators take the form a spirits or totems in a dreamlike world, their tears gushing into oyster shells or glowing bodies of water.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/alex-trice-oil-paintings/
Dive Below the Surface with the Stunning Images of the 2024 Underwater Photographer of the Year
Below a darkened, ice-coated sea off the coast of Greenland, a brave diver encounters the enormous, skeletal remains of minke whales. Illuminating a historical and cultural practice, the spectral image by Alex Dawson won the 2024 Underwater Photographer of the Year contest, drawing attention to humanity’s impact on marine mammals.
JingGong Zhang’s image of hormonal Zoarchias major eelpouts sparring over nests during breeding season and a shot of a famished Mahi Mahi chomping on a sardine by Lisa Stengel. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/underwater-photographer-of-the-year/
In ‘Creation,’ Vadim Sherbakov Captures a Macro Cosmos in Glitter and Ink
Vadim Sherbakov is no stranger to wild and expansive vistas (previously), training his lens on vast landscapes and dramatic events. A fascination with light, scale, and the wonders of the unknown permeate much of his work, from terrestrial subjects to his interest in the cosmos.
Creation.”
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/vadim-sherbakov-creation/
A Fleet of Chiseled Cars by Kiko Miyares Adds New Meaning to Getting Caught in the Headlights
Typically, one avoids getting “caught like a deer in headlights,” but for Kiko Miyares, that’s the whole point. Chiseled from single pieces of timber, the Llanes, Spain-based artist fashions miniature, colorful cars with the high-beams turned on and an array of landscapes and tableaux in their sights.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/kiko-miyares-headlights/
Exploring the Unpredictably of the Human Body, Cristina Camacho Flays Symmetric Paintings
Cristina Camacho likens canvas stretched across a skeletal frame to skin. Both a protectant and a site for expression, the flesh is one of many layers within the body that the artist peels back to reveal what lies beneath and within. “When I first started cutting the canvas, I was very interested in stopping seeing the canvas as the surface where the paint goes,” she tells Colossal.
Carne, a series of symmetrical paintings sliced and sculpted into three-dimensional forms, Camacho expands on her earlier bodies of work that explore universal themes around female anatomy, shame, and healing. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/cristina-camacho-paintings/
Colossal + Domestika: Learn to Transform a Humble Material with a Trio of Paper Tutorials
Last week, we announced our new partnership with Domestika to bring you more opportunities to learn from the artists in the Colossal universe.
Colossal Paper Course Bundle. Learn to create lifelike sculptural portraits with Ale Rambar and how Clare Celeste Börsch cuts and collages lush installations that transform any room into a lively garden. Plus, Ruby Silvious explores a more unconventional side of paper as she paints vast landscapes within the small confines of a tea bag. 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 Colossal + Domestika: Learn to Transform a Humble Material with a Trio of Paper Tutorials appeared first on Colossal.
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/domestika-paper-courses/