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Wayne Thiebaud’s Passion for Art History Shines in ‘Art Comes from Art’
by Aurelia Butler 20 February 2025, 10:00
“Buffet” (1972-1975), oil on canvas, 48 1/8 x 60 1/8 inches. Photo by Katherine Du Tiel. All images © Wayne Thiebaud Foundation, licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, courtesy of UC Press, shared with permission
Wayne Thiebaud’s Passion for Art History Shines in ‘Art Comes from Art’
February 20, 2025
ArtBooksHistory
Kate Mothes
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If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021) knew how to appropriate most ardently. The renowned artist once said, “It’s hard for me to think of artists who weren’t influential on me because I’m such a blatant thief.”
Next month, a major retrospective highlights Thiebaud’s six-decade career, featuring around 60 quintessential works spanning a range of subject matter. From his celebrated still-lifes of dessert displays and prosaic household objects to portraits, cityscapes, and expansive natural vistas, Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art takes a deep dive into the artist’s engagement with art history.
“Five Seated Figures” (1965 ), oil on canvas, 60 x 72 inches
Thiebaud spent time in the 1950s with abstract artists like Franz Kline and Elaine and Willem de Kooning in New York City, where he also met Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns whose mixed-media practices incorporated found objects in conceptual, proto-Pop Art paintings and assemblages. While in the city, Thiebaud made small paintings of food displayed on windows, which he further explored when he returned to California.
Thiebaud’s career originated with a focus on illustration and cartoons, which aligned with the emergence of Pop Art in the U.S. in the early 1960s. A response to the austerity of the First and Second World Wars, the movement celebrated bold colors, repetition, and everyday objects and commodities.
Art Comes from Art showcases how Thiebaud borrowed from the breadth of European and American masterworks, from Henri Matisse to Richard Diebenkorn to Andrea Mantegna. “I believe very much in the tradition that art comes from art and nothing else,” the artist said.
Thiebaud copied, reinterpreted, mashed up, and transformed art history into his own artistic vision, viewing other artists’ cumulative work as a kind of archive or repository—an encyclopedic “bureau of standards” that he could “steal” from while simultaneously paying tribute to titans of the Western art canon.
“Three Machines” (1963), oil on canvas, 30 x 36 1/2 inches. Photo by Randy Dodson, courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
In oil paintings like “35 Cent Masterpieces,” Thiebaud renders a display of artwork reproductions evocative of postcards or bookshelves in a museum gift shop. And lighting redolent of Edward Hopper, also known for depicting everyday American scenes, contrasts the subjects of “Five Seated Figures.” Along with Thiebauld’s vibrant, buttery portrayals of meals and treats with characteristically glowing blue shadows, additional pieces reference Rembrandt, George Seurat, Édouard Manet, and many more.
Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art opens at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor on March 22 and continues through August 17. The show is accompanied by a catalog published by UC Press slated for release in mid-April. Find your copy on Bookshop.
“Bar-B-Qued Chickens” (1961), oil on canvas, 19 x 24 inches
“Canyon Mountains” (2011-2012), oil on canvas, 66 1/8 x 54 1/8 inches. Photo by Katherine Du Tiel
“Betty Jean Thiebaud and Book” (1965-1969), oil on canvas, 36 x 30 inches
Front cover of ‘Art Comes from Art’ featuring “35 Cent Masterworks” (1970-1972), oil on canvas, 36 x 24 inches
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Felines Evoke ‘A Floating World’ in Tùng Nâm’s Whimsical Illustrations
by Aurelia Butler 19 February 2025, 19:00
All images © Tùng Nâm, shared with permission
Felines Evoke ‘A Floating World’ in Tùng Nâm’s Whimsical Illustrations
February 19, 2025
ArtIllustration
Kate Mothes
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Accompanied by delicate insects and social betta fish, the cats in Tùng Nâm’s illustrations (previously) alternate between curiosity, serenity, friskiness, and determination. The artist portrays a diversity of feline natures, merging their likenesses with flowers, waves, foliage, and clouds.
Nâm’s characters are playfully anthropomorphized, donning patterned kimonos and hair ornaments. The series emerged organically from practice sketches of flowers in the ukiyo-e style.
“I felt like it was missing something, so I tried to add a cat as the protagonist,” Nâm tells Colossal. “Somehow it still doesn’t feel right, so I think of adding a companion—fishes, butterfly, dragonfly—like they were encountering each other in a specific moment.” Fittingly, he called the series An encounter.
An accompanying collection, A Floating World, takes further inspiration from the genre, directly referencing the Japanese word ukiyo. The term describes a hedonistic lifestyle in Edo—now called Tokyo—in the 1600s, spawning a style of art that captured the mood and interests of the period. Famed artists like Hokusai or Hiroshige focused on woodblock printing and painting to represent scenes from history, folk tales, kabuki actors, flora and fauna, landscapes, and more.
For Nâm, ukiyo-e provides the starting point for exploring a range of subject matter. He’s currently exploring ideas for further illustrations that incorporate different animals and visual cultures.
Find more on the artist’s Behance and Instagram.
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Rooms and Buildings Have a Life of Their Own in Eamon Monaghan’s Uncanny Dioramas
by Aurelia Butler 19 February 2025, 13:47
“Road Refrigerator” (2025), cardboard, tin foil, aluminum wire, epoxy clay, and watercolor, 33 x 63 x 15 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Moskowitz Bayse, Los Angeles, shared with permission
Rooms and Buildings Have a Life of Their Own in Eamon Monaghan’s Uncanny Dioramas
February 19, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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Framed by steel I-beams, aluminum cladding, or floor boards, Eamon Monaghan’s chaotic dioramas appear ready to burst from their own confines. Made from everyday materials like cardboard, tinfoil, wire, and epoxy clay, his sculptures capture harried moments of disarray seemingly frozen in time.
In the artist’s current solo exhibition, Under the Floorboards at Moskowitz Bayse, the sculptures jump off the wall, angles jutting this way and that. Beams intersect with appliances; floor boards bend; stairways emerge from nowhere and terminate in open space; and radiator steam infiltrates everything in its path.
“Foggy Pipes” (2025), cardboard, tin foil, aluminum wire, epoxy clay, and watercolor, 34 x 70 x 18 inches
Monaghan draws on the work of 20th-century underground legends like cartoonist R. Crumb or clay animator Bruce Bickford. In the artist’s three-dimensional scenes, tiny figures sometimes emerge comically half-concealed, sometimes grappling with the situation at hand and sometimes simply swept up in the action.
He embraces unpredictability and farce, playfully examining the relationships between stability, movement, time, and a sense of control. In “Stages,” for example, a series of platforms and rooms shift around in a puzzle-like arrangement, with one figure apparently taken by surprise by a steel beam, another crawling behind a curtain, and yet another passed out on a sofa while helping to “pull the strings” of the entire uncanny production.
Under the Floorboards continues through March 29 in Los Angeles. Find more on the artist’s Instagram.
“Stages” (2025), cardboard, tin foil, aluminum wire, epoxy clay, and watercolor, 44 x 67 x 15 inches
Detail of “Foggy Pipes”
“Trap Door” (2025), cardboard, tin foil, aluminum wire, epoxy clay, and watercolor, 25 x 30 x 10 inches
Side view of “Road Refrigerator”
“Secure The Spaghetti” (2025), cardboard, tin foil, aluminum wire, epoxy clay, and watercolor, 16 x 35 x 10 inches
“A Nice Night In” (2025), cardboard, tin foil, aluminum wire, epoxy clay, and watercolor, 28 x 45 x 14 1/2 inches
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Adrienna Matzeg’s Punch Needle Embroideries Conjure Nostalgic Summer Road Trips
by Aurelia Butler 19 February 2025, 10:00
“The Afterglow” and “Catch of the Day.” All images courtesy of Adrienna Matzeg and Tacit Collective, shared with permission
Adrienna Matzeg’s Punch Needle Embroideries Conjure Nostalgic Summer Road Trips
February 19, 2025
ArtCraft
Kate Mothes
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No matter where the map directs you, a road trip usually conjures some key elements that make it unique from any other kind of journey. Think quirky roadside attractions, diners, spontaneous snack stops, scenic views, national parks—the list goes on!
For Adrienna Matzeg, summertime trips inspire a new series of punch needle embroidery works (previously) in a collection titled The Scenic Route, now available through Tacit Collective.
“Lick-A-Treat”
The Toronto-based artist merges her interests in photography, textiles, and design to create vibrant, narrative embroidery compositions. “Through reducing the subject matter in her work to simplified colours, shapes, and fragments, she explores how we recall memories, with a specific interest in travel destinations and souvenirs,” says a gallery statement.
In works like “Catch of the Day,” Matzeg evokes the timeless experience of a pint of brew and a gingham-lined basket of freshly battered fish. “Lighthouse Route” captures a scenic byway sign, and in “The Afterglow,” a grocery store sign advertises summer vacation staples like ice cream cones and pizza by the slice.
Pieces in The Scenic Route hint at simple joys, brief pauses, and the fading light of day, evoking “in-between” experiences that may seem ordinary enough at the moment but linger in the memory long after summer ends.
Explore more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Catch of the Day”
Detail of “Lick-A-Treat”
“Open”
Detail of “The Afterglow”
“Lighthouse Route”
“At the Lookoff”
Detail of “At the Lookoff”
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Matt Roussel’s Textured Woodcuts Metamorphose into Paintings
by Aurelia Butler 18 February 2025, 19:16
All images courtesy of Matt Roussel, shared with permission
Matt Roussel’s Textured Woodcuts Metamorphose into Paintings
February 18, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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From elaborate portraits to overflowing florals to playful animals, the woodcuts of Matt Roussel (previously) tell a wide range of enigmatic stories. For his large-scale works, Roussel begins by carving wooden panels, but rather than using the blocks to make prints, he applies acrylic paint to the surfaces to create bold, textured paintings. Portraits of women wearing unique garments are complemented by goldfish that metamorphose into birds and giant scarab beetles cloaked in giant flowers.
Roussel’s work will be on view in several forthcoming art3f fairs throughout Europe, with Strasbourg, Nantes, and Lyon coming up in late February and March. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Three Flowers Scarab,” acrylic on carved wood
Detail of “Three Flowers Scarab”
“Métamorphose,” acrylic on carved wood, 60 x 60 centimeters
“Fleur de Zhou,” acrylic on carved wood
“Poisson pipe,” acrylic on carved wood, 60 x 80 centimeters
“La grande fleur,” acrylic on carved wood, 120 x 80 centimeters
“Golden dance,” acrylic on carved wood, 60 x 80 centimeters
“3 cimes,” acrylic on carved wood, 120 x 80 centimeters
Detail of “3 cimes”
“La falaise,” acrylic on carved wood, 60 x 80 centimeters
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Charles Gaines Maps the Meanings of Ancient Baobab Trees in Meticulous Charts
by Aurelia Butler 17 February 2025, 13:48
“Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #4, Maasai”
(2024),
acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen. All images © Charles Gaines, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, shared with permission
Charles Gaines Maps the Meanings of Ancient Baobab Trees in Meticulous Charts
February 17, 2025
ArtNaturePhotography
Grace Ebert
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Since the 1970s, Charles Gaines (previously) has been charting the sprawling, unpredictable forms of trees onto numbered grids. He began with walnut trees in 1975, which he photographed while barren and then plotted onto hand-drawn graph paper.
A leader in the Conceptual Art movement, Gaines’ works ask viewers to explore the relationships between what something appears to be and what it means as it shifts from one context to the next. He also argues for a greater divide between subjectivity and aesthetics, instead emphasizing culture’s immense role in shaping our experiences.
Detail of “Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #4, Maasai” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen 
In his ongoing Numbers and Trees series, Gaines continues to chart differences. During a 2023 visit to Tanzania, the artist photographed majestic baobabs, which form the basis for a collection of triptychs that entwine the magnificent specimens with colorfully numbered grids. Gnarled trunks and spindly offshoots both layer atop and are masked by Gaines’ sequences, all viewed through sheets of plexiglass.
The baobab is known as “the tree of life” for its longevity, myriad roles in preserving the savanna ecosystem, and ability to host entire habitats within its canopies. The specimens are often associated with folklore and myth and in the era of climate disaster, are some of the casualties of unrelenting drought. Depending on location, epoch, and community, the trees can serve a wide array of purposes and hold a multitude of symbolism.
Icons of the African continent, baobabs also connect to histories of colonialism and slavery. In this context, they’re distorted and mediated by both Gaines’ organizing principles and the acrylic panes. “What you bring to the image, adds to the image,” the artist says.
Numbers and Trees, The Tanzania Baobabs is on view from February 19 to May 24 at Hauser & Wirth West Hollywood.
“Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #7, Makonde” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Keith Lubow
Detail of “Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #7, Makonde” (2024), 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Keith Lubow
“Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #3, Tongwe” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen
Detail of “Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #3, Tongwe” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen
“Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #2, Zanaki” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Keith Lubow
Detail of “Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #2, Zanaki” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Keith Lubow
“Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #5, Rangi” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen
Detail of “Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #5, Rangi” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen
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Watery Landscapes Set the Stage for Lachlan Turczan’s Ephemeral Light Installations
by Aurelia Butler 14 February 2025, 13:55
“Veil IV” (2024), water, light, silt, 15 x 15 x 3 feet. All images © Lachlan Turczan, shared with permission
Watery Landscapes Set the Stage for Lachlan Turczan’s Ephemeral Light Installations
February 14, 2025
ArtNaturePhotography
Kate Mothes
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In the dreamy installations of Lachlan Turczan, natural and perceptual phenomena combine in otherworldly installations merging technology with aquatic landscapes. Water is central to the Los Angeles-based artist’s work and helps shape an ongoing series of immersive projects incorporating light and sonic phenomena.
Turczan is influenced by the Light and Space movement, which originated in Southern California in the 1960s and is characterized by the work of John McLaughlin, Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Lita Albuquerque, and more. The movement focused on perception, employing materials like glass, neon, resin, acrylic, and fluorescent lights to emphasize light, volume, and scale.
“Constellation Grid” (2024), water, light, and fog. A swamp in Upstate New York
Many Light and Space artists created installations and immersive spaces conditioned by naturally occurring elements like Turrell’s ever-changing glimpse of the sky through a ceiling aperture for “Space that Sees.” Not only does the view change as clouds roll by or the weather shifts, but the light continuously transforms the entire room.
“While my work shares this lineage,” Turczan tells Colossal, “it diverges in several key ways: rather than exploring the ‘nature of experience,’ I create experiences of nature that challenge our understanding of light, water, and space.” He describes his approach as “complicating” these elements, emphasizing the ever-changing fluidity of the environment.
In Turczan’s ongoing Veil series, light installations unfold organically in locations ranging from Death Valley’s Badwater Basin to a flooded park near the Rhine River. Lasers and beams of light are projected and submerged, capturing the movement of wind, mist, and the water’s surface.
Additional pieces also merge light and water, like “Aldwa Alsael,” which translates to “liquid light,” and was commissioned for the 2024 Noor Riyadh Light Art Festival.
“Veil I” (2024), light, water, and salt. Death Valley, California
“For the most part, these installations unfold organically,” Turczan says. “I may discover a location in nature that seems perfect for a new Veil sculpture, but when I return, the conditions have inevitably changed.” Evolving circumstances require the artist to proceed with an openness to chance encounters that strike a balance between preparation and intuition.
Find more on Turczan’s website, and follow updates on Instagram. (via This Isn’t Happiness)
“Death Valley Veil” (2024), water, light, and haze. Lake Manly, a temporary lake that formed in Death Valley’s Badwater Basin after Hurricane Hillary
“Veil II” (2024), light, water, and steam. Mojave Desert, California
“Aldwa Alsael” (2024), water, light, and steel tower, 25 x 25 x 50 feet
“Veil V” (2024), water and light, 15 x 15 x 3 feet
“Aldwa Alsael”
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Beep Boop! Computers and Game Consoles Blink to Life in Love Hultén’s Retrofuturist Tech
by Aurelia Butler 14 February 2025, 10:00
“R-KAID-R”
Beep Boop! Computers and Game Consoles Blink to Life in Love Hultén’s Retrofuturist Tech
February 14, 2025
ArtDesignMusic
Kate Mothes
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From throwback pixelated video games to science fiction-inspired computer consoles, Love Hultén’s playful sculptures (previously) harken back to the birth of digital.
Based in Gothenburg, Sweden, the artist’s explorations of video games, electronic music, and retrofuturist aesthetics continue to shape playful pieces like “R-KAID-R,” a mobile video game complete with a toggle, all of which can be carried like a briefcase.
“The Singer”
One recent work, “The Future Fan Stage” takes a humorous approach to a fantastical fusion of live performance, science, and computers. Commissioned for Gothenburg’s Way Out West, the screen doubles as a fully functional stage that played live recordings of the headliners “for what might be the largest yet smallest crowd in history: sperm and eggs getting ‘ready to rumble’ in a laboratory,” Hultén says.
The artist draws on controversies surrounding in vitro fertilization (IVF) that have reached a fever pitch during the past few years. Taking an optimistic approach to science and modern medicine, Hultén references studies demonstrating that music may improve fertilization during the IVF process.
Hultén’s work will be on view in Liljevalchs’ spring salon Vårsalong 2025, which opens on February 14 in Stockholm. Find more on the artist’s website.
“Leto”
“The Future Fan Stage”
Detail of “The Future Fan Stage”
“Y-17”
Detail of “Y-17”
“R-KAID-R”
Detail of “Leto”
“The Singer”
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Art

More stories

Wayne Thiebaud’s Passion for Art History Shines in ‘Art Comes from Art’

Felines Evoke ‘A Floating World’ in Tùng Nâm’s Whimsical Illustrations

Rooms and Buildings Have a Life of Their Own in Eamon Monaghan’s Uncanny Dioramas

Adrienna Matzeg’s Punch Needle Embroideries Conjure Nostalgic Summer Road Trips

Matt Roussel’s Textured Woodcuts Metamorphose into Paintings

Charles Gaines Maps the Meanings of Ancient Baobab Trees in Meticulous Charts

Watery Landscapes Set the Stage for Lachlan Turczan’s Ephemeral Light Installations

Beep Boop! Computers and Game Consoles Blink to Life in Love Hultén’s Retrofuturist Tech

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