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      ‘Butterfly’ Explores 4,000 Years of Our Fascination with Lepidoptera in Art and Science

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      Kerry Miller, “A Handbook to the Order Lepidoptera” (2013), mixed media, 10 1/4 x 16 1/8 × 3 1/8 inches. Photo courtesy of Kerry Miller. All images courtesy of Phaidon, shared with permission

      ‘Butterfly’ Explores 4,000 Years of Our Fascination with Lepidoptera in Art and Science

      September 9, 2025

      ArtBooksNatureScience

      Kate Mothes

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      Since time immemorial, we have been awed by the ornate patterns, metamorphosis, and migrations of butterflies and moths. Their uncanny life stages and spectrum of vibrant colors and textures—both as caterpillars and as adult insects—endlessly inspire wonder.

      Butterfly: Exploring the World of Lepidoptera, a new book forthcoming from Phaidon on October 1, celebrates these distinctive winged creatures throughout art history and science. From portrayals in 4,000-year-old Egyptian artworks to pioneering entomological studies during the Enlightenment to contemporary explorations, the volume surveys our enduring fascination with the insects.

      John Abbot, “Black and Blue Admirable Butterfly and Chestnut-coloured Butterfly” (c.1774–1841), etching from watercolor, 15 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches. Image courtesy of Missouri Botanical Garden, Peter H. Raven Library

      So far, scientists have documented about 20,000 species of butterflies in the world, but there are likely more. And in the order of Lepidoptera, which includes moths, estimates of the total number of species range from a staggering 180,000 to 265,000. The largest is known as Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing, with a wingspan that can reach up to one foot. And when it comes to moths, a similarly sized wingspan can be found on a Southeast Asian species known as the Atlas Moth.

      Artists have long captured the likeness of butterflies in a range of media as a way to symbolically represent transformation, rebirth, beauty, and purity. More than 250 entries fill Butterfly, including sculptures, photography, paintings, illustrations, textiles, and more, which tap into the myriad ways in which these marvelous bugs pollinate not only our fragile ecosystems but our imaginations, too.

      Pre-order your copy now in the Colossal Shop.

      Ralph Martin, “Old World Swallowtail Wing” (2018), photograph, dimensions variable. Image courtesy of Ralph Martin / BIA / Nature Picture Library

      Rebecca Coles, “British Masters 01” (2017), recycled art books and entomology pins, 39 3/8 x 39 3/8 inches. Image courtesy of TAG Fine Arts

      Anonymous, Atlas Moth (c.1615), gouache on paper, 7 x 4 3/4 inches. Image courtesy of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

      Wardell Milan, “Sunday, Sitting on the Bank of Butterfly Meadow” (2013), chromogenic print, 39 7/8 x 60 inches. Image © Wardell Milan, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Sikkema Malloy Jenkins, New York

      Katsushika Hokusai, “Peonies and Butterfly” (1833–4), woodcut print, ink, and color on paper, 10 × 14 5/8 inches. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Institute of Art

      Cat Johnston, “Moth Creature” (2024), cloth, fur, paint, and epoxy clay Image © Cat Johnston

      Martin Frobenius Ledermüller, “Butterfly Wing Scales” (c.1764), watercolor and ink on paper, 10 x 8 inches. Image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library; Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

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      In Rural Wisconsin, Pat Perry Connects the Various Forces That Shape Our World

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      “27 Schoolteachers and a Volcano.” All images courtesy of Pat Perry, shared with permission

      In Rural Wisconsin, Pat Perry Connects the Various Forces That Shape Our World

      September 9, 2025

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      In a rural Wisconsin city of just more than 1,200 people, the hyperlocal and the universal converge in a new mural by Pat Perry (previously). “27 Schoolteachers and a Volcano” is just as its title suggests: the large-scale piece depicts snow-capped mountains with an explosive volcano at its center, while small portraits of local educators line the top and bottom borders.

      Commissioned by Princeton Art Collective, the mural captures the vertiginous experience of life today, particularly as we consume more information than ever before and must confront seemingly endless disasters and devastations around the globe. Perry wanted to highlight how we can “find meaning in ordinary life while constantly witnessing things happening in the world beyond your control.”

      “Even in a small rural town, you’re not insulated from the immense forces that shape the world. History happens. Economies rise and fall. Wars begin. Continents drift and mountains erode. One day, the sun will expand and swallow the Earth. Most of us don’t get much of a say in any of it,” he says.

      To conceptualize the work, the collective helped to contact and secure permissions from the teachers pictured, and with the exception of the woman in the red floral garment at the bottom of the piece—she’s the artist’s mother and a retired educator—all work in the area. And why teachers? Perry explains:

      Day after day, people find purpose. They wake up early, show up with intention, and try to make sense of things—not just for themselves, but also for others. Teachers do this every day. Not for recognition, and rarely for much pay. It’s a repetitive act of maintenance that holds things together.Choosing to shoulder that task, even while standing at the edge of something vast and indifferent, is a quiet act of defiance. Amidst overwhelmingness and uncontrollableness and unanswerableness, teachers—and all custodians of human affairs—keep meaning in the world by steadily and stubbornly tending to it.

      “27 Schoolteachers and a Volcano” is located in Princeton, Wisconsin. Find more from Perry on his website and Instagram.

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      Cheng-Tsung Feng’s “Sailing Castle” Cruises Through 400 Years of Taiwanese History

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      All images courtesy of Cheng-Tsung Feng, shared with permission

      Cheng-Tsung Feng’s “Sailing Castle” Cruises Through 400 Years of Taiwanese History

      September 9, 2025

      ArtCraftDesign

      Kate Mothes

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      Through the study of time-honored craft techniques, Taiwanese artist Cheng-Tsung Feng envisions contemporary installations that connect us not only to the past but also to nature and our present surroundings.

      Working across sculpture, installation, craft, and design, the artist draws on what he describes as “ancient and gradually forgotten oriental culture,” translating traditional motifs and methods into new works that nod to the continuum of East Asian art and ingenuity. One might even position his practice within the realm of storytelling, tapping into collective cultural memories and overlapping histories.

      In his installation “Sailing Castle” in Tainan, Feng evokes the sails of wooden ships as a visual metaphor for the urban landscape, “where clusters of buildings resemble vessels gathered in harbor,” he says. Symbolizing movement, discovery, and societal progress and expansion, he creates a dialogue between architecture and advancement, along with memory and the present moment.

      The beams and sails are inspired by a number of actual buildings in Tainan like the Confucius Temple, Fort Zeelandia—built by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century—and Chihkan Tower, another Dutch outpost also known as Fort Provintia.

      Called Formosa in the mid-1600s, Taiwan was under colonial rule by the Dutch, whose trade interests centered predominantly around Chinese silks imported to Europe, where they were prized for their luxury and highly sought after. Situated at the Anping Shipyard historical site, amid the canals of the West Central District, Feng wraps the area’s maritime heritage and four-centuries-long legacy of shipping into “Sailing Castle.”

      “The overlapping sails evoke both the gathering of ships along the waterfront and the simultaneous anticipation of departure and the arrival of returning voyagers,” he says.

      Using primarily wood and canvas, Feng’s pavilion is a cross between artistic intervention and functional meeting space, complete with small surfaces jutting out of the posts on which visitors can sit. Cruising, as it were, through a green park and illuminated at night, “Sailing Castle” sparks a sense of awe at the same time as it encourages us to slow down for a moment or two of contemplation and rest.

      Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

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    • 188 Shares101 Views

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      ‘No One Knows All It Takes’ Invites Community Healing at the Haggerty Museum of Art

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      All images courtesy of Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, shared with permission

      ‘No One Knows All It Takes’ Invites Community Healing at the Haggerty Museum of Art

      September 8, 2025

      ArtColossalPartnerSocial Issues

      Grace Ebert

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      A core component of the Colossal-curated exhibition, No One Knows All It Takes, is community participation. Each of the artists—Bryana Bibbs, Raoul Deal, Maria Gaspar, and Swoon (previously)—is deeply engaged with the people they portray and collaborate with, a commitment that inspires nuanced, insightful projects and a truly communal process.

      As part of the exhibition at the Haggerty Museum of Art, we’ve considered how to reflect this mode of working through programming and a participatory project. The final piece in the show is Bibbs’ “Weaving Stories,” which consists of a large loom mounted on the gallery wall, along with threads, a paper shredder, and other materials nearby. Once viewers have considered each of the artists’ works, they’re invited to contribute to a collective tapestry on the loom or create a smaller, individual piece to take home.

      Installation view of “Weaving Stories”

      Attuned to the sensitive subject matter of the exhibition, Bibbs asks participants to explore their own feelings and memories in response to the artworks. Viewers can even write down their thoughts and interlace their shredded notes into the final work.

      In addition to “Weaving Stories,” No One Knows All It Takes also offers an opportunity to engage with Gaspar’s “Disappearance Jail (Wisconsin)” in a public event on October 9. Following a discussion about the intersection of art and incarceration with Dr. Robert S. Smith, the artist will lead attendees in a “punch party,” a workshop in which participants use a hole punch to obscure images of jails, prisons, and detention facilities. The completed works will then be re-hung in the gallery.

      And lastly, Colossal will also be hosting a conversation with Deal and Dr. Sergio M. González about immigration, wellbeing, and making art in this increasingly precarious moment. We encourage attendees to spend time with Deal’s works in the exhibition prior to joining us for that discussion, which will be held on September 24.

      No One Knows All It Takes is on view through December 20 in Milwaukee, with an opening reception on September 11. Find all of the programming on the museum’s website.

      Installation view of two works by Raoul Deal

      Installation view of Bibbs’ works

      Detail view of Gaspar’s “Disappearance Jail (Wisconsin)”

      Installation view of Gaspar’s “Disappearance Jail (Wisconsin)”

      Installation view of works by Raoul Deal

      Installation view of works by Raoul Deal

      Installation view of Swoon’s “Medea”

      Installation view of Swoon’s “Medea” and Bibbs’ works

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      Banksy’s Already Covered Painting in London Comments on the U.K.’s Palestine Action Crackdown

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      Banksy’s painting at Royal Courts of Justice, London, © Banksy 2025

      Banksy’s Already Covered Painting in London Comments on the U.K.’s Palestine Action Crackdown

      September 8, 2025

      ArtSocial Issues

      Kate Mothes

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      On a wall outside the Royal Courts of Justice in Westminster, London, a new piece by Banksy appeared this morning before being covered up within hours. The short-lived artwork, which the artist shared on Instagram and the front page of his website, depicts a judge in traditional robes and a large wig beating a protester with a gavel as blood spatters across the demonstrator’s placard.

      The piece by the anonymous artist is likely a response to the arrests of nearly 900 protestors during a rally against the ban on Palestine Action, a group that Britain has declared a terrorist organization. Membership in the group is considered a crime, which can be punished by up to 14 years in prison. Even though organizers insist the demonstration of around 1,500 was peaceful, The Met nevertheless arrested more than half of the attendees.

      Banksy is known for his statements about current affairs and socio-political issues around the world. He’s famous for stealthily targeting charged sites, like destroyed buildings in Ukraine or a small town in Wales that the World Health Organization for a short time deemed the most-polluted community in the U.K. His striking and subversive imagery is sometimes humorous, ironic, or tongue-in-cheek, always taking a direct and purely visual approach in his critique of contemporary issues.

      “What makes this work remarkable is not just its imagery, but its placement,” says Jasper Tordoff, a Banksy expert at MyArtBroker, on Artnet. “By choosing the Royal Courts of Justice, Banksy transforms a historic symbol of authority into a platform for debate. In classic Banksy form, he uses the building itself to sharpen the message, turning its weight and history into part of the artwork.”

      Follow the artist’s updates on Instagram.

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      Maud Madsen’s Oil Paintings Explore Childhood Memories, Daydreams, and Nesting

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      “Snow Fort” (2025), oil on linen, 78 x 90 inches. Photos by JSP Art Photography. All images courtesy of the artist and Half Gallery, shared with permission

      Maud Madsen’s Oil Paintings Explore Childhood Memories, Daydreams, and Nesting

      September 8, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      Brooklyn-based artist Maud Madsen delves into what it means to find comfort, inspiration, and security in our domestic spaces. Her current solo exhibition, Dweller at Half Gallery, taps into the vast realm of memory as she depicts herself building structures in the snow or pillow forts from couch cushions—activities we often associate with kids’ unbridled creativity and ingenuity. They are also shelters.

      Evocative of children’s book author Chris Van Allsburg’s dramatic and mysterious illustrations in acclaimed titles like Jumanji, Polar Express, and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, Madsen often centers the living room or bedroom—places that define relaxation and dreaming—as places where voyages of the imagination take place.

      “Twin Beds (Blanket Fort)” (2025), oil on linen, 78 x 110 inches

      For Madsen, a similar approach shapes her renditions of childhood activities that highlight nostalgic and engrossing activities like building blanket forts or playing with a 1980s-era Fisher Price farm set. Deep shadows, enigmatic settings, and uncanny situations converge in the artist’s alluring and mysterious oil paintings.

      “Because all of the artist’s compositions deal with childhood memories, Maud is also quite literally dwelling on the past,” the gallery says. “The double meaning of her show title is a kind of trick mirror, or maybe force-multiplier, concentrating our attention on the spaces (many self-created) that her figures occupy.”

      Lit perhaps by a distant porch light or the moon shining in through a window, the artist’s recent paintings are set at night, suggesting these moments may be dreams or even the result of insomnia. Nighttime can be seen as symbolic of both an ending and a transition into something new, like that of adolescence to adulthood. Madsen’s compositions also examine the notion of “nesting,” in which we carefully organize and curate our domestic spaces to define our tastes and needs in a way that feels comfortable, autonomous, and safe.

      Dweller continues through October 2 in New York City. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

      “Den” (2025), oil on linen, 30 x 24 inches

      “Canopy” (2025), oil on linen, 30 x 24 inches

      “Lights Out” (2025), oil on linen, 60 x 48 inches

      “Night Shift” (2025), oil on linen, 60 x 48 inches

      “Heavy Snow” (2025), oil on linen, 60 x 48 inches

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      Song Dong’s Monumental Installations Mirror Memories, Globalization, and Impermanence

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      “A Quarter” (2021-2024), interactive installation of steel, mirrors, collected daily objects and furniture from different
      households, lighting fixtures, small stools, and carpets. All images © Song Dong, shared with permission

      Song Dong’s Monumental Installations Mirror Memories, Globalization, and Impermanence

      September 5, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      Mirrors, lights, and household furnishings converge on a grand scale in the luminous installations of Song Dong. The Chinese artist’s interdisciplinary practice often combines performance, sculpture, painting, video, and calligraphy to summon memories and create monumental immersive experiences.

      Themes of transition and ephemerality often appear in Song’s pieces, like a series of installations and performances in which tabletop constructions reminiscent of metropolitan skylines were constructed from edible treats, dismantled brick by brick—or biscuit by biscuit—as visitors passed by. Playful and saccharine on the surface, these works examine the artist’s own childhood experiences of food scarcity along with themes of ephemerality and globalization.

      “Waste Not” (2009), installation performance, Museum of Modern Art, New York

      “Waste Not” —which was shown initially at Beijing Tokyo Art Projects before being exhibited in major institutions in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Germany—explores related themes of consumption and impermanence. Incorporating more than 10,000 items his mother had accumulated over the course of five decades, the installation-performance became “an act of physical and psychological unpacking,” says Pace Gallery, which represents the artist. Viewers were presented with “a veritable landscape of commodities, ranging from bottle caps, shoes, blankets, toothpaste tubes, metal pots, and toys.”

      Through the use of old wooden windows, bed frames, doors, mirrors, lamps, color-coated glass, porcelain, and other found objects and “daily necessities,” Song composes elaborate, structural installations. These evoke dreamy notions of home, belonging, security, and migration while exploring the relationships between memory and fact, humor and trauma. He culls his materials from the streets of Beijing, sourcing discarded furniture, architectural elements, and quotidian objects.

      “These collaged remnants of people’s homes carry with them the history of a city and the lives of its people,” Pace says. “As viewers are invited to peek inside, they are transformed into voyeurs: imagining their homes, their stories, and perhaps identifying shared experiences, and primed to think of the future.”

      Now on view as part of the vibrant 36th São Paolo Biennial, Song’s work appears among ambitious installations by dozens of artists from around the world. His commissioned piece “Borrow Light” takes the form of a mirrored world brimming with lamps that reflect from every surface, not unlike one of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms.

      “Borrow Light” (2025). Installation view of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, ‘Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice’ © Levi Fanan / Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

      The artist considers the concept of “borrowing” in terms of its inherent temporality. He positions it as something of an ethos for understanding our short time on Earth, whether life’s cycles or even the presence of humans at all over the course of millions of evolutionary years.

      Song draws inspiration “from both a carnival’s house of mirrors and the traditional Chinese feng shui method of using mirrors and windows to expand interior space by ushering in the external world,” says an exhibition statement. “Borrow Light” becomes a participatory experience, where visitors’ movements are reflected and illuminated throughout the space. Chairs and lamps, all lent from private homes, provide places for rest and contemplation.

      “Playing with fluid elements such as light, reflection, and illusion, Song’s installation immerses the audience into an infinite universe, where our images and minds become entwined in a silvery, glowing light,” the biennial says.

      Explore more exhibitions and learn about the artist on Pace Gallery’s website.

      Detail of “Same Bed Different Dreams No. 3.” Photo by Damian Griffiths, courtesy of Pace Gallery

      Detail of “Same Bed Different Dreams No. 3.” Photo by Damian Griffiths, courtesy of Pace Gallery

      “Borrow Light” (2025). Installation view of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, ‘Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice’ © Levi Fanan / Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

      “Borrow Light” (2025). Installation view of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, ‘Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice’ © Levi Fanan / Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

      Detail of “Same Bed Different Dreams No. 3.” Photo by Damian Griffiths, courtesy of Pace Gallery

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    • 88 Shares74 Views

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      Mystery Abounds in Angela Burson’s Engimatic Paintings

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      “Disconnected” (2025), acrylic on panel, 9 x 12 inches. All images courtesy of Hashimoto Contemporary, shared with permission

      Mystery Abounds in Angela Burson’s Engimatic Paintings

      September 5, 2025

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      What do the objects we surround ourselves with say about who we are? For Angela Burson, the shirt we pluck from the closet in the morning and the drink we sip with dinner are especially engaging insights into personal and familial identities.

      The artist, who is based in Savannah, often begins with old photographs and re-interprets vintage fashions, tile patterns, and household items in acrylic. She tends to skew proportions and perspectives, achieving a surreal style intensified by her signature crops and headless figures. A vivid, old-fashioned palette of yellow, baby blue, and pale, dusty rose characterizes the mysterious scenes, which peer into intimate moments rife with intrigue.

      “Western Martini” (2025), acrylic on panel, 12 x 16 inches

      In “Taking Notes,” for example, we see two people sitting at a table, the suited figure scribbling on a pad of paper while another grabs for an olive martini. We’re left unsure of whether these notes reflect an investigation into an illicit event or chronicle a more legitimate (and seemingly less likely) cause. There’s also the nefarious cord-cutter in “Disconnected,” a piece in which a black rotary phone is sure to become an object of inquiry.

      Of course, not all of Burson’s paintings appear to catch a bad actor. Her characteristic crops also zoom in on a delicate pair of sheer, polka-dotted socks or slender hands grasping a cocktail glass. The artist’s most recent body of work, Analog Conditions, depicts “artificially created situations (that) mimic real-world circumstances.”

      Recurring motifs like suitcases and beloved pets allude to themes of liberation and companionship, although Burson continues to leave us puzzled: Why, for example, is there an open pill box next to an unattended pup? And what spurred the adoption of an adorable calico kitten? While ambiguous and inconclusive, Burson’s paintings prompt us, as a statement says, “to question the existential meaning of it all.”

      Analog Conditions is on view from September 6 to 27 at Hashimoto Contemporary in New York City. Explore more from Burson on her website and Instagram.

      “Taking Notes” (2025), acrylic on linen, 31 1/2 x 40 7/8 x 3/4 inches

      “Olive and Pillbox” (2025), acrylic on linen, 16 x 20 inches

      “Yellow Shoes” (2025), acrylic on panel, 12 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches

      “Vintage Taupe” (2025), acrylic on panel, 9 x 12 inches

      “Yellow Bow” (2025), acrylic on panel, 9 x 12 inches

      “Ozark Magic” (2025), acrylic on panel, 14 x 14 inches

      “Patches” (2025), acrylic on linen, 60 x 40 x 1 1/2 inches

      “Pencil” (2025), acrylic on linen, 40 x 40 x 3/4 inches

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