More stories

  • in

    Tiff Massey Celebrates Detroit Culture and Style in Monumental Mixed-Media Installations

    “I’ve Got Bundles and I Got Flewed Out (Green)” (2023). All images courtesy of the artist and Detroit Institute of Arts, shared with permission

    Tiff Massey Celebrates Detroit Culture and Style in Monumental Mixed-Media Installations

    April 23, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    From larger-than-life double-bobble hair bands to a wall of elaborate braids, Tiff Massey spotlights distinctive Detroit style. Trained as a metalsmith, the artist employs the power of material and scale to highlight the city’s neighborhoods and Black identity and culture.

    7 Mile + Livernois, Massey’s solo exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts, takes inspiration from the crossroads at the heart of the city’s Black business and fashion district, where the artist grew up. The area will soon be home to a new arts and community space that Massey is spearheading in an effort to guide and celebrate local kinship.

    “Everyday Arsenal” (2018)

    Personal adornment is central to the artist’s expression, which she channels through jewelry, sculptures, and mixed-media assemblages to underscore Black style with a focus on her hometown. “Whatupdoe” and “Everyday Arsenal,” for example, respectively transform a contemporary chain necklace and silver rings into monumental installations, creating terrains of portal-like tunnels and interlocked angles.

    The “ancestral flyness” of the artist’s parents and previous generations also provides a limitless well of inspiration. “How they adorned themselves has definitely been influential not only to how I adorn myself but also to the ideas that I have within the works,” Massey says in an interview for the DIA exhibition catalogue. “Detroiters, when we step outside, we step outside. We want people to see it. We want people to see us. And that has left a tremendous impression on me.”

    7 Mile + Livernois continues through May 11. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    “Baby Bling” (2023)

    “Whatupdoe” (2024)

    Detail of “I’ve Got Bundles and I Got Flewed Out (Green)”

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Previous articleNext article More

  • in

    In Luminous Portraits, Florence Solis Invokes Feminine Power Amid Constraint

    “Makahiya IX” (2025),
    acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches. All photos by Julieta Christy Sarmiento, courtesy of The Mission Projects, shared with permission

    In Luminous Portraits, Florence Solis Invokes Feminine Power Amid Constraint

    April 22, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    When touched, the hypersensitive makahiya plant folds its minuscule leaflets inward, protecting itself from any potential threat.

    Florence Solis draws on this defensive response in an ethereal collection of portraits. Beginning with digital collages that meld figures and delicate, organic ornaments, the Filipino-Canadian artist translates the imagined forms to the canvas. Shrouded in dainty, beaded veils or entwined with botanicals, each protagonist appears bound and concealed, their bodies and faces obscured by hair or grass.

    “Sirena” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches

    As Solis sees it, the figures may be restricted, but they’re also able to find strength and transformation. “Filipino women, much like the makahiya, have been taught to yield, to soften, to take up less space,” she says. “And yet, beneath this quietness lies an undeniable force—one that persists, adapts, and reclaims space in its own way.”

    Working in saturated, often single-color palettes, Solis renders figures who appear to harness magical powers. She references Filipino folklore and the belief in the power of the everyday to lead to the divine, painting women rooted in tradition and myth, yet determined to see their transformation through.

    The vivid portraits shown here will be on view at EXPO CHICAGO this week with The Mission Projects. Find more from Solis on Instagram.

    “Sa Lupa (On Ground)” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches

    “Totem” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches

    “Makahiya VIII” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

    “Makahiya VII” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

    “Alay (Offering)” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Next article More

  • in

    Reviving an Ancestral Hawaiian Tradition, Lehuauakea Reimagines Kapa in Bold Textile Works

    “Since the Beginning and End of Time” (2024), hand-embroidery, bells, and shell buttons
    on hand-stitched indigo-dyed kapa (barkcloth) garment, approx. 50 x 44
    inches. All images courtesy of Lehuauakea, shared with permission

    Reviving an Ancestral Hawaiian Tradition, Lehuauakea Reimagines Kapa in Bold Textile Works

    April 22, 2025

    ArtCraftHistory

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    “My favorite thing about kapa is that it is simultaneously ancestral, ancient, and contemporary,” says Lehuauakea (Kanaka Maoli), who recently received the Walker Youngbird Foundation grant for emerging Native American artists. Kapa, the Indigenous Hawaiian practice of clothmaking, uses the inner bark of the wauke, or paper mulberry tree, to create garments and textiles. For Lehuauakea, the technique forms the foundation of a practice rooted in the artist’s Hawaiian lineage and material traditions.

    Softening the fibers enough to create cloth requires a labor-intensive method of soaking pieces of bark. Through an arduous process of beating and stretching with tools like the iʻe kuku, a thin, pliable fabric emerges. “It is a very malleable material that reflects the current state of the natural environment, and the surrounding community and personal hand of the maker,” Lehuauakea tells Colossal. “It requires a level of patience and perseverance while also paying close attention to the nature of the bark and pigments you are working with.”

    “Still Finding My Way Back Home” (2025), kapa (barkcloth), reclaimed Japanese fabrics, indigo and madder root dyes, ceramic beads, bells, earth pigments, hand-embroidery, and metal leaf, approx. 18 x 9 feet

    Kapa is derived from ancient Polynesian practices—it’s called tapa in other parts of the Pacific—and Hawaiians elaborated on the custom by incorporating watermarks, natural pigments, and fermentation.

    Traditionally, kapa possessed both practical and spiritual qualities, as it was used for everyday apparel and bedding but also served as a carrier of mana, or healing life force. When the U.S. controversially annexed the territory and the import of cotton amped up in the late 19th century, the practice all but died out.

    Lehuauakea’s interest in kapa emerged when their family relocated to Oregon when they were young. Over time, the artist felt increasingly disconnected from their home and sought a way to conjure a link to their Hawaiian ancestry.

    “I remembered learning about kapa as a child and how we’d use patterns to tell stories, so in my junior year of college I taught myself how to carve ʻohe kāpala, or traditional carved bamboo printing tools used for decorating finished kapa,” the artist says. Then it was onto learning how to make the barkcloth itself, with the help of artisan and mentor Wesley Sen, spurring Lehuauakea’s passion for the medium.

    “Puka Komo ʻEkahi: Portal to Grant Permission” (2024), earth pigments and metal leaf on kapa (barkcloth), 28 x 28 inches

    Fascinated by the potential to not only continue a time-honored Kanaka Maoli art form but also to experiment and push the boundaries of the material, Lehuauakea makes large-scale installations, hand-stitched garments, mixed-media suspended works, and hand-painted two-dimensional compositions— “in other words, forms that you wouldn’t see in ancestral samples of pre-contact Hawaiian kapa,” they say. The artist continues:

    As an Indigenous cultural practitioner and artist, I believe it is important to have a solid foundation in the traditional knowledge of the practice before attempting to expand on it or experiment with more contemporary expressions of the medium because I am not singular in this work; I am simply building on a tradition that was passed down through many generations before me, and I can only hope that I am able to inspire future generations to continue it.

    Lehuauakea is currently working toward solo exhibitions at the Center for Contemporary Art Santa Fe and Nunu Fine Art in New York City, exploring ideas around Native Hawaiian cosmology, celestial cycles, and the relationship between Native Hawaiian language and pattern. Find more on the artist’s website.

    “Kūmauna” (2024), earth pigments hand-painted on kapa (barkcloth), 26 x 48 inches

    Detail of “Still Finding My Way Back Home”

    “I Walk With My Ancestors (1 of 2)” (2024), earth pigment and wildfire charcoal hand-painted on kapa (barkcloth), 29 x 61.5 inches

    “Night Eyes” (2024), earth pigments and wildfire charcoal hand-painted on kapa (barkcloth), 78 x 18.5 inches

    “Mele o Nā Kaukani Wai (Song of a Thousand Waters)” (2018), mixed mulberry papers, handmade plant dyes and mineral pigments, gouache, ceramic beads, and thread, approx. 11 x 8 feet

    Detail of “Mele o Nā Kaukani Wai (Song of a Thousand Waters)”

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Previous articleNext article More

  • in

    Here’s What We’re Excited to See at EXPO CHICAGO 2025

    Wangari Mathenge, “Re-Membering (Folded In Time)” (2025), oil on canvas, 57.99 x 82.01 inches

    Here’s What We’re Excited to See at EXPO CHICAGO 2025

    April 21, 2025

    ArtColossalPartner

    Grace Ebert

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    This week marks the beginning of Chicago’s art world Olympics as the largest fair returns to Navy Pier. From April 24 to 27, EXPO CHICAGO will host hundreds of galleries, site-specific projects, talks, and multi-disciplinary programming both downtown and across the city.

    To help you navigate, we’re sharing the artworks we’re most looking forward to seeing. And, if you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, use the code COLOSSAL25 for $5 off.

    1. Wangari Mathenge with Pippy Houldsworth Gallery (London)

    The Chicago-based, Kenyan artist will present a collection of vivid new paintings that speak to the immense amount of information generated through her intensive research process. Surrounded by books, plants, and brightly patterned East African Kanga fabrics, Mathenge’s figures lounge among objects that transcend colonial narratives.

    Ilhwa Kim, “Calculative Flight” (2024), hand-dyed hanji paper, 132 x 164 x 13 centimeters

    2. Ilhwa Kim, Gordon Cheung, and Zheng Lu with HOFA (London)

    We’ve long been enamored by Kim’s roving, rolled-paper compositions that delineate dense pathways through broader expanses. Her dynamic works will be on view alongside Cheung’s decadent paintings and Lu’s stainless steel splashes.

    Florence Solis, “Makahiya VI” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

    3. Florence Solis with The Mission Projects (Chicago)

    Beginning with digital collage before moving to acrylic and canvas, Solis renders ethereal portraits of women infused with Filipino folklore. Delicate leaves and flowers entwine with coiled hair, while veils shroud the figures in luminous coverings, binding each with a protective, yet restrictive layer.

    Suntai Yoo, “The Words” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 91 x 117 centimeters

    4. Suntai Yoo with Galerie Gaia (Seoul)

    Fragmented, surrealist landscapes figure prominently in Yoo’s paintings, which frequently pair common objects like books, bicycles, and apples with Korean letters. The artist is particularly interested in metaphor and how distinct items interact to create meaning.

    Desmond Beach, “The Guardian of the Small & Sacred” (2025), digital painting, woven Jacquard loom, hand and machine sewn pieceworked fabric, 47″x 47 inches

    5. Desmond Beach with Richard Beavers Gallery (Brooklyn)

    Mixing digital painting with patchwork quilts, Beach creates bold, forward-looking portraits. The Baltimore-born artist invokes the ways that trauma can be harnessed for resistance and collective solidarity.

    Jimmy Beauquesne, “Phase 3. Knight of infinite resignation” (2023-2024), colored pencils on paper, hand-cut metallic frame, 62 x 41 x 2 centimeters

    6. Jimmy Beauquesne with Fragment (New York)

    Nested inside hand-cut metallic frames, Beauquesne’s colored-pencil works imagine a dreamy, apocalyptic world that drips with fantastic details. The nine pieces form a narrative of humanity’s transformation sparked by phantasmagorical change.

    Next article More

  • in

    Monumental Murals by Agostino Iacurci Vibrantly Reimagine Urban Facades

    “Cardi (1571-2021)” (2021), wall painting, dimensions variable. Borgo Universo, Aielli. Photo by Domenico d’Alessandro

    Monumental Murals by Agostino Iacurci Vibrantly Reimagine Urban Facades

    April 21, 2025

    ArtDesign

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    Murals by Agostino Iacurci bring drab buildings to life in bold jewel tones, playful patterns, color blocks, and symmetry. Whether painting directly onto bricks and plaster or designing immense fabric sheaths to cover construction scaffolding, the artist’s vibrant compositions enliven street corners and urban thoroughfares.

    Iacurci often emphasizes geometric patterns, flora, classical vases, and niches that hold symbolic objects or figures. You might enjoy checking out Gingko Press’s Mural Masters, a survey of the next generation of street artists, and see more on Iacurci’s website and Instagram.

    “Landscape n.1” (2021), wall painting, 27.7 x 7.1 meters. Las Vegas, Nevada. Commissioned by Life is Beautiful

    “Disegno d’esame” (2021), enamel on wall, dimensions variable. Pascucci Elementary School, Santarcangelo di Romagna. Photo by Francesco Marini

    “Grüne Oase” (2024). Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Photo by Ivan Murzin

    “COINCIDENCES.” Ensorinstituut, Oostende, Belgium. Produced by The Crystal Ship

    Detail of “COINCIDENCES”

    “Landscape n.2” (2021), print on PVC scaffold sheet, 17 x 14 meters. Pastificio Cerere, Rome. Photo by Carlo Romano

    “Landscape n.3” (2021). Pinacoteca Civica, Foggia. Photo by Domenico d’Alessandro

    “L’antiporta” (2021), paint on wall, dimensions variable. Biblioteca Ugo Tognazzi, Pomezia. Curated by Marcello Smarrelli and Pastificio Cerere for Sol Indiges. Photo by Lorenzo Palmieri

    Detail of “L’antiporta”

    Detail of “Cardi (1571-2021).” Photo by Domenico d’Alessandro

    Detail of “Disegno d’esame.” Photo by Domenico d’Alessandro

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Previous articleNext article More

  • in

    With 60 Artists, ‘The Golden Thread’ Weaves Together a Survey of Contemporary Fiber Art

    Ana María Hernando, “El intento del agua/The Intent of Water” (2025), tulle, wood, metal lattice, felt, velvet. All images courtesy of BravinLee, shared with permission

    With 60 Artists, ‘The Golden Thread’ Weaves Together a Survey of Contemporary Fiber Art

    April 17, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Grace Ebert

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    The monumental textile exhibition that took over an 18th-century warehouse last spring is back for a second iteration.

    In the South Street Seaport area of Manhattan, The Golden Thread 2: A Fiber Art Show returns with more than 100 artworks made by 60 artists from around the globe. As with the first iteration, this reprisal includes eight site-specific installations that respond to the former mercantile space.

    Tomo Mori, “(we) keep going” (2025), donated fabrics, used clothes and linens, acrylic and cotton fillings, and anodized aluminum wires

    Organized by BravinLee, The Golden Thread is a sweeping survey of contemporary fiber art encompassing a vast array of materials, aesthetics, and subject matter. Several artists connect textiles’ historical association with femininity and domesticity, including Ana María Hernando’s pair of cascading tulle works. Frequently working with the gossamer fabric, Hernando sees her sculptures as an act of rebellion in which “softness becomes less a discreet quality and more a function of power, both formally and symbolically.”

    Similarly, Diana Weymar presents “American Sampler,” a collection of embroidered, typographic works made during a five-year period. Created to showcase a woman’s skill and literacy throughout the 18th century, samplers have a long history as sites of feminine expression. Weymar draws on this legacy for this patchwork tapestry, which is part of her ongoing Tiny Pricks Project created in 2018 in response to Donald Trump’s tumultuous first term.

    Colossal readers will recognize several artists in this second exhibition, including Caitlin McCormack, Rima Day, Willie Cole, and Ulla-Stina Wikander. The Golden Thread is on view through May 16.

    Tiny Pricks Project (Diana Weymar), “American Sampler” (2020-2025), vintage textiles and cotton floss

    Detail of Tiny Pricks Project (Diana Weymar), “American Sampler” (2020-2025), vintage textiles and cotton floss

    Caitlin McCormack, “Babylon Rec Room,” vintage wallpaper on salvaged drywall with crochet cotton string and glue embellishment

    Ali Dipp, “Concession No 3 (Trumbull, Capitol)” (2024), manually stitched threads on denim jeans, 79 x 117 inches

    Left: Fran Siegel, “Medicine Wheel” (2020), cyanotype, scrim, embroidery, sewing, string, and mounted on bar, 90 x 60 x 10 inches. Right: Manju Shandler, “The Elephant in the Room” (2024), mixed media soft sculpture, 6 x 6 x 9 feet

    Traci Johnson. Left: “Lil Femme,” yarn on cloth, 12.5 x 22 inches. Right: “Love Me in a Place Where There’s no Space or Time” (2023), yarn on cloth, 7.5 x 7.2 feet

    Sam Dienst, “Clutter Conundrum” (2024), hand-woven tapestry with yarn, beads, paint, and felt, 56 x 57 x .25 inches

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Previous articleNext article More

  • in

    Five Years in the Making, an MiG-21 Fighter Jet Gets a Glow-Up from Tens of Millions of Glass Beads

    Photo by Mauricio Hoyos. All images courtesy of Ralph Ziman, shared with permission

    Five Years in the Making, an MiG-21 Fighter Jet Gets a Glow-Up from Tens of Millions of Glass Beads

    April 15, 2025

    ArtHistorySocial Issues

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    “We’re going to make stuff out of beads that is going to take people’s breath away,” says Ralph Ziman in the trailer for “The MiG-21 Project,” a military jet that he and a transcontinental team coated nose to tail in millions upon millions of glass beads.

    For the past 12 years, the Los Angeles-based artist has examined the impacts of the Cold War Era and the global arms trade through a trilogy titled Weapons of Mass Production, motivated by his upbringing in Apartheid-era South Africa. More than half a decade in the making, “The MiG-21 Project” completes the series.

    The first installment, “The AK-47 Project,” reimagined the aesthetic of one of the world’s most ubiquitous wartime weapons, the Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947, by coating dozens of the guns in colorful glass beads. The second project revolved around the Casspir, a heavy-duty Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle (MRAPV) introduced in the 1970s, which he likewise ornamented in vibrant geometric patterns.

    “The idea was to take these weapons of war and to repurpose them,” Ziman says, flipping the narrative about icons of violence and transforming them instead into symbols of resilience, collaboration, and collectivity. Vehicles and firearms morph into a theater of hope and strength in the face of a terrible 20th-century legacy.

    Apartheid, which in Afrikaans means “separateness,” is the name assigned by the minority white-ruled Nationalist Party of South Africa to a harsh system of racial segregation that began in 1948. The period lasted until 1991 and was closely linked within the context of international relations to the Cold War as tensions erupted between the U.S. and the former U.S.S.R. Spurred by the deterioration of the two countries’ WWII alliance and fears about the spread of Communism into the West, the war began in 1947 and also ended in 1991 when the U.S.S.R. was dissolved.

    During this time, the Russians produced a fighter jet called the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21. The plane is “the most-produced supersonic fighter aircraft of all time,” Ziman says. “The Russians built 12,500 MiG-21s, and they’re still in use today—just like the Casspir and just like the AK-47s. But it’s one thing to say, hey, I want to bead a MiG, and then the next thing, you’ve got a 48-foot MiG sitting in your studio.”

    The MiG-21 cockpit

    “The MiG-21 Project” combines photography and costume design with historical research and time-honored Indigenous craft. The project encompasses not only the jet but a series of cinematic photographs and elaborate Afrofuturist regalia inspired by military flight suits, African tribal textiles, and space travel.

    Ziman’s team comprises numerous skilled artisans from Zimbabwe and Indigenous Ndebele women from South Africa’s Mpumalanga Province, who are renowned for their beadwork. For the Ndebele, beadwork is a means of expressing cultural identity and rites of passage, taking on powerful political connotations in the 20th century as it became associated with pre-colonial African traditions and identity.

    Tapping into the lessons of our not-so-distant past, Ziman addresses current conflicts like war and the global arms race, modern colonialism, systemic racism, and white supremacy through the lens of Apartheid. Funds raised throughout the process, part of the mission of the Weapons of Mass Production trilogy as a whole, are being donated to the people of Ukraine in support of the country’s ongoing conflict with Russia.

    You’ll be able to see the “The MiG-21 Project” later this year in Seattle, where it will be on view from June 21 to January 26, 2026, at the Museum of Flight. Explore more on Ziman’s website.

    Photo by Mauricio Hoyos

    Photo by Mauricio Hoyos

    “Hero Of Cuito Cuanavale,” Inkjet on Moab Entrada paper, 43 x 56 inches

    Photo by Mauricio Hoyos

    Detail of the MiG-21 cockpit

    Photo by Mauricio Hoyos

    “The Raider and Her MiG-21,” Inkjet on Moab Entrada paper, 43 x 56 inches

    Photo by Mauricio Hoyos

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Next article More

  • in

    Formidable Bronze Crowns by Marianna Simnett Conjure Myth and the Sublime Feminine

    “Megaera” (2023), bronze and velvet, 59 x 17 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches. All images courtesy of Marianna Simnett and SOCIÉTÉ, Berlin, shared with permission

    Formidable Bronze Crowns by Marianna Simnett Conjure Myth and the Sublime Feminine

    April 15, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    For Marianna Simnett, sticking to one medium or theme defies her interpretation of what art can be. She fights the natural proclivity of galleries, collectors, and art enthusiasts to typecast her practice as one thing. “Trying to shed those expectations every time—trying to do something different—it’s exhausting but so worth it,” she says in an interview for Art Basel. “Now the signature is that people don’t know what to expect, and that’s the best outcome possible.”

    Among myriad strains of her practice—which include filmmaking, sculpture, installation, painting, and performance—a collection of bronze crowns created between 2022 and 2024 command our attention. Situated on top of bespoke velvet cushions, Simnett’s Crowns are cast in an alloy that would make the elaborate headpieces burdensome or even painful to wear, yet the meticulously formed arches, band, and spikes manifest as delicate mammals and birds.

    “Hydra” (2023), bronze and velvet, 55 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches

    “Simnett uses vivid and visceral means to explore the body as a site of transformation,” says a statement from SOCIÉTÉ, which represents the artist. “In psychologically charged works that challenge both herself and the viewer, Simnett imagines radical new worlds filled with untamed thoughts, strange tales, and desires.”

    Named for powerful female figures from ancient lore like Discordia, the Greek goddess of strife, or Lilith, a she-demon in Jewish and Mesopotamian mythology, Simnett’s Crowns examine the power, ferocity, and sublimity of allegorical female figures. One can imagine that only supernatural beings could wear these pieces and feel comfortable.

    Simnett’s sculptures were first shown in her exhibition OGRESS in 2022. “In fairy tales and folklore, the ogress is a voracious monster who deceives men and torments children in her quest to ravish them whole,” says an exhibition statement. Simnett wielded “the ogress’ insatiable hunger as a radical force,” illuminating the role of women in myth and legend, especially the symbolic tension between embracing and fearing those who are different.

    Simnett’s solo exhibition Charades opens at SOCIÉTÉ on May 1, coinciding with Berlin Gallery Weekend. Explore a wide range of the artist’s multimedia work on her website and Instagram.

    “Laverna” (2023), bronze and velvet, 55 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches

    Detail of “Laverna”

    “Discordia” (2023), bronze and velvet, 17 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 16 inches

    “Maniae” (2022), bronze and velvet, 17 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 16 inches

    “Lilith” (2024), bronze and velvet, 57 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches

    Detail of “Lilith”

    “Astraea” (2023), bronze and velvet, 55 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Previous articleNext article More