WV & ND
Articles by Grace Ebert
On Concrete Remnants of London’s Aylesbury Estate, Harriet Mena Hill Preserves a Community
Built throughout the 1960s and ’70s, the Aylesbury Estate is an enormous public housing complex in South East London that at its peak, boasted 11,000 residents. Like other social projects of this kind, Aylesbury has struggled with violence and vandalism throughout its run, and in 2005, local officials decided to demolish the estate and rebuild in phases rather than rehabilitate the existing structures.
Three Artists and Two Writers On Surrealist Painter Remedios Varo’s Influence
Like the Argentinian writer Samanta Schweblin, the first time I found myself in front of a painting by the Spanish-Mexican artist Remedios Varo (1908-1963), I was stunned. Who was this elegant owl-figure with dainty fingers and feet? What was animating the creaturely machine at her side with tentacle-like brushes as hands? And, would I ever be able to look away? Feeling mesmerized and awe-struck by Varo’s Surrealist visions isn’t an uncommon position to find oneself in.
Fantastic Plants Spring from Taehyoung Maria Jeon’s Digital Illustrations
“I try to avoid playing it safe or going for the obvious. Instead, I look at plants from a different perspective and express them in my own way,” South Korean artist Taehyoung Maria Jeon says about a fantastical series of illustrations.
Lush Mixed-Media Collages by Clotilde Jiménez Piece Together an Artist’s Lineage
Through vivid collages layering fragments of paper and fiber, Clotilde Jiménez echoes his own mélange of experiences and histories. The Mexico City-based artist was born in Honolulu to a Puerto Rican mother and African-American father, and he grew up in Philadelphia, before attending university in Cleveland and London. Both his heritage and ties to different cities around the globe nest together in his work, which draws references from the cultural and political contexts of each locale.
Through Carved Wooden Assemblages, Daniel Minter Communes with the Spiritual
Walk into the first gallery of the group exhibition Thresholds at the Haggerty Museum of Art, and you’ll encounter dozens of hand brooms installed in long rows. Scraps of ribbons, cords, and braids in a vast array of colors and textures bind the small tools together, with raw branches from a fallen tree jutting from the top.
Art by Humans, For Humans: A Letter from Our Editorial Director
Dear Reader, The New York Times recently asked dozens of 10-year-olds what the world will be like in 2050. Some are hopeful: a woman will finally be president of the U.S., people will be more kind, and everyone will have a pet fox. Others, though, feel as if they’ve been plucked straight from a dystopian hellscape: world wars, monarchic rule supplanting voting, embedded brain sensors that send your thoughts straight to an app, and the end of human civilization entirely.
Please No Photos! A Short Film Focuses on Tourists’ Obsession with Capturing the Moment
If you find yourself feeling impatient at the slow, meditative opening scenes of “The Spectacle,” just wait. The short documentary from The New Yorker visits a slew of stunning vistas primarily across Norway, showcasing star-dappled night skies and awe-inspiring mountaintop views. We’re witness to landscapes that appear untouched by humanity, until director Yasmin van Dorp plops us down amidst hordes of tourists. What was a serene environment is suddenly a chaotic display of phones and cameras.
The Legacy of Colonialism Haunts Hew Locke’s Era-Defying Flotilla
Although Hew Locke’s practice revolves around geographically bound objects—superimposed drawings of Guyanese homes and his suspended flotilla among them—the artist traces the reaches of empire that extend far beyond any singular era or point on a map. How people, capital, cargo, and ideas traverse the globe has long been central to Locke’s work, an investigation he continues in The Wanderers on view at P·P·O·W.
Symmetry and Biomorphic Forms Characterize Roberta Gentry’s Sensual Paintings
Through brilliant oranges and moody shades of blue, Los Angeles-based artist Roberta Gentry renders vivid, balanced compositions that, as she says, take the senses seriously. Gentry has long been interested in the relationship between the constructed and the natural, cultivating abstract, biomorphic forms scaffolded by tall columns. Gravitating toward symmetry and restricted palettes, Gentry paints rhythmic pieces that adhere to an underlying grid.
Anna Ortiz Traverses the Multiple Realities of the Borderlands
In Mesoamerican folklore, the jaguar is a prominent nagual, a being with the power to morph into an animal. Moving from one realm into another allows this hybrid creature to act as a spiritual guide through unknown territories. For Anna Ortiz, the jaguar is also a fitting metaphor for entering into a mythic borderland. Drawing on her Mexican-American heritage, the artist renders remote landscapes through limited, yet vibrant palettes.
Karla Wong’s Folkloric Portraits Conjure Mysterious Portals to Another World
Although Karla Wong has always been passionate about drawing, it was her degree in law that ultimately spurred her current practice. The Mexican artist spent her adolescent and early adult years in Oaxaca, where she attended university and eventually became a forensic and witness sketch artist for the local justice department. Rendering a figure’s likeness based solely on a description is a deeply imaginative process and one that continues to inform the artist’s practice today.
Spanning 200+ Works, a New Book Celebrates the World of Fungi
Following surveys of butterflies, birds, oceans, and trees, the editors at Phaidon have settled on their next topic of inquiry: fungi. This October, the publisher will release an expansive tome gathering more than 200 photographs, artworks, historical objects, and more all devoted to the vast diversity and creative potential of mycology. Fungi: The World of Mushrooms spans more than 200 pages and several millennia, compiling a breadth of imagery from ancient history to the present day.
In ‘An American Fiction,’ Ronald Jackson Casts an Imagined Screenplay
In the Oscar-winning film American Fiction, the irritable protagonist Thelonious “Monk” Ellison describes his work as follows: “I just invent little people in my mind and make them have conversations with each other.” The film, which director Cord Jefferson adapted from Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, grapples with stereotypes and the ways we’re asked to perform our identities.
40 Filmmakers in 25 Countries Team Up for an Ode to Nature Shot Entirely on Super 8 Cameras
Before the iPhone essentially turned all of us into documentarians, the Super 8 camera offered a more democratic approach to filmmaking. Kodak introduced the analog format in 1965 with an eye toward amateurs and hobbyists interested in capturing the world around them, and today it remains a stalwart of the discipline, particularly for those drawn to the grainy, nostalgic qualities of shooting on film.
Dappled Light and Hazy Shadows Characterize Clio Sze To’s Dynamic Paintings
Clio Sze To paints in the same way she walks around her home in Paris. Setting out with an open agenda and allowing her route to evolve organically, the artist meanders through the city with an eye toward the patterns and textures that comprise the landscape. When she returns to the studio, the sights transform into impressionistic pieces that capture the feeling of a contemplative hour spent on foot.
Playful Patterns Adorn Ashley Percival’s Collections of Creatures
In Ashley Percival’s world, a leopard can, in fact, change its spots. The Cornwall-based illustrator is behind a fanciful menagerie in which poodles, rotund birds, and boot-wearing insects try on a vast array of vibrant costumes. Using a mix of colored pencil, pen, paint, and digital tools, he dreams up cheeky patterns and palettes for common animals, presenting collections of the same species in endlessly alluring grids.
Marka27 Superimposes Pop Culture, Graffiti, and Political Critique in Urgent Portraits
Animated characters, patterned textiles, logos from iconic fashion labels, graffiti, and more coalesce in the vibrant portraits of Victor Quiñonez. Born in Mexico, raised in East Dallas, and now based in Brooklyn, the artist, who works as Marka27, is interested in the ways activism and pop culture converge, and he infuses the visual language of contemporary street art with Indigenous imagery and Mexican mural traditions.
Contradiction and the Unknown Permeate Isaiah Lee’s Imaginative Dollhouse Paintings
With a teal roof and gabled windows, a colonial-style dollhouse is at the center of Isaiah Lee’s practice. In his current body of work, the Chicago artist renders childhood toys that transition from objects of play and nostalgia into uncanny, animate entities. Set in the scaled-down rooms and landscape around the miniature home, Lee’s scenes channel the wonder and theatrics of the adolescent imagination, while confronting the ways these early experiences permeate one’s life.
Pattern and Bold, Saturated Color Commingle in Ben Sledsens’ Rhythmic Paintings
In Ben Sledsens’ new body of work, An Apple for the Road, saturated fields of color meet methodical patterns constructed from grasses, leaves, brick, and more. The Antwerp-born artist conceives of vibrant, atmospheric paintings in which life pauses for a moment: there’s a swan hovering over its tinted reflection, a woman just stepping out her front door, and vivid still lifes in which clouds and soft breezes rustle through the windows.
Lush Foliage Permeates Xanthe Burdett’s Delicate Portraiture
For Xanthe Burdett, the boundary between humans and nature is thin, malleable, and always in flux. The Devon-born, London-based artist works largely in a palette of greens, layering leaves and vines atop faint figurative silhouettes. Invoking mythology and ancient cosmologies, her paintings suggest that people and plants are not only interconnected but also intrinsically one.
Estefania Ajcip’s Sculptural Paintings Unite the Memories of a Separated Family
Through vivid sculptural paintings, Los Angeles-based artist Estefania Ajcip peers in on the fractures families face when split apart. Ajcip spent much of her childhood in Guatemala, while her father worked in L.A. and missed pivotal moments of her youth. In a new body of work titled Folded Memories, the artist contends with this adolescent experience, extrapolating her recollections into poignant compositions filled with a longing for connection.
An Inflatable Pool Party by Craig & Karl Fills a Dubai Atrium with Summer Fun
At ICD Brookfield Place in Dubai, a vibrant collection of smiling inflatables sprouts from a vaulted ceiling, creating a suspended pool party of colorful forms. The spirited installation is titled “Under the Sun” and the latest project by duo Craig & Karl. “We wanted to capture the warmth, vibrancy, and joy of summer—distilled into one space and experienced from within the expansive summer garden atrium. A way to bring the season indoors,” the pair write about the project.
On Vintage Boards, Lou Benesch Conjures the Fantastic World of The Magician
Enter The Magician’s Room, and you’ll encounter a brawny horse with a serpent coiled on its back, a flock of headless birds diving into a central star, and a fluffy white rabbit framed by an unblinking circle of eyes. This surreal, liminal space is the setting for a new body of work by Paris-based Lou Benesch. On view through August 22 at Hashimoto Contemporary, the solo exhibition takes the tarot’s Magician card as a starting point.
Damien Hoar de Galvan Puzzles Scraps of Reclaimed Wood for a Daily Sculpture Project
For many artists, designers, and writers, the daily project is a fruitful, if not invigorating, exercise. Whether it emerges in the form of a morning sketch or collection of objects gathered during walks, disciplined creativity has a certain allure, and many of us long for a regimen that pushes through blocks, demanding that we make even in the most uninspiring conditions.
Milk Cartons and Bottle Gourds Form Sipho Mabona’s Tribute to His Late Father
Known for his large origami-style works, Sipho Mabona turns his attention to a deeply personal object in a new series: the calabash. The hollowed, dried gourd is native to tropical Africa and utilized across the continent as a bottle-like vessel for food and beverage. In The Calabashes We Never Drank Amasi From, Mabona translates his familial connection to the functional fruit into vibrant patterns made from recycled milk cartons.
Jennifer Latour Preserves Ephemeral Beauty in Her Otherworldly Botanical Assemblages
“The wind is my nemesis!” says Jennifer Latour, and rightly so. In her sculptural assemblages, single flowers or small clusters of blooms sprout from tree branches or thick stems, appearing like otherworldly forms standing in the landscape. A soft breeze could topple the Vancouver-based artist’s ephemeral works, scattering their delicate petals and spindly shoots before she has the chance to snap a photo.
Stuffed Animals and Found Objects Reconfigure in Sungho Bae’s Uncanny Sculptures
Like many kids, I struggled with bedtime. I was a naturally anxious child with a vast imagination and siblings who loved to watch scary movies, leaving me capable of generating an endless array of terrifying things that could happen once the lights went out.
Family Memories and Midwestern Niceties Converge in Melissa Joseph’s ‘Casserole Culture’
Unlike the coasts, Midwestern culture is synonymous with the manual labor of blue-collar jobs, resilience necessary in harsh winters, and a certain friendliness that lends itself to a deep-rooted sense of community. These humble tenets grounded Melissa Joseph’s childhood in Saint Marys, a small, rural city in Pennsylvania, where she was born to a mother with Irish heritage and a father from Kerala, India.
Under Glass Cloches, Amber Cowan Nests Enchanting Flameworked Scenes
Known for her lush assemblages of flameworked glass, Amber Cowan reimagines a ubiquitous yet fragile medium. Flowers, filigree, and colorful baubles cluster into dense compositions that invoke fairytale narratives and whimsical nature scenes. Cowan typically works with industrial scraps, antiques, and other offcasts, which allows her to draw on products and colorways that are no longer in production.
Tiny Faces Surface Amid Sweeping Lines in En Iwamura’s Expressive Sculptures
In the voluptuous ceramics of En Iwamura, sweeping lines of clay frame minuscule eyes and noses that just barely emerge from the earthen material. The artist is based in the iconic pottery town of Shigaraki in Japan’s Shiga Prefecture and is known for his expressive yet abstract sculptures. Evoking playful depictions of masks and busts, the works are often vibrant in color, featuring bold gradients or two-toned combinations.
Nature or Culture? Europeans Can Vote on the New Banknote Design
What best represents European life? The eternal dichotomy of nature vs. culture structures the Central Bank’s quest for a new banknote design, and now, the public can vote and offer feedback on ten proposals. A panel of jurors selected the designs, which follow one of two themes: European places and ideas or birds and rivers, the latter of which is meant to symbolize freedom and unity.
‘Colorstruck!’ Examines the Connection Between Race and Chromatic Expression
A nude Black woman lies on a stark white chaise, her head propped up by her thin arm. She’s surrounded by flat, abstracted color in the form of fruits and fabrics, and a glass coupe and bottle on a nearby table offer a clear, rather than refracted, view of the vibrant scene. Rendered in oil on burlap, the painting by William H. Johnson is commanding in its palette and subject matter and an exemplary work in a new book by art historian Richard J. Powell.
Dynamic Scenes Emerge from Fumiaki Aono’s Wooden Assemblages
Since 1998, Fumiaki Aono has been interested in how objects circulate and what happens when they appear in new contexts. Questions of restoration and regeneration naturally followed, and wood became a prime medium for exploring these themes. Today, Aono continues to revitalize found objects, particularly discarded furniture. Dressers, chests, and cabinets stack into towering assemblages and become the imaginative backdrop for the artist’s constructed scenes.
Damien Aubin Documents a Former Soviet Mining Settlement Suspended in Time
The small settlement of Pyramiden on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard is literally frozen in time. A former mining outpost for the Soviet Union, industrial operations ceased in 1998, and residents relocated. It wasn’t until 2007 that a handful of new inhabitants made the settlement home. Because Pyramiden was abandoned in a cold climate, it remains impeccably preserved, with remnants of its once-thriving settlement still visible.
Felicia Chiao’s Domestic Scenes Reflect the Emotional Structures of Daily Life
“When I was really little, I wanted to be one of those stackable chairs you’d see in like a school auditorium,” Felicia Chiao says. “I thought they looked cozy.” This childhood memory is the basis for a playful drawing in which Chiao’s signature characters mound atop one another. Layering reigns in this imagined world as calendars and clocks emerge from the wall in dense piles, while stacks of books and dishes rest on the floor.
Saman and Sasan Oskouei’s Sculptures Puncture the Weight of Everyday Objects
What good is a ladder without structural integrity? Artist brothers Saman and Sasan Oskouei consider this question in The Weight of Less, an ongoing series of pocked wooden sculptures. From a school desk to a door to an industrial pallet, each humble item is punctured with irregular yet cohesive holes, rendering their former functions impractical. “As layers are removed, the objects lose their original purpose while gaining a new presence,” the artists tell Colossal.
The Era of Contradiction Materializes in Genesis Belanger’s Uncanny Sculptures
How do we distinguish between the artificial and the real? And perhaps more importantly, why should we? Genesis Belanger makes the tension and anxiety that arise from these questions tangible as she lures viewers into an unsettling world. Known for her ceramic works depicting an uncanny vision of domestic life, Belanger often teases out the dynamic relationships between discomfort, consumption, and capitalism.
Trompe-L’œil Paintings by Jason Limon Reveal a Hidden Skeletal World
If you were to rip open a tattered matchbox, what might you find hidden in its confines? And what’s lurking behind biological renderings and advertisements? Jason Limon imagines a playful world in which vintage illustrations are the colorful veneer concealing a vast, three-dimensional universe populated by skeletons.
Divine Sculptures Revere a Yorùbá Goddess in Nigeria’s Ọṣun-Òṣogbo Sacred Grove
In Yorùbá culture, it’s said that more than 600 years ago, a hunter discovered a lush grove in southwestern Nigeria carved by a rushing river. His community had experienced drought and eagerly moved to the region, which they quickly learned was under the rule of the goddess of rivers and fertility, Ọ̀ṣun. In exchange for protection and prosperity, the people promised to celebrate the deity, and this pact grounds what’s now known as the Ọṣun-Òṣogbo Sacred Grove.
Korea’s Coastal Folklore Surfaces in Jeongmin Lee’s Ink Illustrations
Jeongmin Lee is interested in the ways “memory is carried through craft and repetition.” On traditional Korean mulberry paper, or hanji, Lee draws delicate lines in ink and pigments known as bunchae, rendering rippling textures that whirl across the page. Steeped in local folklore and mythology, the Busan-based artist creates surreal scenes that conjure fantastical tales of life by the sea.
Andrew Salgado’s Gestural Still Lifes Pulse with Energy
A largely figurative painter with a penchant for literary citation, Andrew Salgado turns his attention to the still life in a new body of work. Wanting to depart from his narrative-driven process in favor of subject matter allowing for greater intuition and spontaneity, the artist began to render vibrant bouquets in his signature gestural marks. Color ripples across each canvas, presenting the stylized florals in various states of blossom and decay.
The Longtail of Incarceration Unfolds in Gil Batle’s Surreal Narratives
The lively flora and fauna of a tiny Filipino island commingle with harrowing memories of California prisons in the surreal works of Gil Batle. Entirely self-taught, Batle honed his skills while incarcerated over the course of 25 years, drawing and eventually tattooing in a clandestine practice. Today, he’s immigrated to his parents’ native country, where he continues to reflect on the decades he spent in confinement. Batle’s Double Life is a new body of work that explores these dual experiences.
Ana Elisa Egreja Takes a Magical Realist Approach to Migration in Her Rich Still Lifes
“Improbable but not impossible” is how Brazilian artist Ana Elisa Egreja describes the unexpected companions in her vibrant still lifes. Combining the architectural motifs, animals, and fare common in her native São Paulo with elements from abroad, Egreja positions domestic spaces as sites of change, where migration and cross-cultural pollination come to bear.
Amelia Cross Blends Bespoke Tailoring and Trompe-L’œil Painting in Her Sartorial Studies
Although Amelia Cross subscribes to the belief that our sartorial choices are a way to signal who we are and what we care about, she also knows there are more subliminal details hiding in personal style. A nametag curling at the edges or a pen bleeding through a shirt pocket stand in stark contrast to a perfectly pressed collar or shiny brogues, but each also has the potential to conceal or obscure. These covert elements are what the London-born artist is most interested in unpacking.
James Turrell’s 100th ‘Skyscape’ Opens in Aarhus
The pioneering perceptual artist James Turrell marked a career milestone this month with the opening of his 100th Skyscape, a site-specific architectural installation with a simple construction: a domed structure with an oculus pointed toward the sky. Now permanently on view at ARoS in Aarhus, Denmark, “As Seen Below” is the latest iteration of the iconic series, which has been installed in 26 countries.
In a New 223-Megapixel Image, NASA Captures 16.5 Million Stars of the Cigar Galaxy
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is back with another stunner: a new 223-megapixel composite featuring about 16.5 million stars that have been evolving over several million years. Captured by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) across 65 hours, the enormous image features Messier 82, also known as the Cigar galaxy, which is located 12 million light-years away. “M82 is a mess, but it’s a beautiful mess,” said NASA fellow Adam Smercina.
‘PLEASE’ Is Anna Mantzaris’ Unhinged Comedy About Desperately Wanting Love
Sure, we all want love, but what lengths would you go to find it? Swedish animator Anna Mantzaris once again captures the gamut of human emotion in a stop-motion film that plunges headfirst into the pitiful and cringy. As its title suggests, “PLEASE” is about wanting and attempting to find love through increasingly unhinged acts of desperation and neediness. Mantzaris’ signature felt characters light fires for marriage proposals, sob in the chip aisle, and hug puppies while waiting for the train.
Lenka Clayton Reflects on Motherhood and Finding Connection in Everyday Objects
To open a new film from Art21, artist Lenka Clayton encapsulates her way of thinking and making: “Looking at things that are supposed to behave a certain way and purposefully misunderstanding how they should be used, it’s really important to me,” she says. The Cornwall-born artist works across media, creating both meditative animations via typewriter and immersive installations of gathered artifacts.
In Guadalajara, a Ceramic Tile Mural Mimics a Sun-Drenched Ecosystem
Thousands of handmade ceramic tiles nest together like a puzzle on the facade of the Torre San Luis hotel in Guadalajara, Mexico. Abstract shapes evocative of a lush garden ecosystem burst across the outdoor wall in a collaboration between Alex Proba and the artisans of Cerámica Suro. Titled “Shape of Movement,” the large-scale public work melds Proba’s organic visual language with a color palette that reflects the local environment.
Delcy Morelos Tends to Sepulchral Installations in a Divine Connection to the Land
The Colombian artist Delcy Morelos describes her hometown of Tierralta as “a paradise full of butterflies and unpaved streets.” In the late 1960s and early ’70s, Morelos spent her days in her grandmother’s garden, running barefoot and gleaning what it meant to live in connection with the land. When paramilitary and guerrilla troops moved in, though, the region was plunged into a chaotic state of grief and fear.
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