Art News
Informed by Research Aboard Ships, Elsa Guillaume Translates the Wonder of Marine Adventures
<div><div id="attachment_245596" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245596" class="wp-image-245596 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-2.jpg" alt="an open sketchbook with a drawing of a ship control center and sails" width="1920" height="1413" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-2.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-2-640x471.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-2-960x707.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-2-1536x1130.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245596" class="wp-caption-text">“Arctic Sea Travel Diary.” All images © Elsa Guillaume, shared with permission</p></div>
<p>Whether capturing the sights of a dive in the remote Mexican village of Xcalak or the internal mechanisms of a sailing ship, <a href="https://elsaguillaume.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elsa Guillaume</a>’s stylized sketchbooks record her adventures. Glimpses of masts, a kitchen quaking from shaky seas, and a hand gutting a fish create a rich tapestry of life on the move. “Daily drawings (are) a ritual while traveling,” she tells Colossal. “It is a way to practice the gaze, to be attentive to any type of surroundings. I believe it is important to train both eyes and hands simultaneously, and regularly.”</p>
<p>The Brussels-based artist’s frequent travels provide encounters and research opportunities that fuel both her work and devotion to the beauty and wonder of the sea. In fall, she explored the arctic aboard the <a href="https://www.polarpod.fr/fr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Polar POD</a>, and she’s currently sailing on a 195-meter container ship called the MARIUS for a residency with <a href="https://villa-albertine.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Villa Albertine</a>. The vessel launched this month from Nouméa in the South Pacific and will travel the Australian east coast, New Zealand, and the Panama Canal before docking in Savannah, Georgia, in May.</p>
<p>During the six-week journey, Guillaume plans to continue her daily drawings and create a vast repository of ocean life. “It gives space and time to discover and observe an all-new environment to me, the merchant marine,” she says. “How human beings either explore, travel, or exploit the ocean has always been a very strong source of inspiration to me.”</p>
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<div id="attachment_245597" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245597" class="wp-image-245597 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-3.jpg" alt="an open sketchbook with a drawing of people scrambling in a ship kitchen" width="1920" height="1423" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-3.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-3-640x474.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-3-960x712.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-3-1536x1138.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245597" class="wp-caption-text">“Arctic Sea Travel Diary”</p></div>
<p>When the artist returns to her studio, encounters with new-to-her creatures and the discoveries of her travels often slip into her three-dimensional works, sometimes unintentionally. The process “is very probably an unconscious continuity of what I have noticed, of what I have felt, though I don’t necessarily make an obvious connection between these two practices. I like to think of my sculptures, installations, exhibitions (as) projects from scratch, nourished by many other things,” she shares.</p>
<p>Often in subdued color palettes or monochrome ceramic, her sculptures tend to display hybrid characteristics, like the human limbs and animal heads of “Triton IX.” Others disassemble ocean life, revealing the insides and anatomy of flayed fish.</p>
<p>While on the MARIUS, Guillaume will create larger collaged ink drawings that will be shown along with a new sculpture in October at <a href="https://prvbgallery.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Galerie La Patinoire Royale</a> in Brussels. That solo show will “create a new narration, around human’s shells, like a lost civilization of the seas. This time at sea, connecting the French island of New-Caledonia to Savannah in the U.S. will infuse in many ways this exhibition project.”</p>
<p>Guillaume has limited internet access during the residency, but follow her on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/guillaumeelsa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a> for occasional updates about her journey.</p>
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<div id="attachment_245595" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245595" class="wp-image-245595 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-1.jpg" alt="an open sketchbook with a drawing a hand flaying a fish" width="1920" height="1395" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-1-640x465.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-1-960x698.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-1-1536x1116.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245595" class="wp-caption-text">“Arctic Sea Travel Diary”</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245602" style="width: 1210px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245602" class="wp-image-245602 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillaume-1.jpg" alt="a black ceramic sculpture of fish winding around a human-animal hybrid" width="1200" height="1005" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillaume-1.jpg 1200w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillaume-1-640x536.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillaume-1-960x804.jpg 960w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px"><p id="caption-attachment-245602" class="wp-caption-text">“Triton IX” (2022), ceramic, 39 2/5 × 16 1/2 × 23 3/5 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245598" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245598" class="wp-image-245598 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-4.jpg" alt="an open sketchbook with a drawing of a ship navigation system" width="1920" height="1397" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-4.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-4-640x466.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-4-960x699.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-4-1536x1118.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245598" class="wp-caption-text">“Arctic Sea Travel Diary”</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245599" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245599" class="wp-image-245599 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-5.jpg" alt="an open sketchbook with a drawing of a person hoisting something on a ship and writing on the left page" width="1920" height="1399" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-5.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-5-640x466.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-5-960x700.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-5-1536x1119.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245599" class="wp-caption-text">“Arctic Sea Travel Diary”</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245603" style="width: 1481px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245603" class="wp-image-245603 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillaume-2.jpg" alt="a ceramic sculpture of a fish-like figure with kelp head" width="1471" height="1142" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillaume-2.jpg 1471w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillaume-2-640x497.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillaume-2-960x745.jpg 960w" sizes="(max-width: 1471px) 100vw, 1471px"><p id="caption-attachment-245603" class="wp-caption-text">“Tritons” (2020). Photo by Tadzio</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245600" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245600" class="wp-image-245600 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-6.jpg" alt="an open sketchbook with a drawing of people looking out at a tiny ship on the water" width="1920" height="1395" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-6.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-6-640x465.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-6-960x698.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-6-1536x1116.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245600" class="wp-caption-text">“Arctic Sea Travel Diary”</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245601" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245601" class="wp-image-245601 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-7.jpg" alt="an open sketchbook with a drawing of ship mechanics" width="1920" height="1409" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-7.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-7-640x470.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-7-960x705.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillame-7-1536x1127.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245601" class="wp-caption-text">“Arctic Sea Travel Diary”</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245630" style="width: 1365px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245630" class="wp-image-245630 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillaume-11.jpg" alt="a selection of flayed fish part sculptures on a gray slab" width="1355" height="715" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillaume-11.jpg 1355w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillaume-11-640x338.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/guillaume-11-960x507.jpg 960w" sizes="(max-width: 1355px) 100vw, 1355px"><p id="caption-attachment-245630" class="wp-caption-text">“Thinking About the Immortality of the Crab” (2022). Photo by Jérôme Michel</p></div>
<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/members">Colossal Member</a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/04/elsa-guillaume-travel-sketchbooks/">Informed by Research Aboard Ships, Elsa Guillaume Translates the Wonder of Marine Adventures</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/">Colossal</a>.</p></div>
Ronald Jackson’s Masked Portraits of Imaginary Characters Stoke Curiosity About Their Stories
<div><div id="attachment_245608" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245608" class="wp-image-245608 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Undercover-2024.jpeg" alt="an oil painting of an imagined young black figure wearing a plaid lampshade bucket hat, a blue and green eye mask, and a blue button down shirt" width="1920" height="1914" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Undercover-2024.jpeg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Undercover-2024-640x638.jpeg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Undercover-2024-960x957.jpeg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Undercover-2024-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Undercover-2024-1536x1531.jpeg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245608" class="wp-caption-text">“Undercover” (2024), oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches. All images © Ronald Jackson, shared with permission</p></div>
<p>Six years ago, <a href="https://www.ronaldjacksonartworks.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ronald Jackson</a> had only four months to prepare for a solo exhibition. The short time frame led to a series of large-scale portraits that focused on an imagined central figure, often peering directly back at the viewer, in front of vibrant backgrounds. But he quickly grew uninspired by painting the straightforward head-and-shoulder compositions. “Portraits, which are usually based in concepts of identity, can present a challenge for artists desiring to suggest narratives,” he tells Colossal.</p>
<p>In his bold oil paintings, Jackson illuminates imagination itself. He began to incorporate masks as a way to enrich his own exploration of portraiture while simultaneously kindling a sense of curiosity about the individuals and their histories. Rather than portraying someone specific, each piece asks, “Who do <em>you</em> think this is?”</p>
<p>“The primary inspiration for my art comes from the value that I have in the untold stories of African Americans of the past,” he says, “specifically the more intimate stories keying in on their basic humanity, as opposed to the repeated narratives of societal challenges and struggles.” The mask motif, he realized, was a perfect way to stoke inquisitiveness, not just about identity but of its connection to broader stories, connecting past and present.</p>
<p>For the last two years, Jackson has focused on an imagined figure named Johnnie Mae King. To help tell her story, he has become more interested in community collaboration, enlisting others to help develop the character’s narrative through flash fiction and other types of creative writing. Through this cooperative process, Jackson has developed an online platform, currently being refined before a public launch, where literary artists can engage with visual art through the written word.</p>
<p>In addition to the storytelling platform, Jackson is currently working toward a solo exhibition in 2025. Explore more on his <a href="https://www.ronaldjacksonartworks.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>, and follow updates on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ronald_jackson_artworks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a>.</p>
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<div id="attachment_245611" style="width: 1669px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245611" class="wp-image-245611 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-potluck-johnnie-image-2024.jpg" alt="an oil painting of an imagined young black woman wearing a blue blouse and green skirt, standing in front of a black and white background holding a pink jello mold on a platter in front of her and wearing a blue and green eye mask" width="1659" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-potluck-johnnie-image-2024.jpg 1659w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-potluck-johnnie-image-2024-640x741.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-potluck-johnnie-image-2024-960x1111.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-potluck-johnnie-image-2024-1327x1536.jpg 1327w" sizes="(max-width: 1659px) 100vw, 1659px"><p id="caption-attachment-245611" class="wp-caption-text">“Potluck Johnnie” (2024), oil on canvas, 40 x 46 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245610" style="width: 1561px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245610" class="wp-image-245610 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Saint-Peter-small-2022.jpeg" alt="an oil painting of an imagined young black figure wearing a button down shirt and suspenders, in front of a foliage-patterned background nd holding a pistol, with his face covered in a geometrically patterned mask that reveals his eyes, nose, and mouth" width="1551" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Saint-Peter-small-2022.jpeg 1551w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Saint-Peter-small-2022-640x792.jpeg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Saint-Peter-small-2022-960x1188.jpeg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Saint-Peter-small-2022-1241x1536.jpeg 1241w" sizes="(max-width: 1551px) 100vw, 1551px"><p id="caption-attachment-245610" class="wp-caption-text">“Saint Peter, 1960 A.D.” (2022), oil on canvas, 60 x 72 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245614" style="width: 1772px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245614" class="wp-image-245614 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Badass-2024.jpeg" alt="an oil painting of an imagined young black woman wearing a black and white dress, gloves, and an eye mask, standing in a room with patterned wallpaper, a pink gramophone, and a chair" width="1762" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Badass-2024.jpeg 1762w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Badass-2024-640x697.jpeg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Badass-2024-960x1046.jpeg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Badass-2024-1410x1536.jpeg 1410w" sizes="(max-width: 1762px) 100vw, 1762px"><p id="caption-attachment-245614" class="wp-caption-text">“Badass” (2024), oil on canvas, 66 x 72 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245612" style="width: 1673px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245612" class="wp-image-245612 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-A-dwelling-2020.jpg" alt="an oil painting of an imagined young black woman wearing a a floral top and a patterned face mask that reveals her eyes, nose and mouth" width="1663" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-A-dwelling-2020.jpg 1663w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-A-dwelling-2020-640x739.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-A-dwelling-2020-960x1108.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-A-dwelling-2020-1330x1536.jpg 1330w" sizes="(max-width: 1663px) 100vw, 1663px"><p id="caption-attachment-245612" class="wp-caption-text">“A Dwelling Down Roads Unpaved” (2020, oil on canvas, 72 x 84 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245609" style="width: 1599px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245609" class="wp-image-245609 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-she-lived-in-the-spirit-of-her-mothers-dreams-2020.jpeg" alt="an oil painting of an imagined young black woman wearing a scarf on her head, a red top, a blue and white face covering that shows her eyes, nose, and mouth, and white cat-eye glasses" width="1589" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-she-lived-in-the-spirit-of-her-mothers-dreams-2020.jpeg 1589w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-she-lived-in-the-spirit-of-her-mothers-dreams-2020-640x773.jpeg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-she-lived-in-the-spirit-of-her-mothers-dreams-2020-960x1160.jpeg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-she-lived-in-the-spirit-of-her-mothers-dreams-2020-1271x1536.jpeg 1271w" sizes="(max-width: 1589px) 100vw, 1589px"><p id="caption-attachment-245609" class="wp-caption-text">“She Lived in the Spirit of Her Mother’s Dreams” (2020), oil on canvas, 60 x 72 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245613" style="width: 1771px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245613" class="wp-image-245613 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Arrival-2024.jpeg" alt="an oil painting of an imagined young black woman wearing a black and white dress and an eye mask, standing in a room with patterned wallpaper, a grammophone" width="1761" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Arrival-2024.jpeg 1761w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Arrival-2024-640x698.jpeg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Arrival-2024-960x1047.jpeg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-Arrival-2024-1409x1536.jpeg 1409w" sizes="(max-width: 1761px) 100vw, 1761px"><p id="caption-attachment-245613" class="wp-caption-text">“Arrival” (2024), oil on canvas, 66 x 72 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245615" style="width: 1660px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245615" class="wp-image-245615 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-In-a-day-2019.jpeg" alt="an oil painting of an imagined young black woman wearing a white and blue dress, in front of a green leafy background, wearing a patterned mask and flowers in her hair" width="1650" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-In-a-day-2019.jpeg 1650w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-In-a-day-2019-640x745.jpeg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-In-a-day-2019-960x1117.jpeg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/jackson-In-a-day-2019-1320x1536.jpeg 1320w" sizes="(max-width: 1650px) 100vw, 1650px"><p id="caption-attachment-245615" class="wp-caption-text">“In a Day, She Became the Master of Her House” (2019), oil on canvas, 55 x 65 inches</p></div>
<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/members">Colossal Member</a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/04/ronald-jackson-masked-portraits/">Ronald Jackson’s Masked Portraits of Imaginary Characters Stoke Curiosity About Their Stories</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/">Colossal</a>.</p></div>
The First Malta Biennale Draws Visitors to a Surreal Fortress
The main exhibition, curated by Sofia Baldi Pighi, is titled “Insulaphilia”, prompting artists to respond to Malta’s reality as a converging point of North African, European and Arab influences, as well as the politics born from its remote location. There were many concerted efforts by its curatorial team, rounded out by Elisa Carollo and Emma Mattei, to gently interrogate the social conservativism of Malta. In an interview with ARTnews, the three curators said the culture leans heavily misogyni
Just Add Water: Grow Your Own Furniture with These Pop-Up Sponge Designs
A team of industrial designers prototyped a furniture collection that dramatically transforms from flat sheets into fully functional objects, no tools required. Taking Gaetano Pesce’s spectacular “Up 5” chair as a starting point, Under Pressure Solutions (UPS) is an experimental research project helmed by industrial designers and ÉCAL teachers Camille Blin, Christophe Guberan, Anthony Guex, Chris Kabel, and Julie Richoz. The team recognized the rampant demand for online commerce and subsequent s
Impressionism, Reexamined: How One of Art History’s Most Controversial Movements Finally Got Respect
<div><p class="p1"><i>2024 marks the 150th anniversary of Impressionism, the movement that determined a new course for modern painting. Throughout this year, ARTnews will publish a series of new and archival articles on the subject, exploring its start in 19th-century Paris, moving beyond French borders to celebrate its varied localizations, and finally surveying the numerous exhibitions planned by museums worldwide in honor of the movement’s milestone.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p>
<p>In 1863, the Paris Salon, an annual art exhibition sponsored by the French government and the Academy of Fine Arts, received over 5,000 submissions. Acceptance to the Salon was often a career-making achievement, leading to state commissions and notoriety. That year, more than two-thirds were refused by the conservative panel—including works by Gustave Courbet (who caused an uproar with his 1852 submission, <em>Baigneuses</em>), Édouard Manet, and Camille Pissarro, and Claude Monet. The panel called that group “a gang of lunatics.”</p>
<p>The French avant-garde was familiar with critical contempt—it was common for the day’s most cutting-edge artists to test social mores by producing work that would ignite controversy—but the scale of the Salon’s rejection proved an intolerable insult, and these artists’ protests eventually reached Emperor Napoleon III. Napoleon preferred the academic style of, say, countryman Alexandre Cabanel, but he spied a chance to score points with the bohemians. He issued a statement: “His Majesty, wishing to let the public judge the legitimacy of these complaints, has decided that the works of art which were refused should be displayed in another part of the Palace of Industry.”</p>
<p>The Salon des Refusés was born, and more than a thousand visitors flocked to the Palais des Champs-Elyées to see the strange and indecent works. By some accounts, the laughter from the people who came to see the show could be heard outside the gallery’s walls. It would not be the last time the artists included were ridiculed, nor the last time they would band together to stage an art history-marking exhibition.</p>
<p>In Paris in 1874, Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Paul Cézanne, among others, organized a Salon des Indépendants. Titled the “The Impressionist Exhibition,” after Monet’s <em>Impression, Sunrise</em>, a gauzy study of the Le Havre port at dawn, the show featured works dedicated to light’s transitory manipulation of nature. Speaking of the title, Monet said, “Landscape is nothing but an impression, and an instantaneous one, hence this label that was given to us, by the way because of me.” The show was neither a financial nor a critical success, and even cost the exhibiting artists money—and social capital. Upon seeing Monet’s <em>Impression</em>, the art critic Louis Leroy wrote in the French magazine <em>Le Charivari</em>, “Impression! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished!”</p>
<p>That label, once meant as an insult, wound up sticking, though the Impressionists themselves didn’t embrace it until their third exhibition in 1877, around the time the critical tide had begun—slowly but surely—to turn in their favor through the campaigning of influential dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. In that time, however, the Impressionists experienced their fair share of critical scorn. Below is a round-up of artworks by Impressionists and their associates that were largely lambasted by critics and are now considered representative of the group’s innovations.</p>
<div id="attachment_1202685118" style="width: 852px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1202685118" class=" wp-image-1202685118" src="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Manet-olympia.jpg?w=2000" alt="Édouard Manet, Olympia, 1832-1883." width="842" height="573" srcset="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Manet-olympia.jpg 5091w, https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Manet-olympia.jpg?resize=400,272 400w" sizes="(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px"><p id="caption-attachment-1202685118" class="wp-caption-text">Édouard Manet, <em>Olympia</em>, 1832-1883.</p></div>
<p><strong>Édouard Manet</strong></p>
<p>More Impressionism-adjacent, Manet’s innovations influenced the movement, which in turn influenced his own practice. The Impressionists Monet and Berthe Morisot, in particular, were inspired by Manet’s flouting of propriety. One work that did as much was <em>Olympia </em>(modeled after Titian’s 1538 <em>Venus of Urbino</em>), which was considered so scandalous that pregnant visitors to the 1865 Salon were advised to keep their distance. Critics decried its “color patches” and “yellow-bellied odalisque,” though it did find its supporters in prominent intellectuals such as Emile Zola and Charles Baudelaire. Recasting the female nude as a courtesan, Manet was also hit with criticism for his bizarre use of perspective and his unadorned brushwork.</p>
<div id="attachment_1202685116" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1202685116" class=" wp-image-1202685116" src="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/A-modern-Olympia-1874.jpeg?w=723" alt="Paul Cézanne, A Modern Olympia, 1873-74." width="768" height="638" srcset="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/A-modern-Olympia-1874.jpeg 723w, https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/A-modern-Olympia-1874.jpeg?resize=400,332 400w" sizes="(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px"><p id="caption-attachment-1202685116" class="wp-caption-text">Paul Cézanne, <em>A Modern Olympia</em>, 1873-74.</p></div>
<p><strong>Paul Cézanne</strong></p>
<p>Cézanne painted <em>A Modern Olympia</em> in response to Manet’s painting <em>Olympia </em>and inspired similar scorn because of it. Of Cézanne’s bold brushstrokes, luminous colors, and dreamlike composition, Marc de Montifaud, a French art critic, wrote in the journal <em>L’artiste, </em>“Mr. Cézanne merely gives the impression of being a sort of madman, painting in a state of delirium tremens,” adding, “Like a voluptuous vision, this artificial corner of paradise has left even the most courageous gasping for breath.” Cézanne’s early work was indebted to the dark coloring of Eugène Delacroix, though under Camille Pissaro’s tutelage, he learned to expand his tonal scale.</p>
<div id="attachment_1202685117" style="width: 818px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1202685117" class=" wp-image-1202685117" src="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Camille_Pissarro_-_Terres_labour%C3%A8es.jpg?w=1356" alt="Camille Pissarro, Ploughed Field, 1874." width="808" height="644" srcset="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Camille_Pissarro_-_Terres_labourèes.jpg 1356w, https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Camille_Pissarro_-_Terres_labourèes.jpg?resize=400,319 400w" sizes="(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px"><p id="caption-attachment-1202685117" class="wp-caption-text">Camille Pissarro, <em>Ploughed Field</em>, 1874.</p></div>
<p><strong>Camille Pissarro</strong></p>
<p>Cézanne called the Dutch-French Pissarro “the first Impressionist,” and the latter artist was akin to a father figure for the group, equally concerned in his paintings with depicting labors of the working man as the whims of nature. He cycled through styles, gravitating in his later years towards the pointillism pioneered by Post-Impressionists Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. Pissarro, to his assumed displeasure, was perceived as being less accessible—and memorable—than his contemporary Monet. His presentation of <em>Ploughed Field</em> in the 1874 Exhibition of Impressionists was met with derision. Leroy, in <em>Le Charivari</em>, related the comments of one observer: “Those are furrows? That is hoar-frost? But those are palette-scrapings placed uniformly on a dirty canvas. It has neither head nor tail, neither top nor bottom, neither front nor back.”</p>
<div id="attachment_1202685115" style="width: 689px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1202685115" class=" wp-image-1202685115" src="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Edgar-Degas-Little-Dancer.jpg?w=1226" alt="Edgar Degas, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, 1879–81." width="679" height="1108" srcset="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Edgar-Degas-Little-Dancer.jpg 3320w, https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Edgar-Degas-Little-Dancer.jpg?resize=400,653 400w" sizes="(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px"><p id="caption-attachment-1202685115" class="wp-caption-text">Edgar Degas, <em>Little Dancer Aged Fourteen</em>, 1879–81.</p></div>
<p><strong>Edgar Degas</strong></p>
<p>Throughout his lifetime, Degas bristled against associations with Impressionists, once writing, “No art was ever less spontaneous than mine.” But he was criticized alongside the radicals all the same. One of his best-known and most controversial works, the sculpture <em>The Little Dancer</em>, was widely reviled upon its presentation at the 1881 Impressionist exhibition in Paris. Art critic Elie de Mont wrote, “I don’t ask that art should always be elegant, but I don’t believe that its role is to champion the cause of ugliness.” Degas created it from colored wax, real hair, and a fabric tutu, a mixed media practice that was unconventional in the 19th century. The choice of subject, a ballerina, was another scandal, as the profession was then considered unseemly, akin to prostitution.</p>
<div id="attachment_1202685121" style="width: 838px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1202685121" class=" wp-image-1202685121" src="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Monet-Women-in-the-Garden.jpg?w=1569" alt="Claude Monet, Women in the garden, 1866-67." width="828" height="1055" srcset="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Monet-Women-in-the-Garden.jpg 2850w, https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Monet-Women-in-the-Garden.jpg?resize=400,510 400w" sizes="(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px"><p id="caption-attachment-1202685121" class="wp-caption-text">Claude Monet, <em>Women in the Garden</em>, 1866-67.</p></div>
<p><strong>Claude Monet</strong></p>
<p>Monet endured nearly a decade of contempt from the public and the press, who found his artworks formless and unfinished. Albert Wolff of <em>Le Figaro </em>wrote that he was personally “saddened” by an exhibition including Monet’s landscapes. Monet’s large-scale <em>Women in the Garden</em> was among the paintings rejected by for the Salon, with one Academy member exclaiming, “Too many young people think of nothing but continuing in this abominable direction. It is high time to protect them and save art!” The going was initially rough for Monet, but by the end of the 1870s, he had begun to receive acclaim. A painting of his was accepted in the 1880 Salon, and some of his light studies sold, prompting Pissarro to dub his longtime friend “commercial.”</p>
<div id="attachment_1202685113" style="width: 843px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1202685113" class=" wp-image-1202685113" src="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Morisot_Lady_at_her_Toilette.jpg?w=1024" alt="Berthe Morisot, Lady at her Toilette, 1875–80." width="833" height="611" srcset="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Morisot_Lady_at_her_Toilette.jpg 1024w, https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Morisot_Lady_at_her_Toilette.jpg?resize=400,294 400w" sizes="(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px"><p id="caption-attachment-1202685113" class="wp-caption-text">Berthe Morisot, <em>Lady at her Toilette</em>, 1875–80.</p></div>
<p><strong>Berthe Morisot</strong></p>
<p>History has not been kind to the female Impressionists—they showed alongside Monet, Manet, and other male contemporaries, but rarely featured in any advertising materials. One such artist was Berthe Morisot, who exhibited at the 1864 Paris Salon and was shown prominently in nearly every Impressionist exhibition from 1874 to 1886. She was concerned with female interiority, and approached selfhood as a given, rather than a gendered privilege. <em>Woman at Her Toilette,</em> which was included in a landmark Barnes Foundation show of Morisot’s art in Philadelphia, illustrates her quick brushstrokes and empathetic gaze.</p>
<div id="attachment_1202685112" style="width: 860px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1202685112" class=" wp-image-1202685112" src="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Alfred_Sisley_-_Boat_in_the_Flood_at_Port_Marly_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg?w=2000" alt="Alfred Sisley, Flood at Port-Marly, 1876." width="850" height="673" srcset="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Alfred_Sisley_-_Boat_in_the_Flood_at_Port_Marly_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg 4977w, https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Alfred_Sisley_-_Boat_in_the_Flood_at_Port_Marly_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg?resize=400,316 400w" sizes="(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px"><p id="caption-attachment-1202685112" class="wp-caption-text">Alfred Sisley, <em>The</em> <em>Flood at Port-Marly</em>, 1872.</p></div>
<p><strong>Alfred Sisley</strong></p>
<p>Alfred Sisley, an Englishman who lived nearly his entire life in France, never achieved the household recognition of his peers, though he was a key initiator of the movement, having been included in the 1874 Impressionist exhibition and represented by Durand-Ruel. He was almost exclusively a landscape painter, eschewing the brash colors of Monet and the dynamic lighting of Cézanne; Pissarro described him to Matisse as “a typical Impressionist.” <em>The Flood at Port Marly</em>, a series of two paintings painted between 1872 and 1876 at a village along the Seine, is representative of his signature style, featuring muddied colors, conventional lighting, and a prioritization of setting over population.</p>
<div id="attachment_1234703801" style="width: 832px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1234703801" class="wp-image-1234703801 size-full" src="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Mother_and_Child_-_Cassatt_1905-1.jpg" alt="" width="822" height="1023" srcset="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Mother_and_Child_-_Cassatt_1905-1.jpg 822w, https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Mother_and_Child_-_Cassatt_1905-1.jpg?resize=400,498 400w" sizes="(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px"><p id="caption-attachment-1234703801" class="wp-caption-text">Mary Stevenson Cassatt, <em>Mother and Child, </em>1905.</p></div>
<p><strong>Mary Stevenson Cassatt</strong></p>
<p>Cassatt stood out twofold among the French Impressionists, as a woman and the only American among their ranks. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and settled in Paris in 1875. By then, she was regularly showing in the Paris Salon, but she only turned toward the Impressionist style after meeting Degas, who invited her to exhibit in four of the eight Impressionist exhibitions. Like Degas, she was interested foremost in figure compositions but shared with Morisot a refusal to objectify women. The relationship between mother and child became her specialty, with <em>Mother and Child </em>(1905) among her key works. Her subject was often described by critics of her time as being overly “feminine,” and Cassatt achieved commercial success—something that was then rare for female artists.</p></div>
Tune into Your Own Brain Waves with Steve Parker’s Suspended Constellations of Salvaged Brass
<div><div id="attachment_245543" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245543" class="wp-image-245543 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-3.jpg" alt="a woman stands in a concrete tunnel outside amid suspended brass instruments" width="1920" height="1281" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-3.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-3-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-3-960x641.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-3-1536x1025.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245543" class="wp-caption-text">“Sonic Meditation for Solo Performer No. 2,” salvaged brass, electronics, astroturf, EEG brain monitor, video projection. All images © Steve Parker, shared with permission</p></div>
<p>Many therapists advise patients to reconnect with their inner voice, a part of treatment that, as anyone who’s tried it can attest, is easier said than done. But what if you could tune into to your internal ups and downs in the same way you listen to a song?</p>
<p>In his <em>Sonic Meditation for Solo Performer</em> series, Austin-based artist and musician <a href="https://steve-parker.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Steve Parker</a> fashions immersive installations of salvaged brass. Suspended in clusters with their bells pointing every direction, the instruments envelop a single viewer, who wears an EEG brain monitor and silently reads a series of meditations. A custom software program translates the ensuing brain waves into a 16-part composition played through the winds. The result is a multi-sensory experience that wraps the viewer in the soft vibration of sound waves and makes their inner monologue audible.</p>
<p>Parker frequently incorporates unique ways to interact with instruments into his practice, including in the sprawling 2020 work titled “<a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/tags/steve-parker/">Ghost Box</a>,” which produced sound in response to human touch. He recently installed the towering purple “Fanfare” sculpture in a Meridian, Idaho, public park, which similarly invites the public to listen to the sounds of the surrounding environment through small trumpet bells at the base.</p>
<p>For more of Parker’s musical works, visit <a href="https://steve-parker.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">his site</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/parkerstevesounds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/874867523?h=ae45944ed6&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="960" height="540" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<div id="attachment_245541" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245541" class="wp-image-245541 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-1.jpg" alt="a cluster of brass instruments atop a large purple pole" width="1920" height="1281" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-1-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-1-960x641.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245541" class="wp-caption-text">Detail of “Fanfare,” steel, copper, and brass, 6 x 6 x 18 feet</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245542" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245542" class="wp-image-245542 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-2.jpg" alt="a woman stands in a concrete tunnel outside amid suspended brass instruments" width="1920" height="1281" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-2.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-2-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-2-960x641.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-2-1536x1025.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245542" class="wp-caption-text">“Sonic Meditation for Solo Performer No. 2,” salvaged brass, electronics, astroturf, EEG brain monitor, video projection</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245544" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245544" class="wp-image-245544 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-4.jpg" alt="a cluster of suspended brass instruments hang in a gallery" width="1920" height="1281" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-4.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-4-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-4-960x641.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-4-1536x1025.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245544" class="wp-caption-text">“Sonic Meditation for Solo Performer No. 1 (for Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Lucier),” salvaged brass, electronics, astroturf, EEG brain monitor, video projection</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245545" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245545" class="wp-image-245545 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-5.jpg" alt="a man stands with a monitor on his head amid a cluster of suspended brass instruments" width="1920" height="1281" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-5.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-5-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-5-960x641.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-5-1536x1025.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245545" class="wp-caption-text">“Sonic Meditation for Solo Performer No. 1 (for Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Lucier),” salvaged brass, electronics, astroturf, EEG brain monitor, video projection</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245546" style="width: 1636px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245546" class="wp-image-245546 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-6.jpg" alt="a cluster of brass instruments atop a purple pole near a playground" width="1626" height="1203" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-6.jpg 1626w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-6-640x474.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-6-960x710.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/parker-6-1536x1136.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1626px) 100vw, 1626px"><p id="caption-attachment-245546" class="wp-caption-text">“Fanfare,” steel, copper, and brass, 6 x 6 x 18 feet</p></div>
<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/members">Colossal Member</a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/04/steve-parker-sonic-meditation/">Tune into Your Own Brain Waves with Steve Parker’s Suspended Constellations of Salvaged Brass</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/">Colossal</a>.</p></div>
Forge Project Transitions to a Nonprofit, Welcomes Indigenous-led Governance
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Learning from Lagos: Lessons from the Megalopolis’s Growing Art Scene
I took note of three such structures: a pavilion that Nolan Oswald Dennis made of concrete bricks, wood, and aluminum roofing sheets that together form a breeze-block pattern, and house works by several artists collectively entitled “Traces of Ecstasy”; a gridded surface of alternating wooden cubes designed by architect Endrit Marku for videos by a collective known as the Albanian Conference; and Taşlık Kahvesi, a “resting space in the biennial itinerary” that French artist Deniz Bedir construct
Imagining Worlds After Climate Disaster, Julie Heffernan Melds Chaos and the Sublime
<div><div id="attachment_245516" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245516" class="wp-image-245516 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-7.jpg" alt="logs form a rig on water with a person sawing off a tip. a fire burns in the background" width="1920" height="1366" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-7.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-7-640x455.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-7-960x683.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-7-1536x1093.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245516" class="wp-caption-text">“Self Portrait as Emergency Shipwright” (2013), oil on canvas, 60 x 84 inches. All images © Julie Heffernan, shared with permission</p></div>
<p class="p1"><a href="https://www.julieheffernan.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Julie Heffernan</a> likens her paintings to “advent calendars gone haywire.” Working in oil on canvas, the Brooklyn-based artist renders vast dreamworlds with tiny vignettes scattered across wider landscapes. Appearing from a distant or aerial perspective, the pieces envision the possibilities of life after fires, floods, and other climate disasters and potential opportunities for emerging anew.</p>
<p>Grand in scale and scope, the intricate paintings bear titles like “Self Portrait as Emergency Shipwright” and “Self Portrait with Sanctuary,” which nod to the personal details within each work. Various characters recur in the pieces, but where they once appeared alongside fresh fruit as an enduring metaphor for youthfulness, today, they’re surrounded by imagery of decay.”I find myself repeatedly drawn to landscape painting in order to explore my own issues, both planetary and personal,” she says. “I imagine landscapes that bear witness to our rise and fall as a great power but also to the workings of one woman’s mind.”</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245515" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245515" class="wp-image-245515 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-6.jpg" alt="water rises around a tree with makeshift storage and a bed in its branches" width="1920" height="1678" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-6.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-6-640x559.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-6-960x839.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-6-1536x1342.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245515" class="wp-caption-text">“Self-Portrait as Tree in Water” (2014), oil on canvas, 40 x 46 inches</p></div>
<p>Painting, the artist explains, is a way “to <em>see</em> better” and to place the struggles and difficulties of the world within a context. Despite fires raging in the background, or in the case of “Weather Change,” a massive iceberg rapidly melting in the seas, Heffernan’s works are not fatalistic, instead highlighting the immense beauty of human ingenuity. She adds in a statement:</p>
<blockquote><p>I wanted imagery that might suggest other ways we could cope and possibly even flourish in a new extreme climate and to give my characters things they must tend.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I give them water and tools to stop the burning; the tarred and feathered heads of big polluters; a library of great books to surround themselves with as they contend with the madness of man-made calamities.</p></blockquote>
<p>Evoking the tradition of <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hurs/hd_hurs.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hudson River School artists</a> like Thomas Cole, Heffernan’s paintings focus on landscapes that appear amidst chaos as a sort of paradise. She’s also known to paint over and retouch works even after she’s deemed them complete, each time revising her idyllic vision and inching closer to the sublime.</p>
<p>It’s worth checking out <a href="https://www.julieheffernan.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an archive</a> of the artist’s paintings to see how the scenes and characters have evolved. Follow her work on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/julie_heffernan_/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a>, along with updates about her graphic novel, <em><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/96/9781643755595" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Babe in the Woods: Or, the Art of Getting Lost</a></em>, slated for release in September.</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245514" style="width: 1882px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245514" class="wp-image-245514 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-5.jpg" alt="giant boulders fall from the sky around a small ramshackle village on a river" width="1872" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-5.jpg 1872w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-5-640x656.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-5-960x985.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-5-1498x1536.jpg 1498w" sizes="(max-width: 1872px) 100vw, 1872px"><p id="caption-attachment-245514" class="wp-caption-text">“Self-Portrait Between a Rock” (2014), oil on canvas, 68 x 66 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245510" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245510" class="wp-image-245510 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-1.jpg" alt="melting ice unearths a grassy island while people in a ship below battle rising seas" width="1920" height="1359" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-1-640x453.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-1-960x680.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-1-1536x1087.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245510" class="wp-caption-text">“Weather Change” (2019), oil on canvas, 74 x 96 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245511" style="width: 1424px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245511" class="wp-image-245511 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-2.jpg" alt="a woman carries a basket of objects below a makeshift canopy of draped fabric while boulders fall" width="1414" height="1896" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-2.jpg 1414w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-2-640x858.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-2-960x1287.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-2-1146x1536.jpg 1146w" sizes="(max-width: 1414px) 100vw, 1414px"><p id="caption-attachment-245511" class="wp-caption-text">“Self Portrait with Sanctuary” (2017), oil on canvas, 102 x 76 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245517" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245517" class="wp-image-245517 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-8.jpg" alt="flowers loop around a sprawling tree with dead animals in the foreground" width="1920" height="1629" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-8.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-8-640x543.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-8-960x815.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-8-1536x1303.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245517" class="wp-caption-text">“Self-Portrait as Animal Bed” (2017), oil on canvas, 56 x 48 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245513" style="width: 1510px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245513" class="wp-image-245513 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-4.jpg" alt="a naked woman peers down at a large mound that contains " width="1500" height="1514" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-4.jpg 1500w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-4-640x646.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-4-960x969.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/heffernan-4-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px"><p id="caption-attachment-245513" class="wp-caption-text">“Study for SP with Mound” (2023), oil on canvas, 20 x 20 inches</p></div>
<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/members">Colossal Member</a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/04/julie-heffernan-climate-paintings/">Imagining Worlds After Climate Disaster, Julie Heffernan Melds Chaos and the Sublime</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/">Colossal</a>.</p></div>
In Montreal, Two Modernist Giants, Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore, Are Put in Unlikely Conversation
Titled “O’Keeffe and Moore: Giants of Modern Art”, it includes a wealth of drawings, paintings, and sculptures borrowed from the San Diego Museum of Art, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, and the Henry Moore Foundation. There is photography, like a stunning portrait of O’Keeffe taken in her Santa Fe home, and a recreation of their final studios, meticulous to the historically accurate paint palettes and curiosity collection of animal skulls, pebbles, seashells, and artifacts. The exhibition is curate
In Ernesto Neto’s Largest Installation to Date, the World Is a Crocheted Ship Moving to a Single Rhythm
<div><div id="attachment_245482" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245482" class="wp-image-245482 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-3.jpg" alt="an installation view of an expansive crocheted installation suspended in a large gallery space with rope-like pieces and weights draping it down to the floor" width="1920" height="1280" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-3.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-3-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-3-960x640.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245482" class="wp-caption-text">Photo by Joana Linda. All images © Ernesto Neto, courtesy of MAAT, shared with permission</p></div>
<p>An enormous, cascading installation of crocheted fabric strips stretches across a cavernous gallery in <a href="https://www.maxhetzler.com/artists/ernesto-neto" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ernesto Neto</a>’s newest exhibition. At <a href="https://www.maat.pt/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MAAT</a> in Lisbon, the Brazilian artist (<a href="http://thisiscolossal.com/tags/ernesto-neto">previously</a>) presents <em>Nosso Barco Tambor Terra, </em>which translates to “our boat drum Earth,” a solo exhibition encompassing one of the largest suspended sculptures he has ever made.</p>
<p>Created with a team of assistants in his expansive Rio de Janeiro studio, the new piece draws on images of sails and maritime materials like canvas and rope. Neto nods to the history of transatlantic voyages between Europe and South America, stitching remnants of bright chintz, common in Brazil, into a swathe of fabric punctuated by points of interest like a vessel full of decorated drums or corn kernels, a symbol of international trade. Historically, the percussive instrument kept a rhythm for the galley rowers, some of whom would have been enslaved people.</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245473" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245473" class="wp-image-245473 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-4.jpg" alt="a detail of colorful strips of chintz fabric crocheted into a suspended sculpture" width="1920" height="1280" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-4.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-4-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-4-960x640.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245473" class="wp-caption-text">Photo by Joana Linda</p></div>
<p>Suspended from the ceiling, the central work in <em>Nosso Barco Tambor Terra </em>adopts a cell-like structure, with numerous colors and patterns that intertwine, drape, stretch, and overlap. The piece suggests “a ship, a primordial beast, a forest, or even, and more likely, all of those things and infinite others,” writes curator Jacopo Crivelli Visconti in the exhibition text. He emphasizes that Neto portrays the world as a whole, defining the earth as “ancestral, pre-colonial, and even pre-human.”</p>
<p>The artist considers the dark legacies of enforced displacement and slavery during colonial rule, which the Portuguese implemented in Brazil. He situates the work as celebration of the planet’s array of people, cultures, and “worldviews whose strength and beauty one must recognise, reaffirm,” Visconti says. Amid destruction and chaos, Neto’s ark-like vessel envisions a way to propel the whole world forward.</p>
<p>The exhibition opens May 2 and continues through October 7 in Lisbon. Find more from <a href="https://www.maat.pt/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MAAT</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245476" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245476" class="wp-image-245476 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-8.jpg" alt="an overview of an expansive crocheted installation suspended in a large gallery space with rope-like pieces and weights draping it down to the floor" width="1920" height="1280" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-8.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-8-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-8-960x640.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-8-1536x1024.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245476" class="wp-caption-text">Photo by Joana Linda</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245475" style="width: 1290px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245475" class="wp-image-245475 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-7.jpg" alt="layers of crocheted chintz fabric in a large museum installation" width="1280" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-7.jpg 1280w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-7-640x960.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-7-960x1440.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-7-1024x1536.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px"><p id="caption-attachment-245475" class="wp-caption-text">Photo by Joana Linda</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245480" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245480" class="wp-image-245480 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-1.jpg" alt="two side-by-side images showing crocheted details of chintz fabric suspended in a large sculpture, with the image on the left showing a pocket full of corn kernels" width="1920" height="1426" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-1-640x475.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-1-960x713.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-1-1536x1141.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245480" class="wp-caption-text">Photos by Joana Linda</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245477" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245477" class="wp-image-245477 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-9.jpg" alt="a view looking up at a large crocheted installation" width="1920" height="1280" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-9.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-9-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-9-960x640.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-9-1536x1024.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245477" class="wp-caption-text">Photo by Joana Linda</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245479" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245479" class="wp-image-245479 size-full" style="font-size: 1rem;" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-11.jpg" alt="a group of assistants work on crocheting a large suspended sculpture made from strips of chintz fabric" width="1920" height="1280" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-11.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-11-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-11-960x640.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-11-1536x1024.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245479" class="wp-caption-text">Photo by Paulo Schettino</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245481" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245481" class="wp-image-245481 size-full" style="font-size: 1rem;" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-2.jpg" alt="two side-by-side images showing different installation stages of a large sculptural installation in a museum" width="1920" height="1426" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-2.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-2-640x475.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-2-960x713.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-2-1536x1141.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245481" class="wp-caption-text">Photos by Joana Linda</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245478" style="width: 1290px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245478" class="wp-image-245478 size-full" style="font-size: 1rem;" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-10.jpg" alt="a large crocheted installation spread out on the floor of the artist's studio" width="1280" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-10.jpg 1280w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-10-640x960.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-10-960x1440.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/neto-10-1024x1536.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px"><p id="caption-attachment-245478" class="wp-caption-text">Photo by Paulo Schettino</p></div>
<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/members">Colossal Member</a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/04/ernesto-neto-maat/">In Ernesto Neto’s Largest Installation to Date, the World Is a Crocheted Ship Moving to a Single Rhythm</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/">Colossal</a>.</p></div>
Max Naylor Rambles Through Mystical Woodlands in Ethereal Oil and Ink Paintings
<div><div id="attachment_245449" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245449" class="wp-image-245449 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-stormsurge1.jpg" alt="an oil and ink painting of trees and a rocky coastline with waves rushing in against the shore" width="1920" height="1467" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-stormsurge1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-stormsurge1-640x489.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-stormsurge1-960x734.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-stormsurge1-1536x1174.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245449" class="wp-caption-text">“Storm Surge” (2023), ink on paper, 51 x 66 centimeters. All images © Max Naylor, shared with permission</p></div>
<p>Through ancient wooded glens and along rugged sea coasts, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/maxnaylorart/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Max Naylor</a> invites us to wander along shady passageways, squeeze between lichen-cloaked boulders, and inhale the fragrance of wildflowers. His detailed landscapes in ink and oil paint (<a href="http://thisiscolossal.com/tags/max-naylor">previously</a>) capture petals, branches, waves, and an array of botanicals in dreamlike scenes that teeter elegantly on the edge of reality.</p>
<p>Time of day is often indeterminate in Naylor’s paintings, where blue may suggest nighttime or just the shade cast below the cover of trees. Sometimes the scenes entice us into misty distances or a hilly horizon beyond. The artist employs atmospheric light and repeating tree trunks or flowers that verge on pure pattern, playing with our perception of presence and depth by drawing attention to all details at once.</p>
<p>If you’re in Bristol, stop by <a href="https://www.spikeisland.org.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spike Island</a> Open Studios between May 3 and 5 to see Naylor’s work in person alongside more than 70 other artists. See more on the artist’s website and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/maxnaylorart/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245452" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245452" class="wp-image-245452 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-woodlandglade1.jpg" alt="an oil and ink painting of a forest with a glen of wildflowers and fungus on trees in the foreground" width="1920" height="1461" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-woodlandglade1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-woodlandglade1-640x487.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-woodlandglade1-960x731.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-woodlandglade1-1536x1169.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245452" class="wp-caption-text">“Woodland Glade” (2024), ink on paper, 51 x 66 centimeters</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245444" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245444" class="wp-image-245444 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-afterthedeluge1.jpg" alt="an oil and ink painting of a large erratic boulder covered with lichen and moss, with flowers flowing underneath it" width="1920" height="1707" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-afterthedeluge1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-afterthedeluge1-640x569.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-afterthedeluge1-960x854.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-afterthedeluge1-1536x1366.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245444" class="wp-caption-text">“Erratic Boulder (after the deluge)” (2024), oil and ink on linen, 160 x 180 centimeters</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245446" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245446" class="wp-image-245446 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-earlyglow1.jpg" alt="an oil and ink painting of a yellow wooded scene with lots of boulders covered in lichen spots" width="1920" height="1457" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-earlyglow1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-earlyglow1-640x486.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-earlyglow1-960x729.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-earlyglow1-1536x1166.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245446" class="wp-caption-text">“Early Glow” (2024), ink on paper, 51 x 66 centimeters</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245445" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245445" class="wp-image-245445 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-Bluelandscapewithsnowdrops1.jpg" alt="an oil and ink painting in a blue palette featuring trees and patterns of snowdrops on the forest floor" width="1920" height="1469" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-Bluelandscapewithsnowdrops1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-Bluelandscapewithsnowdrops1-640x490.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-Bluelandscapewithsnowdrops1-960x735.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-Bluelandscapewithsnowdrops1-1536x1175.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245445" class="wp-caption-text">“Blue Landscape with Snowdrops” (2024), ink on paper, 51 x 66 centimeters</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245447" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245447" class="wp-image-245447 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-nestling1.jpg" alt="an oil painting of a large erratic boulder in a meadow with lichen and moss all over it" width="1920" height="1503" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-nestling1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-nestling1-640x501.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-nestling1-960x752.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-nestling1-1536x1202.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245447" class="wp-caption-text">“Nestling” (2024), oil on linen, 75 x 95 centimeters</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245451" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245451" class="wp-image-245451 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-wildwildlife1.jpg" alt="an oil and ink painting of ab abstract landscape with lots of foliage" width="1920" height="1483" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-wildwildlife1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-wildwildlife1-640x494.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-wildwildlife1-960x742.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-wildwildlife1-1536x1186.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245451" class="wp-caption-text">“Wild Wild Life” (2024), ink on paper, 51 x 66 centimeters</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245450" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245450" class="wp-image-245450 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-underthegunnera1.jpg" alt="an oil and ink painting of a rocky landscape with lots of lichen and moss on the boulders and a small waterfall tucked in the brush" width="1920" height="1480" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-underthegunnera1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-underthegunnera1-640x493.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-underthegunnera1-960x740.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-underthegunnera1-1536x1184.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245450" class="wp-caption-text">“Under the Gunnera” (2023), ink on paper, 51 x 66 centimeters</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245448" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245448" class="wp-image-245448 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-raggedcoastwithseacabbage1jpg.jpg" alt="an oil and ink painting of a coastline with trees and a cloudy sky" width="1920" height="1467" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-raggedcoastwithseacabbage1jpg.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-raggedcoastwithseacabbage1jpg-640x489.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-raggedcoastwithseacabbage1jpg-960x734.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/naylor-raggedcoastwithseacabbage1jpg-1536x1174.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245448" class="wp-caption-text">“Ragged Coast with Sea Cabbage” (2023), ink on paper, 51 x 66 centimeters</p></div>
<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/members">Colossal Member</a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/04/max-naylor-landscapes/">Max Naylor Rambles Through Mystical Woodlands in Ethereal Oil and Ink Paintings</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/">Colossal</a>.</p></div>
Hot Dogs, Rats, and Birkin Bags: Paa Joe’s Wooden Coffins Are an Ode to NYC’s Ubiquitous Sights
<div><div id="attachment_245417" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245417" class="wp-image-245417 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-1.jpg" alt="a yellow cab with a top that opens to reveal green and patterned fabrics" width="1920" height="1600" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-1-640x533.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-1-960x800.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-1-1536x1280.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245417" class="wp-caption-text">“Yellow Cab” (2024), Emele wood, enamel, cloth, acrylic, 92 x 27 x 44 inches. All images courtesy of Superhouse, shared with permission</p></div>
<p>New Yorkers are known for their unwavering devotion to the city, but would they want to spend eternity inside one of its once-ubiquitous taxis or worse yet, in the body of a wildly resilient subway rat?</p>
<p>In <em>Celestial City</em> at <a href="https://www.superhouse.us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Superhouse</a>, Ghanaian artist <a href="https://www.instagram.com/paajoewks/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Paa Joe</a> presents a sculptural ode to the Big Apple by carving an oversized rendition of the fruit, a Heinz ketchup bottle, a bagel with schmear, and more urban icons. Invoking the charms of all five boroughs, the painted wooden works open up to reveal the soft, padded insides of coffins, and two—the car and condiment—are even fit for humans.</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245406" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245406" class="wp-image-245406 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe1.jpg" alt="sculptures of a rat, a birkin bag, a taxi, a heinz ketchup bottle, a small statue of liberty, a bagel with schmear, and a trash can" width="1920" height="1440" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe1-640x480.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe1-960x720.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe1-285x214.jpg 285w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245406" class="wp-caption-text">Installation view of ‘Celestial City’</p></div>
<p>Since 1960, Paa Joe has been crafting caskets, which are known as <em>abeduu adeka</em> or proverb boxes to the Ga people, a community to which the artist belongs. Coffins are a crucial component to the safe passage of the dead to the afterlife and a family tradition for Paa Joe. A statement says:</p>
<blockquote><p>In the early 1950s, Paa Joe’s uncle, Kane Kwei pioneered the first figurative coffin, a cocoa pod intended for a chief as a ceremonial palanquin. When the chief passed away during its construction, it was repurposed as his coffin. This innovative art form quickly gained popularity, and Kane Kwei began creating bespoke commissions resembling living and inanimate objects, symbolizing the deceased individual’s identity (an onion for a farmer, an eagle for a community leader, a sardine for a fisherman, etc.).</p></blockquote>
<p>He continues this legacy today with his <em>Fantasy Coffins</em> series. In addition to the New York tributes, his works include a Campbell’s soup can, an Air Jordan sneaker, fish, and fruit. The sculptures often exaggerate scale, including the diminutive Statue of Liberty and a gigantic hot dog that shift perspectives on the quotidian.</p>
<p><em>Celestial City</em> is on view through April 27. For a glimpse into Paa Joe’s carving process, visit <a href="https://www.instagram.com/paajoewks/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245418" style="width: 1546px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245418" class="wp-image-245418 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-2.jpg" alt="a wooden hot dog sculpture" width="1536" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-2.jpg 1536w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-2-640x800.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-2-960x1200.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-2-1229x1536.jpg 1229w" sizes="(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px"><p id="caption-attachment-245418" class="wp-caption-text">Detail of “Sabrett” (2023), Emele wood, enamel, cloth, 23. 6 x 16. 5 x 11 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245419" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245419" class="wp-image-245419 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-3.jpg" alt="a hot dog sculpture opened to reveal a purple inside" width="1920" height="1733" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-3.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-3-640x578.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-3-960x867.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-3-1536x1386.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245419" class="wp-caption-text">“Sabrett” (2023), Emele wood, enamel, cloth, 23. 6 x 16. 5 x 11 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245405" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245405" class="wp-image-245405 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe-2up2.jpg" alt="left: a wooden rat sculpture in a window. right: an open wooden ketchup bottle with gold lining" width="1920" height="1464" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe-2up2.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe-2up2-640x488.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe-2up2-960x732.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe-2up2-1536x1171.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245405" class="wp-caption-text">Left: “Subway Rat” (2023), Emele wood, enamel, 24. 4 x 12. 6 x 11. 8 inches. Right: “Heinz” (2024), Emele wood, enamel , cloth, 26. 5 x 22. 5 x 94 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245409" style="width: 1654px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245409" class="wp-image-245409 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe4.jpg" alt="a small sculpture to look like the guggenheim museum in new york with white round levels and a tall building behind" width="1644" height="1455" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe4.jpg 1644w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe4-640x566.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe4-960x850.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe4-1536x1359.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1644px) 100vw, 1644px"><p id="caption-attachment-245409" class="wp-caption-text">“Guggenheim” (2024), Emele wood, enamel, cloth, 29 x 22. 5 x 26. 5 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245410" style="width: 1450px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245410" class="wp-image-245410 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe5.jpg" alt="a detail of a building opening up on top to reveal a green cavern inside" width="1440" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe5.jpg 1440w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe5-640x853.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe5-960x1280.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe5-1152x1536.jpg 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px"><p id="caption-attachment-245410" class="wp-caption-text">Detail of “Guggenheim” (2024), Emele wood, enamel, cloth, 29 x 22. 5 x 26. 5 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245411" style="width: 1450px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245411" class="wp-image-245411 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paajoe-6.jpg" alt="detail of a wooden apple sculpture " width="1440" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paajoe-6.jpg 1440w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paajoe-6-640x853.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paajoe-6-960x1280.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paajoe-6-1152x1536.jpg 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px"><p id="caption-attachment-245411" class="wp-caption-text">Detail of “Big Apple” (2024), Emele wood, enamel, artificial leaves, 19. 5 D x 26. 5 inches</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245407" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245407" class="wp-image-245407 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe2.jpg" alt="a wooden taxi cab sculpture and a red heinz bottle sculpture and a small statue of liberty" width="1920" height="1440" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe2.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe2-640x480.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe2-960x720.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paa-joe2-285x214.jpg 285w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245407" class="wp-caption-text">Installation view of ‘Celestial City’</p></div>
<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/members">Colossal Member</a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/04/paa-joe-fantasy-coffins/">Hot Dogs, Rats, and Birkin Bags: Paa Joe’s Wooden Coffins Are an Ode to NYC’s Ubiquitous Sights</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/">Colossal</a>.</p></div>
Ewa Juszkiewicz’s Reimagined Historical Portraits of Women Scrutinize the Nature of Concealment
<div><div id="attachment_245382" style="width: 1484px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245382" class="wp-image-245382 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104867.jpg" alt="an oil painting after an 18th century painting of a woman in a white dress, leaning on a cushion, with fabric and a fern frond covering her face" width="1474" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104867.jpg 1474w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104867-640x834.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104867-960x1250.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104867-1179x1536.jpg 1179w" sizes="(max-width: 1474px) 100vw, 1474px"><p id="caption-attachment-245382" class="wp-caption-text">“Untitled (after Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun)” (2020), oil on canvas, 130 x 100 centimeters. All images © the artist, courtesy of Almine Rech, shared with permission</p></div>
<p>From elaborate hairstyles to <a href="http://thisiscolossal.com/tags/ewa-juszkiewicz">hypertrophied mushrooms</a>, an array of unexpected face coverings feature in <a href="http://www.ewajuszkiewicz.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ewa Juszkiewicz</a>’s portraits. Drawing on genteel likenesses of women primarily from the 18th and 19th centuries, the artist superimposes fabric, bouquets of fruit, foliage, and more, over the women’s faces.</p>
<p>In a collateral event during the 60th Annual Venice Biennale, presented by the <a href="https://www.fabarte.org/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso</a> and <a href="https://www.alminerech.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Almine Rech</a>, Juszkiewicz presents a suite of works made between 2019 and 2024 that encapsulate her precise reconception of a popular Western genre. <em>Locks with Leaves and Swelling Buds </em>showcases her elaborate, technically accomplished pieces using traditional oil painting and varnishing techniques.</p>
<p>Juszkiewicz’s anonymous subjects are reminders of the systemic omission of women from the histories of art and the past more broadly. Literally in the face of portraits meant to memorialize and celebrate individuals, the artist erases their identities entirely, alluding only to the original artists’ names in the titles. In a seemingly contradictory approach, by drawing our attention to this erasure, Juszkiewicz stokes our curiosity about who they were.</p>
<p>“By covering the face of historical portraits, Juszkiewicz challenges the very essence of this genre: she destroys the portrait as such,” says curator Guillermo Solana. In a recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iGwyrbvTf4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a>, we get a peek inside the artist’s studio, where she describes how elements of another European painting tradition, the still life, proffers a rich well of symbolic objects to conceal each sitter’s face, from botanicals to ribbons to food.</p>
<p><em>Locks with Leaves and Swilling Buds </em>continues in Venice at <a href="https://www.palazzocavanis.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Palazzo Cavanis</a> through September 1. Find more on the artist’s <a href="http://www.ewajuszkiewicz.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ewa_juszkiewicz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245381" style="width: 1542px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245381" class="wp-image-245381 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104864.jpg" alt="an oil portrait from a historic painting featuring a woman in a yellow dress against a burgundy background with hair and textiles tied all over her face" width="1532" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104864.jpg 1532w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104864-640x802.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104864-960x1203.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104864-1226x1536.jpg 1226w" sizes="(max-width: 1532px) 100vw, 1532px"><p id="caption-attachment-245381" class="wp-caption-text">“Untitled (after François Gérard)” (2023), oil on canvas, 100 x 80 centimeters</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245380" style="width: 1514px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245380" class="wp-image-245380 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104859.jpg" alt="an oil portrait from a historic painting featuring a woman in a blue and white dress against a neutral background with her blonde hair totally concealing her face" width="1504" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104859.jpg 1504w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104859-640x817.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104859-960x1226.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104859-1203x1536.jpg 1203w" sizes="(max-width: 1504px) 100vw, 1504px"><p id="caption-attachment-245380" class="wp-caption-text">“Untitled (after Joseph van Lerius)” (2020), oil on canvas, 70 x 55 centimeters</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245384" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245384" class="wp-image-245384 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/juszkiewicz-2up.jpg" alt="two images side by side showing oil portraits of women, on the left a woman in an orange dress with fruit and ribbons covering her face, and on the right, a silhouette of a woman with red fabric over her whole top half with a pearl dangling from the top of her head" width="1920" height="1228" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/juszkiewicz-2up.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/juszkiewicz-2up-640x409.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/juszkiewicz-2up-960x614.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/juszkiewicz-2up-1536x982.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245384" class="wp-caption-text">Left: “Portrait in Venetian Red (after Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun)” (2024), oil on canvas, 190 x 140 centimeters. Right: “Lady with a Pearl (after François Gérard)” (2024), oil on canvas, 80 x 65 centimeters</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245383" style="width: 1545px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245383" class="wp-image-245383 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104868.jpg" alt="an oil painting of a female figure against a neutral background with numerous palm fronts and tropical plants totally concealing the face" width="1535" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104868.jpg 1535w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104868-640x801.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104868-960x1201.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EWA-JUSZKIEWICZ-VENICE-2024_104868-1228x1536.jpg 1228w" sizes="(max-width: 1535px) 100vw, 1535px"><p id="caption-attachment-245383" class="wp-caption-text">“Bird of paradise” (2023) oil on canvas, 200 x 160 centimeters. Photo by Serge Hasenböhler Fotografie</p></div>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8iGwyrbvTf4?si=nrZhegMfoxUwc9Fq" width="960" height="540" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span></iframe></p>
<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/members">Colossal Member</a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/04/ewa-juszkiewicz-venice/">Ewa Juszkiewicz’s Reimagined Historical Portraits of Women Scrutinize the Nature of Concealment</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/">Colossal</a>.</p></div>
Diverse Expressions: 5 Artwork Themes to Discover at The Other Art Fair Brooklyn This May
<div><div id="attachment_245242" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245242" class="wp-image-245242 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forever-The-Cream-by-Dawn-Beckles.jpeg" alt="a still life painting of flowers in a vase with cat sculptures on the table below" width="1920" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forever-The-Cream-by-Dawn-Beckles.jpeg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forever-The-Cream-by-Dawn-Beckles-640x640.jpeg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forever-The-Cream-by-Dawn-Beckles-960x960.jpeg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forever-The-Cream-by-Dawn-Beckles-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forever-The-Cream-by-Dawn-Beckles-1536x1536.jpeg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245242" class="wp-caption-text">Dawn Beckles, “Forever The Cream” (2023), acrylic, charcoal, gold leaf, spray paint, paper on canvas</p></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Get ready for an art event unlike any other. </span><a href="https://bit.ly/49JxTw3" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Other Art Fair</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> presented by Saatchi Art returns to ZeroSpace in Brooklyn from May 16 to 19. With each new fair comes new experiences, and this edition is no different as it unveils a vibrant roster of fresh artwork, new talents, and unexpected delights.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This May installment promises an array of exciting features, including </span><a href="https://bit.ly/3TWDDMM" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">120+ independent artists</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> set to showcase their collections, the 10th edition of Mike Perry and Josh Cochran’s “Get Nude, Get Drawn” portrait experience, complimentary hand-crafted whisky cocktails (exclusively for those aged 21+) on Thursday’s Opening Night, and live performances on both Opening Night and the highly anticipated Friday Late soirée.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ahead of the main event, we’re highlighting five categories of artists based on shared themes, offering a look at the diverse range of artistic practices at this year’s fair. </span></p>
<p><strong>Still life</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://bit.ly/4biMU9l" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bella Wattles</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> fuses colorful objects, ceramics, and thrifted treasures into whimsical paintings that echo societal harmony and celebrate women and LGBTQ+ creators.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br>
</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br>
</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Still lifes by self-taught artist </span><a href="https://bit.ly/3UnHdBf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Dawn Beckles</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> bridge the energies of London and the Caribbean. Her bold strokes celebrate the beauty of everyday moments, inviting viewers to reconnect with their own stories.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245256" style="width: 879px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245256" class="wp-image-245256 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mind-Growth-by-Bryane-Broadie-1.jpeg" alt="a portrait of a person with flowers emerging from their head" width="869" height="1000" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mind-Growth-by-Bryane-Broadie-1.jpeg 869w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mind-Growth-by-Bryane-Broadie-1-640x736.jpeg 640w" sizes="(max-width: 869px) 100vw, 869px"><p id="caption-attachment-245256" class="wp-caption-text">Bryane Broadie, “Mind Growth”</p></div>
<p><strong>Celebrating Black Portraiture</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://bit.ly/3Q9ohnc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bryane Broadie</a>, a graphic artist from Prince George’s County, Maryland, discovered his passion for art in elementary school. His digital and mixed media works reflect Black history and culture.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Inspired by childhood resourcefulness and Brooklyn’s cultural tapestry, </span><a href="https://bit.ly/3vUG1vN" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sean Qualls</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> crafts evocative illustrations and paintings. His work investigates identity, history, the human spirit, and universal human experiences.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245244" style="width: 1445px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245244" class="wp-image-245244 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Blocks-by-Carrie-Lipscomb.jpeg" alt="rectangles on a white background" width="1435" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Blocks-by-Carrie-Lipscomb.jpeg 1435w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Blocks-by-Carrie-Lipscomb-640x856.jpeg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Blocks-by-Carrie-Lipscomb-960x1284.jpeg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Blocks-by-Carrie-Lipscomb-1148x1536.jpeg 1148w" sizes="(max-width: 1435px) 100vw, 1435px"><p id="caption-attachment-245244" class="wp-caption-text">Carrie Lipscomb, “Blocks (small)” (2024), thread on fine art paper</p></div>
<p><strong>Embossed and Embroidered</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br>
</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Guided by pure geometries, Brooklyn-based mixed-media artist </span><a href="https://bit.ly/3xHVHD8" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Carrie Lipscomb</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> explores space and texture, urging viewers to engage with the subtleties in found materials.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sophie Reid is a visual storyteller who blends geometric shapes across multimedia. She honed her craft as a graphic designer and in her art, she uses illustrations and stitch works to echo her love for design and travel.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245245" style="width: 1510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245245" class="wp-image-245245 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/SILVER-WATER-IN-AQUA-PLEXI-SHADOWBOX-FRAME-Photograph-Limited-Edition-of-25-Isabella-Bejarano.jpeg" alt="an image of water in a frame" width="1500" height="1875" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/SILVER-WATER-IN-AQUA-PLEXI-SHADOWBOX-FRAME-Photograph-Limited-Edition-of-25-Isabella-Bejarano.jpeg 1500w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/SILVER-WATER-IN-AQUA-PLEXI-SHADOWBOX-FRAME-Photograph-Limited-Edition-of-25-Isabella-Bejarano-640x800.jpeg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/SILVER-WATER-IN-AQUA-PLEXI-SHADOWBOX-FRAME-Photograph-Limited-Edition-of-25-Isabella-Bejarano-960x1200.jpeg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/SILVER-WATER-IN-AQUA-PLEXI-SHADOWBOX-FRAME-Photograph-Limited-Edition-of-25-Isabella-Bejarano-1229x1536.jpeg 1229w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px"><p id="caption-attachment-245245" class="wp-caption-text">Isabella Bejarano, “Silver Water” (2015), fine art photography print in a custom aqua plexi shadowbox frame, limited edition of 25</p></div>
<p><strong>New Mediums</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mounts in colored acrylic boxes: NYC-based Venezuelan-born photographer </span><a href="https://bit.ly/4aDWSBT" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Isabella Bejarano</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> champions environmental causes through her sustainable fine art prints, donating proceeds to combat climate change.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Film lightboxes: Montreal-based artist and film aficionado </span><a href="https://bit.ly/449ql4j" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hugo Cantin</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> creates patterned collages on vintage film stock. Housed in light boxes, his illuminated creations fuse sophisticated design with historical narratives.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245246" style="width: 1286px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245246" class="wp-image-245246 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/THE-WRITING-IS-ON-THE-WALL-Painting-Patrick-Skals.jpeg" alt="an abstract work with text" width="1276" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/THE-WRITING-IS-ON-THE-WALL-Painting-Patrick-Skals.jpeg 1276w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/THE-WRITING-IS-ON-THE-WALL-Painting-Patrick-Skals-640x963.jpeg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/THE-WRITING-IS-ON-THE-WALL-Painting-Patrick-Skals-960x1445.jpeg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/THE-WRITING-IS-ON-THE-WALL-Painting-Patrick-Skals-1021x1536.jpeg 1021w" sizes="(max-width: 1276px) 100vw, 1276px"><p id="caption-attachment-245246" class="wp-caption-text">Patrick Skals, “THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL” (2023), acrylic, ink, and watercolor on canvas</p></div>
<p><strong>Text</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Toronto artist </span><a href="https://bit.ly/3xPnvFr" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Patrick Skals</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> escaped the corporate world in 2019 to pursue his unique vision. His collection, </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">In Other Words</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, aims to disrupt norms with abstract commentary, challenging viewers to be introspective.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kelli Kikcio, an artist from Toronto now based in Brooklyn, takes a hands-on approach in her work, which reflects her commitment to social justice and community engagement.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">See work by all these artists and more at The Other Art Fair’s Brooklyn edition, on view from May 16 to 19.</span></p>
<p><strong>Grab your tickets for an unforgettable weekend at <a href="https://bit.ly/49JxTw3">theotherartfair.com</a>.</strong></p>
<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/members">Colossal Member</a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/04/brooklyn-other-art-fair/">Diverse Expressions: 5 Artwork Themes to Discover at The Other Art Fair Brooklyn This May</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/">Colossal</a>.</p></div>
Street Photographer Tony Van Le Captures Beauty in Brevity
As John Koening writes in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, the term sonder refers to “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—an epic story that continues invisibly around you.” This profound feeling reveals itself in Tony Van Le’s street photography, circling around the meaningful coincidences that he captures instantaneously. Le is fueled by serendipity and strangeness. Having originally explored these grounds through music production, the
Venice Diary Day 3: The Biennale’s Best Pavilions Capture the Absurdity of Art in this Moment
<div><p class="paragraph larva // a-font-body-m ">
I have a favorite pavilion—if you’ll permit me a superlative, despite not having seen every single one. For five days, I ran around Venice pounding cappuccinos, my step count uptick fueled by FOMO. Still, this was not enough time to see everything I wanted. (Is it just me, or are there more good collateral shows than ever before?)</p>
<p class="paragraph larva // a-font-body-m ">
Never mind—I can’t get the Austria pavilion out of my head. There, in the Giardini, the Ukrainian ballet dancer Oksana Serheieva rehearses at the barre. I watched for a while, mesmerized, before my biennial brain kicked in and asked “Why?” and “What does it mean?”<em> </em>I turned, as one does, to the wall text, which informed me that, during times of political upheaval, the Soviet Union state television station would play Swan Lake on a loop, in lieu of regular programming. The gesture was clear: Serheieva, in collaboration with artist Anna Jermolaewa, was rehearsing—for a Russian regime change.</p>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-medium"><img decoding="async" width="800" height="1200" src="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC07781.jpg?w=400" alt="A dancer in a white tutu and black swetpants assumes fifth position at the barre." class="wp-image-1234703940" srcset="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC07781.jpg 800w, https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC07781.jpg?resize=400,600 400w" sizes="(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Oksana Serheieva in Anna Jermolaewa’s<em>Rehearsal for Swan Lake</em>(2024), in the Austrian pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.</figcaption></figure></div>
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The piece, titled <em>Rehearsal for Swan Lake (2024)</em>, captured the absurdity of seeing art—namely, a biennial—while waiting for war and genocide to end. It spoke as well to the ways that ways art can feel like a frivolous distraction from it all, while also defraying utter helplessness and despair, for those privileged enough. It also evoked, searingly, the absurd ways grand events rub up against daily life. A number of other works in the pavilion did the same: <em>Research for Sleeping Positions </em>(2006) is a video of Jermolaewa in a Viennese train station, trying to find a comfortable way to sleep on a bench—the same bench she slept on every night for a week in 1989, when she first arrived in Austria before winding up in a refugee camp. Revisiting the bench years later, she struggles to get comfortable: armrests have since been installed to prevent rest. In another room, we are confronted by <em>The Penultimate </em>(2017), boasting plants that were used as symbols of protest during various struggles. There’s Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution of 2010; Ukraine’s Orange Revolution of 2004; and Myanmar’s Saffron Revolution of 2007, among others. Here, poetic gestures are political, but what is most felt is the gulf between the two. If you like this one, you’ll probably like Poland, too.</p>
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Walking around, wondering if we were going to war with Iran and how former President Donald Trump’s trial was going in New York (I hear he fell asleep), this Kathy Acker quote, from an essay on Goya, got stuck in my head. “The only reaction against an unbearable society is equally unbearable nonsense,” she once said. Lots of pavilions felt maximalist, chaotic, absurd—on the lesser end of the spectrum, a handful, especially France and Greece, felt unnecessarily immersive or over-produced. (So many soundtracks; why?!) I didn’t get the hype surrounding the German pavilion in the Giardini, with its asbestos and its fog machine—but the trek to its second location, on Certosa Island, is worth it; just trust me. In the Arsenale, Lebanon and Ireland are the best, though the latter was too violent for me.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1200" height="800" src="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC07785.jpg?w=1200" alt="Various platns sit on chairs, stools, and pedestals in a gallery." class="wp-image-1234703941" srcset="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC07785.jpg 1200w, https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC07785.jpg?resize=400,267 400w" sizes="(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Anna Jermolaewa: <em>The Penultimate</em> (2017), in the Austrian pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.</figcaption></figure>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-medium"><img decoding="async" width="800" height="1200" src="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC07767.jpg?w=400" alt="A lavendar rain boot is on top of a yellow metal rack; blue tubes feed out of the shoe and into a red gas can." class="wp-image-1234703938" srcset="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC07767.jpg 800w, https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC07767.jpg?resize=400,600 400w" sizes="(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Work by Yuko Mohri in the Japan pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.</figcaption></figure></div>
<p class="paragraph larva // a-font-body-m ">
My two other favorites are consensus-approved: Japan and the Czech Republic. In the first, an installation by sculptor Yuko Mohri feels like a Rube Goldberg stop-gap for a crumbling infrastructure, as if someone asked Rachel Harrison to fix a leak. An elaborate, tube-and-bucket apparatus is punctuated with fruits, light, bulbs, and instruments; the whole thing channels the kinetic energy of a drip and harnesses power from unsellable produce in order to produce light and sounds. </p>
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In the Czech pavilion, Eva Koťátková approxomates the neck of Lenka, a giraffe captured in Kenya in 1954, then taken to the Prague Zoo, where she died two years later. Koťátková’s version is hollow, bisected, and supine; you can have a seat inside. It’s at once adorable and grotesque—which is often how I feel at a zoo (Hi incarcerated giraffe; It’s awful you’re here, yet I’m so happy to meet you.) But no one could answer the question gnawing at me: is her sculpture made of real leather?</p>
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If so, that might be more nonsense than I can bear. This weekend, I’m off to see Croatia and Nigeria, two pavilions abuzz. Check back—maybe I’ll have something to add, and maybe someone will answer my question about the giraffe.</p></div>
Tali Weinberg Entwines Human and Ecological Health with Climate Data Sculptures
<div><div id="attachment_245320" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245320" class="wp-image-245320 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-7.jpg" alt="colorful threads wrap around tubes in an installation" width="1920" height="1280" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-7.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-7-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-7-960x640.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-7-1536x1024.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245320" class="wp-caption-text">Detail of “Bound (1.6).” All images © Tali Weinberg, shared with permission</p></div>
<p>Anyone who’s tried to untangle a ball of yarn understands that fibers have a habit of knotting in ways that can seem impossible to unwind. These twisting, interlaced qualities ground much of <a href="https://www.taliweinberg.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tali Weinberg</a>’s fiber-based work as she pulls at the individual threads of our changing climate, using abstract weavings and textile sculptures to explore the inextricable nature of the crisis and the necessity for human intervention.</p>
<p>The Illinois-based artist begins with data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that she translates into visual works using organic and synthetic materials. “These weavings and coiled sculptures are not data visualizations,” Weinberg notes. “Rather, I use the data as a scaffold, choosing materials, patterns, and colors to evoke places and add the social-political dimensions of the climate crisis back into the story the data tells.”</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245322" style="width: 1584px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245322" class="wp-image-245322 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-9.jpg" alt="red, pink, brown, and other colored threads wrap around tubes suspended from a bar as a tapestry" width="1574" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-9.jpg 1574w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-9-640x781.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-9-960x1171.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-9-1259x1536.jpg 1259w" sizes="(max-width: 1574px) 100vw, 1574px"><p id="caption-attachment-245322" class="wp-caption-text">Installation view of “Heat Waves/Water Falls” (2023)</p></div>
<p>“Heat Waves/Water Falls,” for example, wraps naturally dyed cotton threads around plastic medical tubing, which dangles from a horizontal pole. Made during 2023, <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/featured-images/2023-was-warmest-year-modern-temperature-record#:~:text=The%20year%202023%20was%20the,decade%20(2014%E2%80%932023)." target="_blank" rel="noopener">the hottest year</a> on record, the sculpture incorporates the annual average temperatures for 18 major river basins in the continental U.S., data that corresponds to the thread colors. It also tethers environmental health to that of people. The artist elaborates:</p>
<blockquote><p>As the pollution from human life on land runs downstream, watersheds become one window into the interdependence of ecological and human health. While the plastic medical tubing is an expression of the buildup of toxic plastics in our bodies and waterways, wrapping and bundling these tubes by hand becomes an expression of care for our interconnected lives.</p></blockquote>
<p>“Heat Waves/Water Falls” is one of about 30 works on view at <a href="https://www.botanicgardens.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Denver Botanic Gardens</a> for Weinberg’s solo show, <em>The Space Between Threads</em>. The exhibition focuses on the ongoing <em>Climate Datascapes</em> series, which she began in 2015 to better understand the climate crisis and to add an emotional, embodied tenor to sterile, even abstract science. Today, Weinberg considers the series a way of “seeking out and re-weaving otherwise obscured relationships—relationships between climate change, water, extractive industry, illness, and displacement; between disparate places; between personal and communal loss; between corporeal and ecological bodies; and between art, science, and social change.”</p>
<p>If you’re in Denver, you can see <em>The Space Between Threads </em>through June 9. Find more from Weinberg on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tali.weinberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a>. You might also enjoy <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/interviews/tempestry-project/">The Tempestry Project</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245317" style="width: 1290px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245317" class="wp-image-245317 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-4.jpg" alt="pink, beige, and brown threads wrap around tubes and dangle down" width="1280" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-4.jpg 1280w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-4-640x960.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-4-960x1440.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-4-1024x1536.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px"><p id="caption-attachment-245317" class="wp-caption-text">“Heat Waves/Water Falls” (2023)</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245315" style="width: 1755px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245315" class="wp-image-245315 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-2.jpg" alt="a pink and yellow tapestry hangs from the ceiling" width="1745" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-2.jpg 1745w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-2-640x704.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-2-960x1056.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-2-1396x1536.jpg 1396w" sizes="(max-width: 1745px) 100vw, 1745px"><p id="caption-attachment-245315" class="wp-caption-text">“Heat Waves” (2023)</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245319" style="width: 1680px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245319" class="wp-image-245319 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-6.jpg" alt="a square woven tapestry with striped colors" width="1670" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-6.jpg 1670w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-6-640x736.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-6-960x1104.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-6-1336x1536.jpg 1336w" sizes="(max-width: 1670px) 100vw, 1670px"><p id="caption-attachment-245319" class="wp-caption-text">“Silt Study: Lower Mississippi River Basin” (2021)</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245314" style="width: 1810px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245314" class="wp-image-245314 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-1.jpg" alt="a detail of woven threads in stripes of green, pink, yellow, and gray" width="1800" height="1800" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-1.jpg 1800w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-1-640x640.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-1-960x960.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px"><p id="caption-attachment-245314" class="wp-caption-text">Detail of “Silt Study: Arkansas White River Basin” (2021)</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245318" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245318" class="wp-image-245318 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-5.jpg" alt="curling fiber-covered tubes sit on a pedestal in the center of a gallery with square tapestries in grids on the surrounding walls" width="1920" height="1013" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-5.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-5-640x338.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-5-960x507.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/weinberg-5-1536x810.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245318" class="wp-caption-text">Installation view at Denver Botanic Gardens. Left wall: “Silt Studies” (2021). Back wall: “Fissures” (2018). Pedestal: “Bound (1.6)” (2017-2024)</p></div>
<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/members">Colossal Member</a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/04/tali-weinberg-climate-sculpture/">Tali Weinberg Entwines Human and Ecological Health with Climate Data Sculptures</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/">Colossal</a>.</p></div>
Christoph Büchel Returns with Another Venice Provocation, Addressing the War in Gaza, NFTs, and More
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One thing is for sure, and it’s that Christoph Büchel knows how to piss off Venice Biennale attendees.</p>
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In 2015, for the Icelandic Pavilion, the Swiss artist opened a functioning mosque, billing it as the first religious site of its kind in the city. It was shut down after two weeks, apparently for safety concerns, but by that time, the pavilion had gotten a good deal of negative press. (There were also a few defenders in the wake of the decision to shutter the pavilion.)</p>
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His contribution to the main show of the 2019 Venice Biennale lasted a lot longer. Titled <em>Barca Nostra, </em>his piece re-presented the very ship that had sailed 1,000 or so migrants leaving Libya to their death in the Mediterranean. Allegations of exploitation quickly followed. Still, the piece weathered the controversy, remaining in the show for its whole run—and even lingering on once the Biennale ended, creating yet another fracas.</p>
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None of that makes Büchel an obvious candidate for yet another Venice outing, but that’s what we got this week in the form of a big, sprawling solo show beyond the Biennale, at the Fondazione Prada.</p>
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Just how polarizing will Büchel’s latest endeavor be? Very. How much scandal will it generate? That depends on how many people end up seeing it. Without explanation, the show’s preview was abruptly delayed by two days right before it was set to occur, meaning that many in town for the Biennale will either have left before seeing this exhibition or otherwise be too tired to get there. Too bad: this is, for better and for worse, the craziest show on view in Venice right now.</p>
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The postponement, it would seem, owes something to the nature of Büchel’s latest project, “Monte di Pietà,” which takes its name from the centuries-old institution that offered loans to poor Italians without them having to rely on the wealthy elite. The Fondazione Prada’s outpost in the city once hosted an outpost of that service, and Büchel’s installation marks an attempt to reanimate it, in a way. But his project, which fills the entire museum, does not so much resemble a bank as it does an apocalyptic tour through financial corruption across time.</p>
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There is, for example, an allusion to the greed of the Catholic Church in Italy in the form of a darkened, cruddy apse. Viewers can sit there in pews, where they can admire an altar and the candles before it—or they can gaze upward and see a mass of wheelchairs that Büchel has affixed to the ceiling. All those wheelchairs were clearly made more recently than the Renaissance, implying that the Church continues to disable the poor, even today.</p>
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He invokes a lot of local culture throughout. One room features appropriated videos from a TikToker named Regina of Venice, an elderly woman who guides viewers through the city. Another includes arrays of purses arrayed around blankets, referencing the goods sold by vendors to tourists unaware of these objects’ cheap quality. And outside the Fondazione Prada, Büchel has covered up all the museum’s signage, replacing it with fake ads for a Venetian diamond exchange. Büchel is questioning who does the scamming and who gets scammed, and seems to find it awfully weird that there is a system that allows for any of this.</p>
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All of this material has been in Büchel’s wheelhouse for quite a while: he’s long been fascinated by material evidence of the masses being bled dry by those in power. What’s more surprising is that Büchel has expanded his inquiry more broadly than ever, looking to locales far beyond Europe to prove his point.</p>
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The Biennale this time around largely steered clear of openly discussing Israel’s war in Gaza, but surprisingly, Büchel of all people has waded into the fray, offering in one gallery what appears to be live feeds of Jerusalem, Gaza, and the border between Israel and Lebanon. In another, he is showing CCTV footage that purports to be coming in from Kyiv, Dnipro, and other Ukrainian cities. Büchel doesn’t take a stance on these conflicts, which makes the presentation of these images both ambiguous and uncomfortable, but it is obvious he thinks these wars imbricate in the quest for disenfranchisement of the unempowered. You certainly cannot accuse this show of being disinteresting.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1032" height="774" src="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IMG_3189.jpg?w=1032" alt="" class="wp-image-1234703875" srcset="https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IMG_3189.jpg 1032w, https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IMG_3189.jpg?resize=400,300 400w" sizes="(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A feed of the war in Gaza.</figcaption></figure>
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As one might expect, Büchel’s show edges into problematic terrain. Addressing the NFT boom and its subsequent implosion feels acceptable for Büchel to do, but creating a room devoted to sex work, with a stripper’s pole and a box of Durex condoms, does not. Re-presenting archival materials dedicated to the Monte di Pietà of Venice here feels like salient institutional critique, but a poster that calls for an end to the Venice Biennale, seemingly in parody of the protests agitating for the ejection of the Israeli Pavilion, does not.</p>
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The problem, as usual with Büchel, is that it’s ultimately difficult to make definitive pronouncements about what his political values are. Were his art not so grand, so spectacular, and so bizarre, it would be easy to write it off entirely. To his credit, he makes doing so pretty tough. To that end, see this show, then debate it. It cannot be ignored altogether.</p></div>
In Venice, Jeffrey Gibson Envelops the U.S. Pavilion in Kaleidoscopic Color and Flawed Promises
<div><div id="attachment_245282" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245282" class="wp-image-245282 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-8.jpg" alt="two large figurative sculptures dressed in fringe and beads stand in a gallery with a graphic geometric mural behind them" width="1920" height="1280" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-8.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-8-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-8-960x640.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-8-1536x1024.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245282" class="wp-caption-text">Left: “The Enforcer” (2024). Right: “WE WANT TO BE FREE”(2024). Mural: “WE ARE MADE BY HISTORY” (2024). All photos by Timothy Schenck, shared with permission</p></div>
<p>Written in blocky, bright typography, “We hold these truths to be self-evident” wraps the top of the neoclassical facade of the U.S. Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale. The opening lines from the Declaration of Independence greet visitors to the groundbreaking exhibition <em><a href="https://www.jeffreygibsonvenice2024.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the space in which to place me</a></em> by artist <a href="https://www.jeffreygibson.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jeffrey Gibson</a>, the first Indigenous artist to represent the U.S. with a solo exhibition.</p>
<p>A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and Cherokee descent, Gibson has established a distinct visual language that incorporates psychedelic color palettes, text, graphic forms, and various materials with references to Indigenous life, queer culture, literature, music, and more.</p>
<p>In Venice, the artist invokes Layli Long Soldier’s “<a href="https://poets.org/poem/he-sapa-one" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ȟe Sápa, One</a>,” a poem with a distinct geometric shape not unlike the ones he creates visually. As curator Kathleen Ash-Milby says, the work “extends the timeline of Indigenous histories. Jeffrey combines ancient aesthetic and material modalities with early 19th- and 20th-century Native practices to propose an Indigenous future of our own determination.”</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245279" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245279" class="wp-image-245279 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-5.jpg" alt="a brightly colored geometric wrap covers a neoclassical building with a red sculpture out front" width="1920" height="1280" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-5.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-5-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-5-960x640.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-5-1536x1024.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245279" class="wp-caption-text">Exterior view of ‘the space in which to place me’ (2024)</p></div>
<p>In Gibson’s practice and this project, language plays a critical role. Additional phrases appear throughout the exhibition, including on the bodies of two new monumental figures dressed in beads, fringe, and tin jingles. Titled “The Enforcer” and “WE WANT TO BE FREE,” the sculptures loom large and include lines from Reconstruction-era constitutional amendments along with the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, a long-overdue law granting basic rights to Indigenous people.</p>
<p>In another gallery are Gibson’s beaded birds, which draw on the Indigenous craft tradition of <a href="https://umaine.edu/hudsonmuseum/exhibits/online/brilliantly-beaded/whimsies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">whimsies</a>. A recurring interest for the artist, the objects “fell into a category of being kitsch novelty because they weren’t seen as being Native enough or Victorian enough for the times they were being made in,” <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/03/jeffrey-gibson-sculpture/">he said</a>. Beaded motifs also appear on a punching bag and a new trio of busts with long hair cloaking the faces, the latter of which is “intentionally indeterminate” in culture and aesthetics.</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_245276" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245276" class="wp-image-245276 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-2.jpg" alt="two small beaded bird sculptures stand in a gallery with boldly painted graphic works on the walls behind" width="1920" height="1126" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-2.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-2-640x375.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-2-960x563.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-2-1536x901.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245276" class="wp-caption-text">Birds from left to right: “we are the witnesses” (2024) and “if there is no struggle there is no progress” (2024). Wall works from left to right: “BIRDS FLYING HIGH YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL” (2024) and “IF YOU WANT TO LIFT YOURSELF UP LIFT UP SOMEONE ELSE” (2024)</p></div>
<p>Large-scale murals and paintings line the walls of each gallery, enveloping the sculptures and viewers in electrifying patchwork. As detailed in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/13/arts/design/jeffrey-gibson-venice-biennale.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a lengthy profile</a> in <em>The New York Times</em>, color plays a crucial role for the artist and his links to Native and queer traditions. “We’ve been dismissed as garish and too much because of our use of color,” he said. Instead, he uses such kaleidoscopic compositions to shift the perspective and offer a different view of past and present. With the pavilion, he “wanted to map out some moments in American history when there is this real promise of equality, liberty, and justice and then think about what those terms mean.”</p>
<p><em>the space in which to place me</em> will be on view in Venice from April 20 to November 24. It’s worth picking up a copy of <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/96/9781636811024" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>An Indigenous Present</em></a>, Gibson’s critically acclaimed survey of Native North American art, to learn more about his thinking and work.</p>
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<div id="attachment_245277" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245277" class="wp-image-245277 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-3.jpg" alt="a red room with a beaded and fringed punching bad suspended from the center" width="1920" height="1280" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-3.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-3-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-3-960x640.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245277" class="wp-caption-text">“WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT” (2024)</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245294" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245294" class="wp-image-245294 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-9.jpg" alt="two paintings bookend a bust with long beaded hair" width="1920" height="1307" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-9.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-9-640x436.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-9-960x654.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-9-1536x1046.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245294" class="wp-caption-text">From left to right: “THE RETURNED MALE STUDENT FAR TOO FREQUENTLY GOES BACK TO THE RESERVATION AND FALLS INTO THE OLD CUSTOM OF LETTING HIS HAIR GROW LONG” (2024), “I’M A NATURAL MAN (2024), “LIBERTY WHEN IT BEGINS TO TAKE ROOT IS A PLANT OF RAPID GROWTH” (2024)</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245278" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245278" class="wp-image-245278 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-4.jpg" alt="part of a building with flags and geometric color blocks with the words be self evident wrapped around the top" width="1920" height="1280" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-4.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-4-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-4-960x640.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245278" class="wp-caption-text">Exterior view of ‘the space in which to place me’ (2024)</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245280" style="width: 1290px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245280" class="wp-image-245280 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-6.jpg" alt='a close up shot of a beaded punching bag with the words "WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT" on the bag. blue and red fringe dangles from the bottom' width="1280" height="1920" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-6.jpg 1280w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-6-640x960.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-6-960x1440.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-6-1024x1536.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px"><p id="caption-attachment-245280" class="wp-caption-text">Detail of “WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT” (2024)</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245275" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245275" class="wp-image-245275 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-1.jpg" alt="a small beaded bird sculpture stands in a gallery with several paintings and a large mural on the walls surrounding" width="1920" height="1280" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-1.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-1-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-1-960x640.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245275" class="wp-caption-text">Wall works from left to right: “BIRDS FLYING HIGH YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL” (2024), “IF YOU WANT TO LIFT YOURSELF UP LIFT UP SOMEONE ELSE” (2024), “GIVE MY LIFE SOMETHING EXTRA” (2024), “THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE” (2024). Bird: “we are the witnesses” (2024)</p></div>
<div id="attachment_245281" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245281" class="wp-image-245281 size-full" src="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-7.jpg" alt="bright red sculptures stand in the center of a courtyard of a neoclassical building " width="1920" height="1280" srcset="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-7.jpg 1920w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-7-640x427.jpg 640w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-7-960x640.jpg 960w, https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gibson-7-1536x1024.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"><p id="caption-attachment-245281" class="wp-caption-text">Exterior view of ‘the space in which to place me’ (2024)</p></div>
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