Repurposed Utensils Perch and Preen in Matt Wilson’s Metal Bird Sculptures
Matt Wilson (previously) has transformed found utensils into recycled metal sculptures for the last 15 years. Bending, welding, and mounting segments of cutlery upon one another, spoon bowls evoke plumage and fork prongs resemble sprawling quills. Encompassing the distinctive crown variations of birds’ heads, Wilson utilizes the unique decorative details that adorn handles of silverware. The artist obtains his materials secondhand, emphasizing, “It’s such a sustainable source with a seemingly endless supply. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/matt-wilson-utensils/
In ‘Kiosk,’ Visit the Tiny Disappearing Urban Shops of Eastern Europe
If you were born in the past three or four decades, you may not remember much about the former Eastern Bloc, a group of countries aligned politically and economically with the Soviet Union, or USSR, from 1945 to 1991. The coalition was characterized by its alignment with the communist ideology of Marxism–Leninism, rather than the capitalist structure of the Western Bloc, or countries that aligned with the United States.
Berlin Wall. More
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Xenobia Bailey Envisions a Distinctly African American Aesthetic One Crochet Stitch at a Time
From bright yarns, pony beads, and cowry shells, artist and activist Xenobia Bailey hand-crochets elaborate shooting stars, suspended shelters, and sacred forms. Wall works and standalone sculptures incorporate the artist’s signature use of crochet into vibrant, sometimes psychedelic compositions that pulse with whorling patterns and color.
Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk, influenced by the period of Reconstruction following the Civil War, between 1866 and 1877. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/xenobia-bailey-aesthetic-of-funk/
Birds Star in Spectacular Scenes for This Year’s Audubon Photography Awards
2024 marks the 15th year of the annual Audobon Photography Awards, which garnered over 2,300 entrants from all 50 states, Washington D.C., and 10 areas in Canada. Highlighting a wide range of skills from youth photographers to professional photojournalists, each image reveals the distinctive beauty of birds. From a Forster Tern spiraling through the air to a Sedge Wren grasping two long stems as if they were stilts, everyday spectacles are masterfully captured in high resolution. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/audubon-photograpy-awards/
Sobé’s Morphing Portraits Articulate the Nuances of Gender Identity
The Pueblo of Zuni rests along the Western border of New Mexico, about 150 miles from Albuquerque. Well-known for mastering artisanal techniques such as inlaid silverwork, stone carving, beadwork, and basketry, the Zuni people—the A:Shiwi—have developed these intricate artforms for thousands of years.
Sobé, was born and raised amid these flourishing handwork traditions, and much of the artist’s youth in Zuni was spent watching his mother make intricate needlepoint jewelry pieces. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/sobe-why-am-i-alive-now/
Amy Feigley-Lee Plays with Perception in Vintage Wallpaper Sculptures
From a distance, Amy Feigley-Lee’s colorful compositions are ambiguous and alluring. Are they woven? Protruding? Hollow? The closer one moves, details of meticulously-layered strips of wallpaper emerge on deep, geometric panels. Emphasizing color, pattern, and contrast, the artist plays with perspective and builds visual rhythms from the carefully arranged vintage material.
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In ‘A Collective Glow,’ Gigi Chen’s Surreal Acrylic Paintings Channel Togetherness and Safety
Bluebirds are often associated with happiness, love, hope, and positivity, making them an apt subject for New York-based artist Gigi Chen (previously), whose surreal paintings of wildlife merge the animal kingdom with symbols of home, comfort, and connection.
A Collective Glow at Beinart Gallery in Melbourne, Chen continues to explore emotional ties between animals and the environment. In “A Sparrow’s Song,” a bird’s body radiates with neon pink hearts, while in “A Collective Glow,” half a dozen house sparrows stitch up a gleaming cavity in a pigeon’s breast. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/gigi-chen-a-collective-glow/
11 International Artists Meld Past and Present for Nuart Aberdeen 2024
As heritage passes from one generation to another, it transforms and reshapes itself to fit within a contemporary milieu. For Nuart Aberdeen 2024, organizers embraced the dynamic nature of culture and traditions and invited 11 artists to reflect on the concept.
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Karolina Romanowska Embraces the Nature of Clay with Bold, Spirited Masks
How do you know when your artwork is finished? Do you step back and take a few deep breaths as you listen to your intuition? Or do you keep going, focusing on the smallest of details, and apply the law of diminishing returns? Belaboring whether a work is “complete” is common for creatives, and Karolina Romanowska believes working in ceramics has helped her overcome this inward block.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/karolina-romanowska-masks/
Monumental Site-Specific Installations by Morag Myerscough Stoke Community and a Sense of Belonging
Born and raised in bustling London, Morag Myerscough has always been keenly attuned to the rhythms of urban life and the patterns of community. Through large-scale, vibrant installations around the world, the artist emphasizes joy, optimism, and a sense of belonging.
vividly hued affirmations. A large archway installed in Paris, part of the installation “Love Letters,” plays on the French motto “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” —liberty, equality, fraternity—adding fundamental societal principles like dignity, hope, and justice. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/morag-myerscough-installations/
Water Rises Around Vibrant Architectural Models in James Casebere’s Haunting Photos
In the late 1980s, architect Balkrishna Doshi designed a housing complex for poor residents in Aranya, located just a few kilometers outside Indore, India. He believed that homes were “living entities” that would change and evolve over time with new residents, new uses, and new ways of life. Having trained with Le Corbusier, Doshi built 80 homes designed to merge public and private life, their constructions outfitted with sharp, geometric angles and vivid colors that contrasted the often somber hues of public housing. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/james-casebere-constructed-photos/
Shyama Golden’s Monstrous Alter-Ego Transfigures in a Surreal Mythological Narrative
In Sri Lankan folklore, yakkas are demonic tricksters, and in the paintings of Shyama Golden, they’re alter egos. The Los Angeles-based artist presents a new body of work this month at Harper’s Chelsea that uses these mythological creatures to shatter the false binary of good and evil.
earlier series, In My Mind, Out My Mind roots in narrative. “Daydream of a Nocturne” launches the uncanny storyline with a self-portrait of the artist seated in a cemetery next to a monstrous twin, rendered in unsettling washes of blues and greens. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/shyama-golden-yakka-paintings/
Fractured Ice Drifts Atop a Frosty Baltic Sea in Bernhard Lang’s Stunning New Photos
Massive ice floes crush like pebbles in a frosty series by Bernhard Lang. Known for his stunning aerial photos that capture the intricate textures found around the globe, Lang recently flew above the Baltic Sea to glimpse the wintry conditions. Awash in snow and ice, the photos create a compelling tapestry of life from Estonia to Finland that includes traversing the frozen Peipsi Lake on foot and watching crystalline structures form on the water’s surface. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/bernhard-lang-baltic-ice/
Aspen Golann’s Elegant Brooms and Brushes Take a Playful Approach to Woodworking
For Aspen Golann, determining the function of an object is the perfect creative constraint for beginning a project. Working almost entirely by hand in her New Hampshire studio, she carves and sands wooden furniture, spoons, candlesticks, and other goods with a playful twist.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/aspen-golann-wood-works/
Hand-Blown Glass Swells Around Steel Armature in Katie Stout’s Bubbly Lamps
Artist Katie Stout blurs the line between utilitarian objects and sculptures, creating chandeliers, chairs, tables, and other functional designs bearing her signature ornamental aesthetic. Using a wide range of materials like ceramic, bronze, glass, and steel, she continually challenges gendered traditions and craft techniques through her playful, expressive works that question the nature of allure and value.
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In a New Music Video, Lilli Carré Animates the Beauty of Transitional Moments with Gouache
Thick, expressive brushstrokes come alive in the form of slithering snakes, cascading vines, and leaping goats in the music video for “Sunever,” a track featured on singer-songwriter Chris Cohen’s newest album concordantly titled Paint a Room. Los Angeles-based artist Lilli Carré meticulously animated each frame with gouache on paper, compiling immense stacks of painted compositions into seamless movement.
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In an Imagined Post-Apocalyptic Future, Simon Laveuve’s Eclectic Dwellings Glimpse a Way of Life
At 1/35 scale, Simon Laveuve’s meticulously crafted miniature constructions (previously) reveal troves of clues about each dwelling’s absent occupants. From colorful bunting strung between posts to framed pictures, Laveuve’s eccentric buildings appear in a range of states of use in an imagined post-apocalyptic future.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/simon-laveuve-miniature-dwellings/
In the Royal Academy Courtyard, ‘The Meddling Fiend’ by Nicola Turner Connects the Living with the Past
For more than 250 years, London’s Royal Academy of Arts—known today simply as the RA—has held the world’s largest open-submission exhibition annually. The Summer Exhibition showcases hundreds of works by British artists and architects, merging displays by Royal Academicians and leading figures with entries from emerging practitioners and the public.
Nicola Turner was invited to respond to the bronze statue of English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds in the institution’s courtyard, nodding to the 18th-century artist’s legacy as the founder and first president of the RA. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/nicola-turner-meddling-fiend/
Mesmerizing Pixelated Motifs Emerge from Sci-Fi Narratives in Drawings by Matthew Craven
Neuromancer is one of the first science-fiction novels characterized as cyberpunk, a dystopic mix of rapidly advanced technologies and mass societal collapse. Written by William Gibson and published in 1984, the book has become a cult classic lauded for how it doesn’t reach toward a distant future but rather envisions “the real present,” a version of the stark inequities and nightmarish times we’re already living in.
Matthew Craven. More
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/matthew-craven-drawings/
Tender Interactions Emerge from Wood in Fumiya Watanabe’s Delicate Sculptures
“My work is like a diary, like a poem,” says Fumiya Watanabe, who translates daily experiences and emotions into poignant wooden sculptures. Based in Gifu, Japan, the artist studied wood carving during university, then later with a master Inami artisan. Honing a technical understanding of the medium prompted Watanabe to immortalize things he saw and experienced into delicate artworks.
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