Tag Archives: art history

In the late 1980s, the village of Dafen in Shenzhen, China—home to a few hundred people—was set on an industrial course that would utterly transform the area. Over the past three decades in what is known as the “world’s art factory,” manufacturers have produced thousands of replicas of well-known paintings by Western masters like Vincent Van Gogh, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Edgar Degas. In a full-length documentary from Perspective, filmmakers render an intimate portrait of life in Dafen. More

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For street artists, the urban landscape is an infinite canvas. Whether wheat pasted, sprayed, or layered with brushes, vibrant compositions revitalize public spaces and provide an ever-evolving barometer of the political climate and current affairs. The genre has been historically dominated by men, but a new book by journalist Alessandra Mattanza and Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art founder Stephanie Utz shifts the dial.
Women Street Artists spotlights the diverse practices of 24 graffiti and mural artists hailing from around the globe who work in a variety of styles, from large-scale public projects like Camilla Falsini’s vibrant pavement composition in Milan to striking interventions like Olek’s pink, crocheted coverlet for “Charging Bull,” Wall Street’s masculine bronze sculpture. More

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At the heart of Garden of Eve, Harmonia Rosales’ comprehensive exhibition at UTA Artist Space in Beverly Hills, is the power of narrative. The show spans years of Rosales’ career, featuring dozens of portraits in oil and perhaps the grandest work she’s produced thus far: encircled with lights, an upturned ship towers over the gallery, allowing viewers to pass underneath and peer upwards at the frescoed expanse.
Referencing the vessels utilized in the transatlantic slave trade, the lofty structure re-envisions the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and uses Michaelangelo’s Renaissance works as a blueprint to recast Genesis through the lens of female empowerment and Orishas, deities in religions of the African diaspora. 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 Artist Harmonia Rosales Reinterprets Genesis through a Stunning Subversion of the Sistine Chapel appeared first on Colossal.

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From his studio overlooking Monterey Bay, California, Kajahl has created a new series of paintings that draw inspiration from the sea and ancient heritage, continuing a practice that employs portraiture to subvert white, European historical narratives. The artist merges classical motifs and mythical realms in Submersia, a fictional underwater world where artifacts take on new life.
Greek and Roman vessels like glass balsamarii, wine jugs known as oinochoes, and conical rhyton vases often depicted figures or were fashioned in the shape of human or animal heads. 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 The Denizens of ‘Submersia’ Breathe New Life into Ancient Artifacts in Oil Portraits by Kajahl appeared first on Colossal.

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Although a New York Times report prophesied its end, the ecosystem there is very much alive. Continue reading →

For the first time since 2019, the largest public art and light festival in the U.S. brought a spate of new works to Cincinnati. More than 70 artists from around the world gathered in mid-October for BLINK, a four-day event that spanned 30 blocks across the Midwestern city. In attendance were quite a few artists featured previously on Colossal, including Max Sansing (previously), PichiAvo (previously), Shantell Martin (previously), Nespoon (previously), and Faith XLVII (previously). More Continue reading →

Six of Daniel Arsham’s eroded sculptures are scattered across Yorkshire Sculpture Park as part of a spacious outdoor exhibition that explores the inevitability of decay. Referencing both pop culture and art history, Relics in The Landscape features massive works of patinaed bronze embedded with patches of metallic, crystal-esque forms. “As history progresses, all objects become antiquated, and in some way, they all become ruins or relics, disused or buried. More Continue reading →

The collector on what she’s reading, her best art experience, the value of art, and more. Continue reading →

Harnessing the captivating power of pattern and mathematic principles, Parth Kothekar cuts meticulously deceptive works from single sheets of paper. The trippy pieces are inspired by the iconic optical illusions of M.C. Escher and utilize variances in depth and scale to create scenarios that appear three-dimensional. Some of the cuts are more pictorial and evocative of Escher’s “Relativity” stairs, while others rely on repetitive motifs alone to create immersive scenes of geometric shapes and lines. More Continue reading →

Italian artist Massimiliano Pelletti (previously) gravitates toward imperfection, and his practice revolves around transforming presumed defects like impurities, cracks, or chips into elegantly carved figures. Pink marble sliced to reveal the stone’s pillowy, crystalline insides bisects the artist’s interpretation of Venus de Medici, while in “Blue Venus,” marbled sodalite and Mexican white onyx are spliced together into a fully formed bust. Contrasting smooth segments with the rough texture of unpolished stone, Pelletti evokes art history and ancient sculpture traditions through the lens of flaw and fallibility. More Continue reading →

Plans to build a museum in northern Seoul dedicated to the donation of some 20,000 artworks and antiquities amassed by the late collector have been controversial in the country. Continue reading →

Since its inception, photography has dominated the way we visually remember and describe the world around us and where we are within it. It has tapped into desire, joy, grief, and superstition, such as in the Victorian era, when some believed it could be a channel between people and spirits in the afterlife. In portraiture, photography immortalizes its subjects and has transformed artists’ ability to express themselves and tell stories. For Ethiopia-born, South Sudanese photographer Atong Atem, who is based in Melbourne, the medium enables a salient exploration of the African diaspora and migrant narratives by focusing on the relationship between figures and the interior spaces they inhabit. More Continue reading →

Christie’s will sell a group of 150 artworks from Allen’s estate. Continue reading →

Art history . . . is a malleable discipline, but understanding developments in art depends on it—or at the very least is enhanced by it. Continue reading →

While art history and art criticism overlap as disciplines, we usually tend to think of the latter as writing the first draft of the former. Continue reading →

Profits from each sale will benefit the artists and the Souls Grown Deep Foundation and Community Partnership. Continue reading →

Artist Susan Cianciolo once called her paintings “perfection.” Continue reading →

In the same vein as Phaidon’s formidable Great Women Artists and African Artists, a forthcoming book from the publisher similarly widens the art historical canon while recognizing some of the most influential and impactful painters working in the medium today. The massive compilation, titled Great Women Painters, highlights more than 300 artists across 500 years and a vast array of movements and aesthetics. More Continue reading →

One of the more accessible mediums, photography has long been an entry point for those relegated to the periphery of the art world, and a group exhibition on view now at the Denver Art Museum celebrates those who helped develop and define the genre as it grew throughout the 20th Century. Modern Women/Modern Vision features more than 100 shots by some of the era’s most influential photographers—the list includes Berenice Abbott, Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus, Eva Besnyö, and Imogen Cunningham—showcasing their distinct aesthetics, politics, and styles. More Continue reading →

She had just opened her private museum in Vienna earlier this month. Continue reading →