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    Xanthe Somers Weaves Themes of Labor and Visibility in Bold Ceramic Vessels

    “The Weary Weaver” (2024), glazed stoneware, 39.4 x 28.4 x 28.4 incjes. Photo by Southern Guild and Hayden Phipps. All images courtesy of Xanthe Summers, shared with permission

    Xanthe Somers Weaves Themes of Labor and Visibility in Bold Ceramic Vessels

    August 7, 2025

    ArtCraftSocial Issues

    Kate Mothes

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    “Clay is an incredible medium to hold narrative,” says Xanthe Somers, who turns to the medium as a way to explore themes around domesticity, craft, and so-called “women’s work” like cleaning, mending, working with textiles, and caregiving. When it comes to clay, she says, “I think mostly I am invigorated by its ability to hold—to hold water, to hold function, to give shape, to carry stories, and to carry meaning.”

    Currently based in London, Somers grew up in Zimbabwe, where she observed inequities within the social structure that mirror many places around the world, especially in terms of gendered labor within the domestic sphere that often goes largely unseen and unacknowledged.

    “Common Threads” (2025), glazed stoneware, 23.6 x 21.7 x 21.7 inches

    She explains that “many homes have cleaners and gardeners who exist within this ‘invisible’ framework: caring for children, cooking their meals, and sometimes traveling for hours—and their work is underpaid, undervalued, and considered unskilled.”

    Somers taps into ceramics, especially the archetypal vessel motif, to join the ever-evolving continuum of the medium. Throughout millennia and across myriad distinct cultures, the earthen material has found endless applications in the home, industry, and art.

    “Clay has the unique ability to cross the boundaries between functionality, art, craft, class, and culture, and because of this, it is a vital medium to hold stories about humankind,” she says. “I understand clay to be an archive for the stories of humans.”

    The vessels often take on figurative proportions, standing tall on plinths and exhibiting saturated hues, bold patterns, and tactile textures. Some of the pieces crumple, especially toward the top, as if hit with something or caving under some invisible weight.

    Installation view at Southern Guild, Cape Town. Photo courtesy of Southern Guild

    The artist’s vessels tread the boundary between form and function and delve into another craft often associated with women’s labor: weaving. She describes how everything from the sheets we sleep on to the carpets we tread across to the clothes on our back can be “extrapolated to speak more broadly about domesticity, women’s work, and racialized spaces in Zimbabwe and the Global South.” She adds:

    Weaving can be used as a wider metaphor for social cohesion—or lack thereof. This predicament is significant in Zimbabwe but is apparent the world over, where women’s work is undervalued.

    Next year, Somers embarks on a trip to Guadalajara, Mexico, for a residency at Ceramica Suro, where she will learn from local ceramic artists, glassblowers, and weavers. And this October, you’ll be able to see her work at London’s 1-54, a fair dedicated to contemporary African art, which runs from October 16 to 19. Explore more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    “Woven Tales Stand Tall” (2022). Photo by Deniz Guzel

    Detail of “Woven Tales Stand Tall.” Photo by Deniz Guzel

    “By the Pricking of My Thumbs” (2025), glazed stoneware, 39.4 x 27.6 x 27.8 inches. Photo by Southern Guild and Hayden Phipps

    “Working Class Femininity” (2023), glazed stoneware, 41 x 19.8 x 19.8 inches. Photo by Deniz Guzel

    “Weaver’s Woe” (2024,), glazed stoneware, 22.4 x 19.7 x 19.7 inches. Photo by Deniz Guzel

    “Of Woof and Woe” (2024), glazed stoneware, 43.3 x 25.3 x 25.3 inches. Photo by Southern Guild and Hayden Phipps

    Xanthe Summers in her studio

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    Isabella Mellado Summons Sins and Desire in Her Tarot-Inspired Paintings

    “Pride (Temperance).” All images courtesy of the artist and Povos, shared with permission

    Isabella Mellado Summons Sins and Desire in Her Tarot-Inspired Paintings

    August 7, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    What does it mean to sin? In mystical paintings in oil, Isabella Mellado diverges from the Catholic guilt she knows all too well to instead bask in desire and the beauty of transgressions.

    The Chicago-based, Puerto Rico-born artist is known for her magical realist works that draw on tarot and the occult to explore queer identities and Latinidad. Mellado’s most recent exhibition, 7 Pecados, presented a collection of vivid paintings that, like much of her practice, reject Christian strictures. Rather, the artist questions how we might see laziness, gluttony, and lust not as wrongs to be avoided but as empowering and essential to our humanity.

    “Sloth”

    Mellado often begins a piece by staging a photo. She and her accomplices don witchy garments and commune in bodies of water or around fires, their hands occupied with a deck of cards or a chalice. These images serve as the basis for her large-scale paintings, which render the already magical scenes in a dreamy, even mysterious light.

    Whereas Western religions like Christianity have left little room for identities and behaviors that don’t conform to their beliefs, Mellado beckons us into an alternative space where figures are free to revel in pleasure. The characters take on the role of witches and conjurers, those who remain anonymous behind their disguises yet engage resolutely in their own empowerment.

    Mellado’s previous projects include Te Dire Quien Eres, an exhibition at Povos in Chicago that took its central premise from a line in Miguel Cervantes’s Don Quijote de la Mancha: “Tell me who you surround yourself with, and I’ll tell you who you are.” The paintings reject shame around queerness and what’s often considered monstrous, instead honing in on the intimate relationships that inform one’s life and the sacred spaces offered by a coven.

    Find more from Mellado, including the original photos and resulting paintings, on her website and Instagram.

    “Lust (The Lovers)”

    “The High Priestess’

    “Two of Wands”

    “Three of Cups”

    “The Magician”

    “Gluttony (The Emperor Midas)”

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    Laser-Cut Steel Forms Radiate Ornate Patterns in Anila Quayyum Agha’s Immersive Installations

    “A Beautiful Despair (Blue)” (2021), lacquered steel and halogen bulb, 60 x 60 x 60 inches. Image courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NYC, © the artist. Photo by Steve Watson / Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth. All images courtesy of Seattle Asian Art Museum, shared with permission

    Laser-Cut Steel Forms Radiate Ornate Patterns in Anila Quayyum Agha’s Immersive Installations

    August 6, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Influenced by the ornate decor of Islamic mosaics and architecture, Anila Quayyum Agha creates large-scale installations that utilize the power of light and shadow to transform a room. Laser-cut steel structures, like her seminal work “Intersections,” take a simple cube as a starting point. The artist incises elaborate patterns from the surface, then situates a light inside, which casts shadows onto the surrounding walls.

    Anila Quayyum Agha: Geometry of Light, which opens later this month at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, marks the first time the Pakistani-American artist’s work has been exhibited in the Pacific Northwest. Based in Indianapolis, she is known for exploring the ever-evolving relationships between cultural identity, gender, art, and spirituality.

    “A Beautiful Despair (Blue)” (2021), lacquered steel and halogen bulb, 60 x 60 x 60 inches. Image courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NYC, © the artist. Photo courtesy of Masterpiece Art Fair, London

    “Through the use of light and color, the artist’s ornate designs have the ability to turn spaces into ethereal environments reminiscent of traditional sacred spaces through the use of lanterns or mashrabiya, wooden lattice screens that diffuse light, casting intricate shadows while allowing for the flow of air and creating intimacy,” the museum says.

    Geometry of Light will include three of Agha’s space-transforming installations, plus a number of framed, mixed-media paper works. The exhibition runs from August 27 to April 19, 2026, and you can find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    “This is Not a refuge! (2)” (2019), laser-cut, resin-coated aluminum and light bulb, 93 x 58 x 72 inches. Courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NYC, © the artist. Photo courtesy of Columbia Museum, Columbia, North Carolina

    “A Beautiful Despair (Blue)” (2021), lacquered steel and halogen bulb, 60 x 60 x 60 inches. Image courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NYC, © the artist. Photo by Steve Watson / Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth

    “Liminal Space” (2021), laser-cut and lacquered steel, 65 x 65 inches. Image courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NYC, © the artist. Photo by Steve Watson / Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth

    Detail of “Liminal Space” (2021). Photo by Steve Watson / Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth

    “This is Not a refuge! (2)” (2019), laser-cut, resin-coated aluminum and light bulb, 93 x 58 x 72 inches. Courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NYC, © the artist. Photo courtesy of Masterpiece Art Fair, London

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    Terracotta and Gold Figures by Vipoo Srivilasa Conjure Joy and the Divine

    “Serene Spirit” (2025), terracotta, glaze, overglaze, and gold lustre, 39 x 28 x 15 centimeters. All images courtesy of Edwina Corlette, shared with permission

    Terracotta and Gold Figures by Vipoo Srivilasa Conjure Joy and the Divine

    August 5, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    Joy and the possibilities of creative communion ground the practice of Vipoo Srivilasa (previously). The artist, who lives and works between Australia and Thailand, is known for his ceramic sculptures that take an ebullient approach to life.

    Standing between one and two feet tall, Srivilasa’s figures are clad in floral baubles, mandala-like motifs, and gold details, often with their fingers shaped like a V. The lively characters invoke both the mundane and the divine as they portray aspects of the spiritual world while firmly rooted on the earth.

    “Inner Goddess” (2025), terracotta, glaze, and gold lustre, 60 x 25 x 13 centimeters

    A collection of Srivilasa’s sculptures opens this month at Edwina Corlette in a solo exhibition titled Iconic Figures: Devas, Deities and Divas. Bringing together 15 years of the artist’s practice, the show features both his signature white and blue materials, along with a more recent foray into terracotta, a mix that bridges Srivilasa’s cultural heritages.

    Iconic Figures runs from August 20 to September 16 in New Farm, Queensland. Find more from Srivilasa on his website and Instagram.

    “Guardian Light” (2025), earthenware glazed and gold lustre, 100 x 50 centimeters

    “Heavenly Bloom” (2025), terracotta, earthenware glazed, and gold lustre, 100 x 50 x 60 centimeters

    Back of “Heavenly Bloom” (2025), terracotta, earthenware glazed, and gold lustre, 100 x 50 x 60 centimeters

    Back of “Serene Spirit” (2025), terracotta, glaze, overglaze, and gold lustre, 39 x 28 x 15 centimeters

    “Majestic Grace” (2025), terracotta glazed and gold lustre, 70 x 42 x 15 centimeters

    Back of “Majestic Grace” (2025), terracotta glazed and gold lustre, 70 x 42 x 15 centimeters

    “Dancing Diva” (2025), terracotta, glaze, and gold lustre, 29 x 14 x 18 centimeters

    “Radiant Bloom” (2025), terracotta glaze and gold lustre, 53 x 34 x 20 centimeters

    Back of “Radiant Bloom” (2025), terracotta glaze and gold lustre, 53 x 34 x 20 centimeters

    “Golden Aura” (2025), terracotta, glaze, and gold lustre, 66 x 33 x 19 centimeters

    “Sacred Flame” (2025), terracotta, glaze, and gold lustre, 69 x 37 x 24 centimeters

    Back of “Sacred Flame” (2025), terracotta, glaze, and gold lustre, 69 x 37 x 24 centimeters

    “Joyful Deity” (2025), earthenware glazed and gold lustre, 62 x 45 x 28 centimeters

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    In ‘Little Italy,’ Dina Brodsky and Lorraine Loots Collaborate on a Tiny Scale

    Lorraine Loots, “Pasta Amatriciana.” All images courtesy of the artists and Paradigm Gallery + Studio, shared with permission

    In ‘Little Italy,’ Dina Brodsky and Lorraine Loots Collaborate on a Tiny Scale

    August 5, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    From Manhattan to San Diego to Cleveland, neighborhoods known for their Italian-American populations have endearingly been called Little Italy, where facets of the Mediterranean nation’s culture and cuisine are preserved and celebrated. For artists Lorraine Loots and Dina Brodsky, who both create work on a very small scale, a trip to Italy and a collaborative body of work proved to be a wonderful way to explore this theme quite literally.

    Little Italy, Brodsky and Loots’ duo exhibition on view now at Paradigm Gallery + Studio, chronicles the artists’ trip to the country through itty bitty paintings. Loots works in watercolor, while Brodsky composes in oil, and each draws upon the landscapes, architecture, food, and cultural icons—think Vespas, pizza, spritzes, and the Colosseum—that we associate with La Dolce Vita. Framed, Loots’ works are only five inches across, while Brodsky’s tiny tondos encapsulate vast landscapes within a three-inch diameter surface.

    Dina Brodsky, “Florence, Ponte Vecchio”

    Brodsky and Loots—based in Massachusetts and South Africa, respectively—first connected during the pandemic, inspired by each other’s interest in working in a tiny format. During the trip, they each experienced the place through their unique lens, tapping into memories and associations. Brodsky, who was born in Belarus and whose family traveled as refugees from the Soviet Union to the U.S. in the 1980s, spent a brief period in Italy during this relocation. The nation’s bucolic countryside and ancient architecture stuck with her over time.

    Loots was long fascinated by Italy’s architectural and cultural heritage, and during the trip, she wandered the cobbled streets and plazas with two heirloom film cameras, snapping photos which she then developed once she returned home and used as reference for tiny watercolor paintings.

    In Little Italy, some of Loots’ photographs, along with some of Brodsky’s sketchbooks, illustrate the two artists’ approaches to recording their experiences. The exhibition continues through August 24 in Philadelphia, and you can find more on the gallery’s website.

    Lorraine Loots, “Vespa”

    Dina Brodsky, “Bagnoregio”

    Lorraine Loots, “Bialetti”

    Dina Brodsky, “Rome, Golden Hour”

    Lorraine Loots, “Fontana di Trevi”

    Dina Brodsky, “Orvieto, Dawn”

    Lorraine Loots, “Colosseo”

    Dina Brodsky, “Siena, Dawn”

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    ‘Quiver’ Surveys Twenty Years of Striking Feather Sculptures by Kate MccGwire

    “Circe” (2023). Photo by JP Bland. All images courtesy of Kate MccGwire, shared with permission

    ‘Quiver’ Surveys Twenty Years of Striking Feather Sculptures by Kate MccGwire

    August 5, 2025

    ArtNature

    Kate Mothes

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    Although we’re familiar with numerous birds displaying bright blue hues, from the aptly named blue jays to indigo buntings to various species of heron, this color in avians’ feathers is actually a trick of physics. While hues like red and yellow are produced from pigments, blue results from the way light interacts with molecules inherent to the structure of the feathers. And it’s this delightful, elusive luster that lends itself so well to Kate MccGwire’s striking sculptures.

    Next month, MccGwire (previously) opens a solo exhibition at the Djanogly Gallery at Lakeside Arts titled Quiver, surveying two decades of the artist’s work with ethically sourced feathers. Striking, framed wall pieces meet undulating specimens in freestanding vitrines and large-scale, site-specific installations. The vintage glass cases and domes nod to the 19th-century fascination with taxidermied trophy animals that adorned museum walls and grand private homes.

    “Quiver” (2012). Photo by Ian Stuart

    Working from a converted Dutch barge in West London, MccGwire’s studio mirrors her interest in nature. Like water, her compositions shimmer in the light and appear to swirl and roil, whether pool-like in frames or serpentine and encased in glass. Plumbing the inherent tensions between themes of beauty and revulsion, life and death, and wildness and captivity, the artist encourages us to consider our emotional and ever-evolving relationship with nature.

    Quiver runs from September 20 to January 4 in Nottingham. If you’re in Sag Harbor, you can also see MccGwire’s work in The Ark at The Church, curated by Eric Fischl, which continues through September 1. And a piece is also included in Iris Van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses, which runs through August 10 at the ArtScience Museum in Singapore before traveling to the Kunsthal, Rotterdam, where it opens on September 27. Find more on the MccGwire’s website and Instagram.

    “Flex”

    “Cavort (West)”

    “Host.” Photo by Tessa Angus

    “Reel” (2015). Photo by JP Bland

    “Stifle.” Photo by Tessa Angus

    “Gyrus” (2019). Photo by JP Bland

    “Surge (Columba).” Photo by Tessa Angus

    “Gag”

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    Acrobatic Poses in Monumental Murals by Artez Invigorate Urban Buildings

    “Dancer” (2024), Bourgoin-Jallieu, France. All images courtesy of Artez, shared with permission

    Acrobatic Poses in Monumental Murals by Artez Invigorate Urban Buildings

    August 4, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    With acrobatic finesse, the figures in Artez’s large-scale murals interpret the boundaries of the walls themselves through contemporary dance and moments of repose.

    Currently working on an ongoing series titled Simple Acrobatics, the artist explains that he aims to “break away from the conventional approach of depicting the human figure on a mural and offer a fresh perspective on how the human form can be portrayed in public spaces.” Dancers fill the sides of buildings, sometimes using a chair as a prop, stretching around the confines of the wall as if challenging its boundaries.

    “Simple Acrobatics” (2025), Wuppertal, Germany

    Another recent theme, Thirst, portrays people drinking from vases of flowers. The unusual gesture nods to a sense of awareness, inviting viewers to consider society—its conventions and expectations—and contemplate the world around them anew.

    Artez is currently in Gothenburg, Sweden, working on a new Simple Acrobatics mural. Find more on Instagram.

    Patras (2024). Photo by KLE

    “Thirst (Milena)” (2024), Aalborg, Denmark

    Cerzeto, Italy (2024)

    “Simple Acrobatics” (2024), Bristol, U.K.

    “Simple Acrobatics” (2024), Boulogne Sur Mer, France

    “Sleepers” (2023), Cacak, Serbia

    “Simple Acrobatics” (2024), Zagreb, Croatia

    “Thirst For Nature “(2024), Belgrade, Serbia

    “Simple Acrobatics” (2024), Cheltenham, U.K.

    “Moving Residents” (2023), Deventer, The Netherlands

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    Christina Bothwell Taps into Dream Worlds in Surreal Glass and Ceramic Sculptures

    All images courtesy of Christina Bothwell and Heller Gallery, shared with permission

    Christina Bothwell Taps into Dream Worlds in Surreal Glass and Ceramic Sculptures

    August 4, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Kate Mothes

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    Youthful and mysterious figures emerge from glass and ceramic in the uncanny sculptures of Christina Bothwell (previously). Animals and children form the artist’s primary focus, often embellished with painted florals, nestled in shells, or encapsulated within bird cages. Her husband and collaborator, Robert Bender, often adds wood elements like deer antlers or spider-esque legs. Tender and also occasionally unsettling, the pieces hint at the surreal stuff of dreams, memories, and the spirit world.

    Bothwell’s solo exhibition, Screen Memories, just opened at UrbanGlass’s Robert Lehman Gallery. Presented by Heller Gallery, the show brings together a wide selection of new and recent pieces and continues through September 12 in New York City. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

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