Entertainment Justice griots like Will See and Bryce Detroit organize communities through rap, while Pope.L’s work linking Flint and Detroit to New York shows how infrastructures that enforce scarcity can be evaded. Continue reading
Los Angeles-based designer Laura Estrada handcrafts sustainable jewelry pieces that are conceptually driven, sculptural adornments for the body and face. She uses ancient metalsmithing techniques to create timeless, wearable heirlooms that merge fashion with art. “From a very young age, I have been building little objects with my hands, ” Estrada explains. “This obsession manifested itself when I took a metalsmithing class in college.”
Metal is the designer’s chosen medium, and she describes it as a fierce, unforgiving, stubborn, resilient, and enduring material. More Continue reading
Artist Glen Taylor solders ridges of metal to porcelain fragments, completing a halved teacup or broken saucer with a range of unusual materials: barbed wire, tarnished silverware, old book pages, and multicolored twine form a portion of the household objects. Each intervention contrasts the pristine, delicate qualities of the porcelain with the visible rust, unwieldy strings, and patchwork metals.
A cabinetmaker for much of his life, Taylor originally worked with pottery but found it limiting until he started breaking his ceramics into pieces. More Continue reading
An ancient-book collector is offering a rare glimpse into a Sino-Tibetan book that’s believed to have been printed as early as 1410 in Beijing. A self-described bibliophile known as Incunabula, the collector shared a thread containing dozens of images showing inside spreads full of red ink drawings and Ranjana script, a writing system developed in the 11th century. The Gutenberg Bible, which was printed with movable metal type, dates back to 1454, nearly 45 years after this woodblock-produced text. More Continue reading
London-based artist Leonardo Ulian (previously) merges two disparate elements in his sprawling assemblages: he speckles analog equipment with an array of electronic pieces found in digital devices. Created while in quarantine, Ulian’s Contrived Object series is comprised of vintage tennis rackets displaying intricate constellations of metal parts, microchips, and other found objects that form an abstract face.
The egg shape of the “head” of these vintage rackets reminded me of something yet familiar but at the moment lost.
Similar to Lalese Stamps’s personal challenge to create 100 ceramic mug handles, a Los Angeles-based artist has crafted an amusing series of hand-cranked automatons in just 30 days. Federico Tobon, of wolfCat Workshop, used popsicle sticks, metal clips, paper, and scrap material for One Month of Small Machines, a four-week-long project that generated different, moveable figures and animals each day. “The A-HA moment from these projects was when I discovered that using paper gives these machines a very organic feel,” he said. More Continue reading
Through life-sized sculptures, artist Yinka Shonibare CBE considers the grasp of colonialism and its lasting effects on modern conceptions of identity. Each faceless figure is in the midst of an action, presented shooting a mass of cherry blossoms from a rifle, lumbering forward with a hefty mesh sack, or balancing a towering stack of cakes. Evocatively posed, the figures are topped with globes and astronaut helmets, which simultaneously gestures toward movement in the form of travel and exploration while obscuring individual identities. More Continue reading
A Mexican artist makes work about stray animals, as well disabled and incarcerated people. Continue reading
Starting with gnarly hunks of trees, Hilla Shamia (previously) seamlessly merges wood and aluminum into industrial-style furniture. The Tel Aviv-based designer pours the hot metal into leg molds that surround the organic material, preserving the wood’s shape and texture and ensuring that each console, bench, and stool is unique.
To make the tops entirely smooth, she uses molten aluminum to fill in the gaps and divets that are occurring naturally in the wood. More Continue reading
Want to make your own decals for your office, car, or brand? Self-adhesive vinyl sheets are perfect for creating signs and logos, indoor or outdoor advertising graphics, and wall and window decor. Self-adhesive vinyl can be cut into a variety of shapes and can stick to most flat and curved surfaces including plastic, metal, glass, […] Continue reading
Lenore Tawney pioneered techniques for creating sculptural, expressive weavings. Continue reading
“The Unknown Artist,” an exhibition organized by Lucy Cotter, probed the very values of attribution, with eleven unattributed objects from around the world that spanned twelve centuries and ten contemporary artworks exploring anonymous making in present contexts. Continue reading
Jean Shin made this reality strikingly visible in “Pause” (2020), an installation at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco for which she turned thousands of discarded phones, laptops, hard drives, and cables into a sculptural landscape. Continue reading
UK-based embroidery artist Amber Griffiths is riding a wave of anatomical inspiration in her latest designs. Typically inspired by nature, Griffiths tells Colossal that her series kicked off when looking to put a non-traditional spin on the iconic Valentine’s Day heart. “I’m not particularly someone who’s into all the mushy classic love hearts, so I thought the anatomical route would be much more interesting,” Griffiths says. That set off an obsessive exploration of human anatomy through her primary embroidery technique—the punch needle. More Continue reading
Rotterdam-based David Moreno (previously) prefers his spatial pieces to oscillate between initial sketches of architectural projects and fully-realized constructions. His steel sculptures are comprised of lengthy metal strips and piano strings that are arranged to form building complexes, cathedrals, and steep flights of stairs. Despite being three-dimensional artworks, they mimic an architect’s outlines with their swooping lines and grid-like qualities. Moreno shares a plethora of his imaginative projects on Behance, in addition to some progress shots on his Instagram. More Continue reading
Beginning with asymmetrical ovals and amorphous shapes, Australian textile artist Tammy Kanat (previously) loops, twists, and weaves her sizable wall hangings. Using a steel frame, Kanat hangs up the copper forms that provide the structure for her abstract tapestries. She then combines natural materials like wool, linen, and silk to create small tufts and organic rows of varying hues that add a range of densities and textures to each piece. More Continue reading
Invented in 1952 by Bernard and François Baschet, the Cristal Baschet (also called a Crystal Organ) is a unique instrument that outputs an even more unique and artful sound. In the video above, multi-instrumentalist and film composer Marc Chouarain explains how it works and demonstrates techniques for turning finger rubs and drags into deep melodic echoes.
According to musician and rare instrument performer Thomas Bloch, models of the crystal organs range from 3.5 to 6 octaves and are made of 56 chromatically tuned glass rods. More Continue reading
Industrial designer Dina Amin takes discarded consumer products apart to see exactly what makes them tick. The hobby also exposes just how many resources and materials consumers throw away. A new stop-motion animation titled “What’s Inside” is a supercut of Amin’s breakdowns of familiar items, each splayed in perfect grids of plastic, metal, and rubber.
The exploding electronics featured in the animation are a blowdryer, a stereo cassette recorder, a point-and-shoot camera, and an old cellphone. More Continue reading
Melbourne, Australia’s Beinart Gallery is gearing up for an exhibition of small scale paintings, scratch-built models, and tiny sculptures. Co-curated by artist Joshua Smith (previously), the Miniature Art Group Show features impressive works by a group of around 30 artists from around the world.
Close-up photos of the architectural models and other miniatures in the show highlight the level of detail that the artists pack into every square inch. More Continue reading
Suzanne Jackson’s exhibition at Ortuzar Projects was an autobiography in visual form. Continue reading
