Tag: Design

Whether working in Scottsdale, Arizona, or Fukuoka City, Japan, Jin Choi and Thomas Shine have found that crochet is a universal language. The pair engage communities around the world in large-scale projects that involve crafting elaborate lace patterns to be fastened to an iron armature. Both delicate and monumental, the finished works emerge from hundreds of hands and even more hours of labor, all bound together by shared making. Choi and Shine are formally trained as architects and came to community art partly out of necessity. 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

Alex Chinneck has the world tied in knots as he distorts everyday tools and infrastructure. Twisting and twining telephone booths, hammers, and lamp posts, the British artist (previously) warps common objects to exaggerated proportions, rendering each almost entirely unusable. Mop handles form perfect bows, a brush constricts so tightly around a canister that blue paint spills out, and a bright red fire extinguisher appears choked for air. Chinneck’s interventions are boldly bizarre and speak to the extraordinary potential of humble objects. More Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little

“I want people to feel like they have stumbled onto a riddle,” says Jason Wheatley about his dreamy scenes. Melding realistic depictions with fantastical elements, the artist warps the time-honored traditions of still lifes by adding animals and insects to the otherwise inanimate subject matter. His most recent body of work, Language of Birds, places a range of exotic, wild birds in lavish interiors alongside small primates, butterflies, and fish. Opening this month at Gilman Contemporary, the exhibition presents six oil paintings that reference the iconic style of John James Audubon in precision and vivid detail, while tinged with Wheatley’s whimsy and surrealism.

Jessica Thompson-Lee twists the age-old design principle of form following function with her biomorphic ceramics. Evocative of cellular structures, coral, and mycelium networks, handles appear to grow from Thompson-Lee’s mugs, sprawling outward into lattice-like webs that require users to slot their fingers into the amorphous shapes. “The person drinking from it will play around with different ways their fingers intertwine and rest in/on the sculptural handle,” she tells Colossal. “With the sculptural vases, people can use the holes in the organic sculptural elements to stick in and weave flowers through for a playful and interactive flower-arranging experience.” Each design is born from what the artist calls “sketching with clay…After filling a squeeze bottle full of porcelain slip, I squeeze liquid clay designs onto a plaster slab, never knowing ex

Each week, Petah Coyne reads two or three books. Along with film and the natural world, literature has had a profound impact on the artist throughout her decades-long career, as she references Flannery O’Connor, Zora Neale Hurston, Zelda Fitzgerald, and numerous other women in her works. Coyne gravitates toward texts rooted in feminist principles, which she then puts into conversation and filters through large-scale sculptures and installations. Dichotomies flourish in the artist’s practice as she suspends silk bouquets in specially formulated wax, dipping the vibrant blooms in a molten wash and often displaying them upside down. More Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support indep

Wide-eyed, boldly-dressed, and keen to play, an exuberant ensemble of characters created by Lidiia Marinchuk nudges us to remember the most precious parts of childhood. The artist (previously) crafts each figure by hand in her Lisbon studio where she operates her online shop, Marli Toy Art. From initial sketches to sewing limbs and painting features, Marinchuk takes a great deal of care and precision as she shapes each character’s likeness and personality, adorning her creations with crocheted bonnets, striped shirts, and fish-shaped brooches. More Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a

Eiko Ojala’s vivid illustrations (previously) possess a distinctive flair evocative of paper-cut assemblages and textural collage. Working with some of the most prominent publications in today’s media landscape, the artist creates visuals for editorial assignments that focus on a vast scope of current affairs. From the importance of mental health and work-life balance to the detriments of ongoing war and climate crises, Ojala manages to express each unique area of interest through layers of digital rendering. 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

We’ve officially entered the hot, sticky part of the year when languid afternoon naps seem inevitable. A sprawling group exhibition at Timothy Taylor is an ode to this sluggish time and the furry companion with which it shares a name. Featuring 60-plus works made between 1915 and today, Dog Days of Summer is a joyful tribute to humanity’s best friend. Interpretations of our favorite four-legged pals are vast and varied, including a vividly patterned couch complete with a tiny, lounging pup by Hilary Pecis and Alex Da Corte’s stylized wooden puzzle with a friendly offering in its paw. More Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little

From the 14-meter-long “Black Star,” a ship docked in an elevated pool, to a series of immersive, luminescent installations, Tavares Strachan highlights hidden histories at the Hayward Gallery at London’s Southbank Centre. The artist’s large-scale survey, There Is Light Somewhere, explores his continuing interest in history and its intersections with science, exploration, and culture. Strachan (previously) often taps into the legacy of the portrait bust, drawing on sources ranging from ancient Egypt and Rome to early-modern examples that have typically celebrated wealthy,  white European men.

Limpets, the cone-shaped sea snails we see attached to boulders along salty shorelines, can live between 10 and 20 years, never straying too far from home. They always return to the same spot, gradually wearing a perfectly-sized ring in the surface of the rock, known as home scars. Eventually, empty shells wash up along the coast, and for Alice Fox, the dainty specimens provide one of many canvases for delicately woven pieces (previously). 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 Delicate Vessels Emerge from G