Tag: Art

Thirteen bronze women in wide pannier skirts stand single file in St. Mark’s Square in central Venice. The large-scale installation is the work of Spanish artist Manolo Valdés and on view for the 60th Venice Biennale. Known for recontextualizing the iconic figures, colors, and textures throughout Western art history, Valdés once again pulls from well-known source material for Las Meninas a San Marco as he reinterprets the subjects of Diego Velázquez’s 1656 painting “Las Meninas,” or “The Ladies-in-waiting.” Led by the monumental “Infanta Margarita” who stands at the center of the original painting, the trailing figures are “Reina Mariana,” a nod to the infanta’s mother framed in a portrait in the background of Velzázquez’s work.

From Israel’s ongoing assault leaving the people of Gaza in horrific destitution to a record-breaking surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, the last year has seen incredible devastation around the globe. The 2024 World Press Photo contest gathers a profound and illuminating collection of images that approach myriad crises with compassion and clarity. This year’s competition garnered 61,062 entries from 3,851 photographers in 130 countries. The winning images include a striking black-and-white shot of a man mid-step as he perilously crosses from one moving train car to the next in Piedras Negras and a portrait of an Afghan woman resting on a couch amid the desolate mountain landscape at a refugee camp near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. More Do stories and artists like th

Stamped with a footprint and burned patches, Hadi Rahnaward’s matchstick rug at Palais de Tokyo frays at the edges. Titled “Fragile Balance,” the meticulously laid installation is part of the exhibition Dislocations curated in partnership Portes ouvertes sur l’art, a nonprofit supporting artists in exile. Rahnaward works across film, photography, and installation and is interested in the cycles of violence within his native Afghanistan, particularly concerning Taliban rule. More Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a

If you walked into an exhibition featuring work from Tamara Kostianovsky in recent years, you likely encountered life-sized carcasses dangling from meat hooks. The Argentine-American artist (previously) is perhaps best known for these carnal sculptures of bone and flesh made from patterned fabric scraps. Newer additions include botanical vines winding through ribs and tropical birds perched inside that vacillate between beauty and brutality. “I see these works in terms of metamorphosis,” Kostianovsky says. More Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as

Ranging from mechanical parts and cooking utensils to plastic caps and beads, Kenyan artist Cyrus Kabiru fashions dazzling eyewear and helmets from salvaged and found objects. The futuristic forms often obscure the eyes like an ornamental veil, and motorbike helmets provide a fitting canvas for fins and frills. Kabiru (previously) originally began making innovative glasses after being denied a pair when he was young. The variety of materials the artist found around his hometown of Nairobi inspired him to create playful versions, bringing joy to those around him. More Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publi

A mother working overtime at home as a seamstress finds it difficult to carve out a few moments for her son in “Felt Love,” a poignant short film about family, togetherness, and quality time. Created by a group of students at San Jose State University as a senior thesis project in 2020, the piece combines a miniature 3D set with 2D animation to tell the story of a young boy who learns the depth of his mother’s hard work and adoration and how she learns to share that with him. More Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article In ‘Felt Love,’ a Young Boy and His Mothe

On New Year’s Eve in 2022, a huge storm swept through the Bay Area, causing major flooding and damage to Shannon Taylor’s studio. “I had been preparing pieces for an upcoming show and had to move my entire studio to a small table in our dining room,” she tells Colossal. “Due to stress and lack of space, I started making these diorama pieces as a way to relax.” Each exquisitely detailed miniature work is created from tiny watercolor paintings on paper, layered into antique cosmetic compacts that Taylor finds at flea markets, vintage shops, rummage sales, online, or from friends. More Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little

In the early 19th century, German naturalist Lorenz Oken quickly established himself as a leader in the Naturphilosophie movement, a current of Idealism, which attempted to comprehend a total view of nature by investigating its theoretical structure—a precursor to the natural sciences as we know them today. Oken’s seminal work Allgemaine Naturgeschichte Für Alle Stände, or General Natural History For All Classes, was published as a series of seven volumes between 1833 and 1843. More Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a

Known to locals as the “Lady of the Rings,” Sicily’s Mount Etna is both the highest island mountain in the Mediterranean and the most active stratovolcano in the world. The magnificent landform has even more impressive qualities considering it emits elegant smoke rings, known as volcanic vortex rings, high into the sky. A video from The Straits Times documents the fascinating formations as they drift through the atmosphere. The rings appeared for the first time since last December when a small vent opened on the Southeast cater. More Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and supp

A pair of sizable bronze boots have paused in a Bruges canal, the whereabouts of their owner unknown. The striking bronze sculpture titled “Who?” by Ivan Argote appears as if an 18th-century statue has been shorn at the knees, inviting speculation about the wearer’s identity. Argote’s work references the toppling of monuments depicting those with ties to colonialism, seen today as memorializing dark legacies of human enslavement, violence, and abuses of power. Belgium has a long and brutal colonial history, primarily in Africa. More Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support ind