Kirsty Elson Transforms Driftwood and Detritus into Whimsical Animal Sculptures
For Kirsty Elson, a sliver of driftwood or a scrap of metal is more than just a piece of detritus or trash. She sees a sleepy goat in some old nails and hunks of worn timber or a docile and curious donkey from rusty rods and brush bristles.
previously focused on creating small cottages and seaside scenes, but recently she has shifted her attention to expressive, whimsical animals, which perch on pegs, roll on wheels, or warm themselves with little scarves. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/05/kirsty-elson-driftwood-animals/
One Scientist Painstakingly Establishes a Chronology for More than 100 Surviving Prints of ‘The Great Wave’ by Hokusai
The British Museum, is a big fan of ukiyo-e artist Hokusai, who lived during the Edo period in Japan. Hokusai is best known for a series of woodblock prints titled Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, which includes his iconic “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.”
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/05/the-great-wave-chronology/
The Milky Way Photographer of the Year Contest Celebrates the Dazzling Band of Light in Our Skies
Whether seen from the craggy mountain landscapes of New Zealand or the vast, arid expanses of the Atacama Desert, the Milky Way is a brilliant band of light that glitters in the night sky above every spot on Earth. A photo contest devoted to our galaxy celebrates the diverse, dazzling appearances of the star-studded system from around the globe.
Capture the Atlas showcases 25 spectacular images chosen from more than 5,000 entries. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/05/milky-way-photographer-of-the-year/
A Remarkable Typeface Resurfaces from the Thames After Being Dumped in the River More than a Century Ago
In 18th- and 19th-century London, the term mudlark was coined to describe someone who scavenged river banks for valuable items. Today, metal detectors aid in the continuing pastime—which now requires a permit—and every once in a while, a modern-day mudlark dredges up a striking discovery. Ten years ago, for type enthusiast Robert Green, a once-in-a-lifetime find emerged from the Thames.
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Salvaged Scraps of Wood Nest Together in Richard Haining’s Elegant Curved Vessels
In the late aughts, Richard Haining began salvaging leftover wood. While working for a set design company, he realized that the sizable waste generated was also an untapped opportunity for his personal projects. “What I did not have in the way of disposable income, I did have in the way of access to tons of scrap materials,” he says. “I couldn’t afford purchasing new materials to create the ideas I had in my head, but I could take smaller scraps and use those as building blocks.”
STACKED series. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/05/richard-haining-wood-vessels/
Fare Meets Function in Eléonore Joulin’s Gourmet Ceramic Lamps and Vases
Eléonore Joulin casts humble foods in a fresh light with her gastronomic collection of ceramic goods. From her studio in Brussels, the artist layers crinkled cabbage leaves into a vegetal dwelling and twists a long sausage into a sculptural, worm-like shape. She outfits many forms with a bulb and cord, turning a wedge of blue cheese or a big pickle into a functional design.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/05/eleonore-joulin-food-lamps/
In ‘The Order of Things,’ Wim Delvoye’s Playful Installations Reimagine a Museum’s Historical Collection
In 1802, Italian sculptor Antonio Canova produced a marble sculpture known as “Venus Italica,” notably commissioned by Napoléon Bonaparte and intended to replace another Venus statue at the Louvre in Paris. Among numerous other historic statues and artifacts at the Museum of Art and History in Geneva, the “Venus Italica” provides the foundation for an artistic intervention by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye.
carte blanche XL, MAH invited the artist-curator to reimagine the institution’s displays, asking the fundamental question: “How does one make sense of the abundance of objects, documents, artifacts, and all the evidence of artistic and practical activities that form the cultural sedimentation of the place?” Delvoye’s response came in the form of The Order of Things, a large-scale exhibition in several of the museum’s galleries. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/05/wim-delvoye-the-order-of-things/
IED Firenze Graphic Design Student Explores Cultural Fusion and Exchange Through Bilingual Signage in Prato’s Chinatown
Amidst the cobblestone streets of Chinatown in Prato, Italy, typography has become a bridge between worlds. Beatrice Murphy, a student in the Master’s Course in Graphic Design at Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) Firenze, developed her thesis project by examining and dissecting the bilingual signage of Prato’s Chinatown. Her project aimed to not only reveal numbers and data but also instances of human connection and diversity.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/05/ied-firenze-pratos-chinatown/
Kaleidoscopic Paintings by Sarah Helen More Pulse with Vibrant Energy
Textile design and the visual language of quilting shine through in Sarah Helen More’s paintings. Her kaleidoscopic works pair various geometric and botanical motifs in patchworks of flat graphic color. Emitting a joyful, meditative energy, the vivid compositions directly tie to the artist’s childhood memories and experiences.
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A Taipei City Design Studio Is Recreating Historic Mosaic Tiles Found Throughout Taiwan
The Taipei City-based studio Pan Pan Hua is preserving local heritage by recreating the historic details unique to the region’s built environment. “Through years of research, we have found that the mosaic tile, once thriving in Taiwan, ceased production nearly half a century ago. Neither tile factories nor construction material suppliers offer similar products anymore, resulting in a gradual loss of Taiwan’s architectural identity,” a statement says.
Flickr—designers created digital patterns and began to reproduce the colorful motifs. More
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Merging Past and Present, Tavares Strachan Wrests Light from Darkness in His Expansive Installations
In 1887, an African-American man named Matthew Henson was hired by U.S. Navy engineer Robert Peary to accompany a team of explorers to be the first to navigate to the Geographic North Pole. On April 6, 1909, after several failed attempts, Henson was the first to arrive with the help of Inuit guides, but Peary—whose records were later interrogated and found to contain discrepancies—was credited with the achievement for a century.
Andrea Motley Crabtree, the U.S. More
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Weathered Wood and Marble Visualize Time Passing in Stefaan De Croock’s Poetic Portraits
Lush with material textures, Stefaan De Croock’s portraits have no identifying attributes. The Belgian artist (previously) puzzles together fragments of wood or marble into figures with distinctive postures and presences but no facial features. Anonymity can lend itself to universality, De Croock believes, and he strives to pinpoint the experiences and stories that touch many lives.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/05/stefaan-de-croock-portraits/
Tang Shuo Casts Himself as Members of His Small Chinese Village in a New Series of Paintings
In The Narrators, artist Tang Shuo inserts himself into the stories of his native Boulder Hill by painting himself as the protagonist. He envisions life as a sweaty worker hunched over a field of weeds or a child angling to capture a butterfly. Like previous bodies of work, the pensive series takes the divide between memory and fact as a starting point and how that tension arises within his small village on the edge of Guilin, China. More
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The Floating Bosch Parade Makes a Spectacle of Online Life on a River in The Netherlands
The Bosch Parade, a theatrical and musical art spectacle on the Netherlands’ Dommel River, kicks off on Thursday, June 20. For four days, spectators on the riverbanks can experience a procession of 19 floating, paddling, and swimming works of art in the middle of the historic center of ’s-Hertogenbosch, the birthplace and home of Hieronymous Bosch (1450–1516). The tenth edition of the parade is dedicated to our contemporary demons.
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Seasonal Blooms Capture Sunlight in Jessica Saunders’ Delicate Stained Glass Sculptures
“Flowers are connecting, grounding, uplifting, healing, and worth treasuring,” says Essex-based artist Jessica Saunders, whose delicate stained glass sculptures highlight an array of familiar and beloved blooms. From daffodils and poppies to cornflowers and hydrangeas, her pieces celebrate the cyclical nature of the seasons and the incredible range of specimens in both our backyards and the wild.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/05/jessica-saunders-glass-flowers/
Landscapes Radiate Light and Drama in Erin Hanson’s Vibrant Oil Paintings
In vivid pinks, blues, and greens, radiant landscapes emerge in Erin Hanson’s impressionistic oil paintings. The artist is based in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where the rolling hills and surrounding mountain ranges cradle miles of vineyards. She draws on the textures and shapes of grapevines, trees, paths, and rugged horizons to create glowing scenes.
en plein air—in the open air—landscapes and portraits. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/05/erin-hanson-oil-paintings/
Inspired by Impermanence, Juliette Minchin Burns Down Her Elegant Wax-Dipped Installations
French artist Juliette Minchin appreciates wax for its ambivalence. Activated by heat, the modest material can be smooth or crinkled, firm or pliable, and molded into a distinct shape or pooled into a puddle of liquid. No matter its current form, though, wax can quickly morph from one state to another, and this impermanence is partially what inspired Minchin to incorporate the sticky compound into her practice about five years ago.
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Immerse Yourself in ‘DIMENSIONS,’ a Site-Specific Interstellar Village by HYBYCOZO
Collaborative artists Yelena Filipchuk and Serge Beaulieu, who work as HYBYCOZO, explore light, geometry, and pattern in a new large-scale, immersive installation at Sensorio. The culmination of three years of research and development, DIMENSIONS invites visitors to wander around an “interstellar village” of striking metallic structures. During the day, sunlight glints off the gem-like facets, and at night, colorful lights illuminate each piece from within, casting elaborate shadows. More
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At 600 Pages, Escif’s First-Ever Book Takes an Ambitious and Playfully Irreverent Approach to Street Art
Escif (previously) gained a foothold in street art by portraying playful scenes that tap into themes of capitalism, politics, and society, often relying on humor to convey messages related current events and activism. Now, the prolific Valencia-based artist is producing his first-ever book, a whopping 600-page tome titled The Foundations of Harmony and Invention, with help from a fully-backed crowdfunding campaign.
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Susanna Bauer’s Intricately Crocheted Leaves Celebrate the Elegance and Ephemerality of Nature
Merging organic forms with timeless craft, Susanna Bauer emphasizes incredible details in her intimate leaf sculptures. Working with a range of foraged species, from ginkgo to magnolia to oak, the artist (previously) meticulously stitches around the edges or fills in tiny incisions, creating intricate lacework compositions.
Susanna Bauer: IN LEAF, published by 5 Continents Editions, celebrates her use of natural ephemera to create elegant pieces exploring the relationship between strength and fragility. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/05/susanna-bauer-in-leaf/