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More Than 90 Archival Photographs Celebrate the Unpredictable in Magnum’s Next Print Sale

Next week, Magnum Photos (previously) is pulling more than 90 photographs from its archive for a print sale that pays tribute to chance moments and serendipity. The Unexpected launches March 22 with a range of compositions documenting more than seven decades

‘Ordinary Sacramento’: A Photo Project Finds Playful, Unexpected Scenarios in the Familiar

Suit-inspired landscaping, overgrown shrubs, and misaligned stripes are just some of the scenes that comprise Enoch Ku’s Ordinary Sacramento, an ongoing project documenting the visual language of the Californian city. Ku is adept at identifying humor an

10,000 Letters Dangle from the Ceiling in an Immersive Installation by Artist Chiharu Shiota

A towering expanse of red thread, a new installation by Chiharu Shiota (previously) suspends 10,000 letters within the nave of Berlin’s König Galerie, a Brutalist-style space located in the former St. Agnes church. The immersive construction runs floo

Dozens of Photographs Connect Racial Justice and the Symbolism of Flowers in an Exhibition by The Earth Issue

An online exhibition by The Earth Issue, an artist collective interested in the intersection of environmental activism and social justice, centers on the symbolic power and precarious nature of the flower. Considered both a sign of love and an offering to mak

A Hypnotic Short Film Rhythmically Spins Through 3,745 Masks from Around the World

 Spiraling through ancient, painted faces, cartoon figures, and the now ubiquitous N95, the short film “Beyond Noh” by Patrick Smith sequences 3,745 masks in an entrancing rhythm. The individual images span multiple cultures and time periods an

An Expansive, Celestial Series of Photographs by Shawn Theodore Is Cast in Shades of Blues

“To create in blue, one must first understand its powerful nature,” says Shawn Theodore in reference to Night Stars, an extensive new series of photographs that radiate the primary hue. Shot using a variety of filters and lights, Theodore’s ethe

Right Up Our Alley: Striking Drone Footage Flies Through Minneapolis’s Bryant Lake Bowl

 After splitting from the nighttime cityscape, a drone descends into Bryant Lake Bowl in a fast-paced clip that rolls through the classic Minneapolis venue. The camera-strapped device trails a ball as it barrels down the lane and then winds past the

Interview: Jeroen Smeets Shares the Story Behind The Jaunt, the Collaborative Travel Project Sending Artists Around the World

In a new interview supported by Colossal Members, Jeroen Smeets dives into the story behind The Jaunt, a travel project that he founded in 2013. Since then, the project has sent more than 70 artists to new destinations around the globe—locations are wide-ra

Expansive Photographs by RK Frame the Unexpected Beauty of Everyday Life Throughout Asia

Traveling from his home in Tokyo to cities and small villages across Asia, Ryosuke Kosuge is adept at spotting the textures and patterns that occupy local life, whether through the rocky formations surrounding Heaven’s Gate Mountain in Zhangjiajie, an

Meticulous Digital Works Layer Petals, Leaves, and Natural Textures into Fantastic Creatures

Melbourne-based artist Josh Dykgraaf has a discerning eye for matching two seemingly disparate elements. In his ongoing Terraforms series, autumn leaves become feathers, magnolia petals wind into scales, and plumes form fins that swish through water. Each ill

March 2021 Opportunities: Open Calls for Artists

Every month, Colossal shares a selection of opportunities for artists and designers, including open calls, grants, fellowships, and residencies. If you’d like to list an opportunity here, please get in touch at hello@colossal.art. You can also join our

Six Quirky Houseplants Made from Collaged Photos Spring from a Pop-Up Book by Daniel Gordon

Say goodbye to the days of buying succulents only to watch them wilt and shrivel. Just flip open a pop-up book by photographer Daniel Gordon, and find a collection of forever-perky shrubs and greenery sprouting from the pages. Published by Aperture, Houseplan

A Canadian Company Upcycles Millions of Disposable Chopsticks into Sleek Furniture and Home Goods

 On a global scale, we collectively consume a staggering number of chopsticks each year—80 billion pairs to be exact—many of which end up discarded in landfills and other waste sites. Since 2016, though, a Vancouver-based company has been upcycling th

A Van Gogh Painting Has Been Unveiled for the First Time Since It Was Painted in 1887

After spending more than a century in a private collection, one of Vincent van Gogh’s artworks has been shown to the public for the first time since the Dutch artist painted it in the spring of 1887. “Street scene in Montmartre (Impasse des Deux F

A Stop-Motion Animation Full of Inappropriate Office Behavior Questions the Professional Impact of Motherhood

 What poses the biggest threat to women’s careers? That’s the question behind a new animation by Swedish director Anna Mantzaris (previously) that follows a mischievous character through a series of wildly inappropriate misdeeds and poor

Floral Motifs Are Digitally Printed onto Blonde Hair in a New Baroque-Inspired Collection

As a way to extend the floral designs woven into garments, Barcelona-based stylist Alexis Ferrer has developed a printing method that embellishes blunt bobs and Marcel waves with rich, colorful patterns inspired by the “best fabrics for the French bourg

The New Issue of Create! Magazine Is Out Now

We’re delighted at the release of Create! Magazine’s Issue #24, which was curated in part by our editor-in-chief, Christopher Jobson. Colossal readers might recognize some of the artists and photographers featured in the winter edition, including Patt

Varied Patches of Color and Textured Stitches Delineate Expressive Embroidered Portraits

Brenda Risquez is deliberate in her use of texture, density, and color in her boldly embroidered portraits inspired by friends and pop culture icons. Varying patches of long, single-stitch rows and rounded tufts map onto the subjects’ faces, many of whi

A Flurry of Feathers and Leaves Surround Spirited Birds in Fio Silva’s Vivid Murals

Fio Silva tucks clusters of oversized birds and botanicals into otherwise stark urban spaces, creating striking murals awash in puffs of feathers, petals, and leaves. The Buenos Aires-based artist focuses largely on movement, a thread that runs through both t

Countless Starlings Flock Together in a Miraculous Bird-Shaped Murmuration Over Lough Ennell

After months of chasing starlings alongside his colleague Colin Hogg, Dublin-based photographer James Crombie captured a phenomenal shot of the flock as it swelled into an enormous bird-like murmuration. Hogg recorded the awe-inspiring experience in a short c

Banksy Creates Bob Ross-Dubbed Process Video of New Work Depicting Oscar Wilde Escaping Prison

What begins as a soft-spoken clip of America’s most iconic TV painting instructor, Bob Ross, suddenly shifts into a frenetic and extremely rare behind-the-scenes video of Banksy creating his latest work in Reading, Berkshire. Titled “Create Escape

Researchers Digitally Unfold a Renaissance-Era Letter Using X-Ray Technology

Six centuries after it was penned, the contents hidden inside a Renaissance-era letter plucked from a trunk at The Hague are finally readable. The correspondence, which we now know was likely spurred by questions about an inheritance, was part of a larger col

We’re Back! The Colossal Shop Is Restocked

We just added a few fun goods to the newly reopened Colossal Shop, including these (reversible!) face masks featuring some of art history’s most iconic works. Head to the shop for pins, magnets, and pop-up greeting cards that’ll find a permanent s

Archaeologists Uncover a Lavish Marble Floor from Ancient Rome in Southern France

Developers of an apartment building in Nîmes, France, had to halt construction this month when archaeologists discovered an opulent tiled floor that once blanketed a Roman villa, or domu. Dating back to 1-2 A.D., the checkered design is comprised of marble f

Dozens of Mushroom Characters Populate a Family Tree in Whimsically Painted Photographs by Jana Paleckova

An affinity for fleshy spores runs in the long line of ancestors laid out in a family tree by Jana Paleckova. The Prague-based artist layers antique photographs with playful oil paintings of spindly enoki or ribbed chanterelle, creating hybrid characters brim

Plants Embedded in Wax Sprout from Fragile Hands in Memory-Infused Works by Valerie Hammond

In Valerie Hammond’s series of wax drawings, protection is two-fold: the artist (previously) encases dried flowers and ferns in a thin layer of wax, preserving their fragile tissues long after they’ve been plucked from the ground. In outlining a pair

A Dazzling Series of Photos Captures the Soft Glow of Firefly Mating Season in Japan

An enchanting series by Russian photographer Daniel Kordan (previously) frames a sea of flickering fireflies as they populate a dense bamboo forest. Captured in pockets and trails of light, the insects radiate across the thick vegetation on Japan’s Kyus

Poetic Sculptures by Valérie Hadida Cast Composed Women with Coiffed Hair in Bronze

For Valérie Hadida, the deep, protective partnerships fostered between women provide the foundation for her practice. The French artist casts bronze sculptures that are poetic and nuanced, depicting female figures wearing contemplative and composed expressio

Swaths of Tulle Billow from Site-Specific Installations by Ana María Hernando

Fueled with a sense of rebellion, yards of colorful tulle cascade from windows and down staircases in site-specific installations by Ana María Hernando. The soft, pliable material breaches existing architecture and entwines trees in swaths of mesh, creating

Architecture and Bold Geometry Fragment Cubist Portraits by Patrick Oberhi Akpojotor

In his architectural portraits, Patrick Oberhi Akpojotor visualizes the exchange between humans and their built environments, whether real or imagined. The artist’s spatial body of work, which explicitly contemplates the relationship between interiorit

Intricate Paper Animals Spring from Textured Sculptures by Artist Calvin Nicholls

In Calvin Nicholls’s sculptural forms, feathered and furry creatures are meticulously crafted from small pieces of white paper. When viewed up-close, their texture resembles the fullness of a wintery landscape, but in full form, the Canadian artist’s anim

A Field of Dried Grass Is Suspended from the Ceiling in ‘French Exit’ by Artist Tadao Cern

In Tadao Cern’s sweeping installation “French Exit,” a cloud of feathery grasses looms over the room. The immersive artwork juxtaposes the ephemeral, dried material with the viewers who stand underneath as it creates a soothing and introspectiv

Sheets of Frosted Glass Obscure Floral Bouquets in a Photographic Series About Ambiguity

Exuding elegance and obscurity, Foggy Flowers is a two-photograph series by Sander Plug and Lernert Engelberts that centers on our collective outlook for the future through a blur of frosted glass. The duo, who work under Studio Lernert & Sander, unearth

Rich Gradients Flow Through a Luxe Set of Chocolate Bars with Matching Packaging

Whether subtly shifting from lemon balm to mint or more dramatically from chestnut to beet-soaked maroon, Little MOTHERHOUSE’s sweets are infused with elegant gradients that permeate both bar and packaging. The white-chocolate treats are produced from coco

Algae Sequins Embellish a Petroleum-Free Dress Designed by Phillip Lim and Charlotte McCurdy

“Sequins are synonymous with plastic waste,” says renowned designer Phillip Lim about an endeavor to combat the egregious amount of pollution generated each year by the fashion industry. He’s part of the 2020 cohort for One X One—a Slow F

A Serendipitous Shot Frames a Meteor Soaring Over Russia’s Klyuchevskaya Sopka as It Erupts

In a single, fortuitous photograph, Daniel Kordan proves his astute eye as he documents two of nature’s rarely seen phenomena: the brilliant trail of a meteor streaking through the sky and Klyuchevskaya Sopka as it spews a mass of glowing lava. Strikin

Countless Paper Seeds Comprise the Fluctuating Landscapes in Ilhwa Kim’s Sculptural Works

In Ilhwa Kim’s sculptural landscapes, innumerable paper seeds form precise rows, indented pockets of densely packed folds, and multi-color valleys that wind through the feet-wide works. The South Korean artist arranges individual units of the rolled materia

Clothesline Farm Animals Graze the Countryside in Playful Illusions by Helga Stentzel

Instead of tossing an old pair of pants or T-shirt, Helga Stentzel puts her tired garments out to pasture. So far, the London-based artist has added Pegasus and Smoothie, a pair of clothesline equine and bovine, to her herd of playful interventions hung in bu

A Striking Curved Wall Swells Upward Across Three Stories of a Taipei Home by Yuan Architects

Nestled in the mountainous region of Taipei’s Xindian district is a new home by Yuan Architects that mirrors the stately landscape outdoors. In “Lan Villa,” the international design firm constructed a central, curved wall that sweeps upward

Gleaming Water Drops Bead on the Canvas in Kim Tschang-Yeul’s Hyperrealistic Paintings

Swollen, glistening, and saturated with illusion, the ubiquitous water drop absorbed Kim Tschang-Yeul throughout his career. The Korean artist, who died earlier this year, was faithful to the seemingly mundane subject matter, choosing to depict the dewy orb
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