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    Decadent Alfresco Feasts Serve as Reminders of Simple Pleasures in Pedro Pedro’s ‘Picnic’

    All images courtesy of the artist and Fundación La Nave, shared with permission

    Decadent Alfresco Feasts Serve as Reminders of Simple Pleasures in Pedro Pedro’s ‘Picnic’

    September 3, 2025

    ArtFood

    Kate Mothes

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    “I believe a picnic is a utopia,” says Pedro Pedro, whose new solo exhibition at Fundación La Nave Salinas takes its name from the titular activity. In Picnic, the Los Angeles-based artist celebrates togetherness, relaxation, and small daily luxuries as a means of maintaining balance and cheerfulness, even during challenging times.

    Picnic highlights a total of 15 new canvases. “Beneath their exuberant surfaces lies a subtle homage to the 1950s, through the depiction of mid‐century furniture and aesthetic, a lens through which Pedro critiques the relentless pace of 2025,” the gallery says. “In an age defined by nonstop notifications and doom‐scroll headlines, Pedro invites us back to a time when people savored the present moment.”

    Through a tinge of golden age thinking, paired with La Nave’s setting in Ibiza, Spain, where it perches over the Mediterannean, we’re invited to indulge in simpler pleasures like lounging on the beach and sampling from a seemingly endless array of treats.

    Using textile paint on unprimed linen, Pedro begins each work with a digital design, which he then sketches onto the substrate using chalk and fills in with color. The closer one studies a painting, the more motifs appear to replicate, like flawless and nearly identical lilies, dollops of whipped cream, orange slices, or melons.

    Just like his method, the relationship between how we read digital and “natural” imagery blurs. Half-peeled citrus, knives abandoned in pastries, and random garments suggest that whoever is enjoying the picnic has perhaps just run off to take a dip in the sea and will be back any moment.

    Mirroring the artist’s interest in utopia, an ideal and perfect society, every element of his paintings is bright, juicy, and surreally, well, perfect. He draws inspiration from the joyously rotund forms of Colombian artist Fernando Botero and the Wayne Thiebaud’s decadent pies and cakes.

    The show also taps into the ethos of memento mori, which translates from Latin to “remember you will die.” The concept was especially in vogue during the Dutch Golden Age, appearing in still life paintings in the form of motifs like wilting flowers and rotting fruit.

    For Pedro, it’s not about remembering that life ends; it’s about consciously living it to its fullest. Thus, memento vivere, or “remember to live,” serves as a counterpoint to its weightier cousin. “Each lemon slice, half-eaten tart, or toppled wine glass is not a warning about mortality, but a luminous reminder to inhabit the present with curiosity, joy, and delight,” the gallery says.

    Picnic continues through October 31 in Ibiza. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

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    Yoshitoshi Kanemaki’s Sculptures Sport Kaleidoscopic Expressions in Their Search for a ‘True Self’

    Detail of “Breathing Caprice A,” paint on Torreya, 135 x 75 x 55 centimeters. All images courtesy of the artist and FUMA Contemporary Tokyo, shared with permission

    Yoshitoshi Kanemaki’s Sculptures Sport Kaleidoscopic Expressions in Their Search for a ‘True Self’

    September 2, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Yoshitoshi Kanemaki is no stranger to human emotions, imbuing his playful sculptures with not one but several expressions all at once. The Tokyo-based artist is known for his “glitched” sculptures carved from single pieces of timber, and in his ongoing current series Prism, he continues to explore the nature of distortion, reflection, and self-consciousness.

    Insight Prism, the artist’s solo exhibition opening at FUMA Contemporary this month, combines two concepts the artist dovetails in his chiseled-wood compositions.

    “Insight Prism,” paint on Japanese nutmeg and katsura, 170 x 72 x 67 centimeters

    “The word ‘insight’ carries the meaning of seeing into the essence of things with clarity, while ‘prism’ metaphorically refers to elucidating what is complex,” Kanemaki says. Through a fragmented triangular motif, he highlights warped features that refract, separate, and reassemble—much like the ever-evolving nature of human consciousness and social interactions.

    Insight Prism marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in two years, presenting the largest sculpture he’s yet created in the Prism series—the namesake of the show. Kanemaki delves into the multiple roles we all play in our daily lives, switching between different versions of ourselves to contend with different situations or environments. He says:

    While such shifts can be seen as a necessary social manner to keep life running smoothly, there are times when we lose the vision of our “true self.”… The idea for my new sculptures began with the question: What might the form of searching for one’s “true self” look like?

    Insight Prism opens on September 12 and continues through September 27 in Tokyo. Find more on the artist’s Instagram.

    “Breathing Caprice A,” paint on Torreya, 135 x 75 x 55 centimeters

    Detail of “Insight Prism”

    “Reflection Prism,” paint on Torreya, 170 x 53 x 51 centimeters

    Detail of “Reflection Prism”

    “Ulala Caprice 3rd,” paint on Japanese nutmeg and camphor wood, 100 x 34 x 34 centimeters

    Detail of “Ulala Caprice 3rd”

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    Glowing Plastic Spores Spring from Invasive Vines in Mika Rottenberg’s ‘Vibrant Matter’

    Installation view of ‘Mika Rottenberg: Vibrant Matter’ at Hauser & Wirth Menorca (2025).
    Photo by Damian Griffiths. All images © Mika Rottenberg, courtesy of Hauser & Wirth, shared with permission

    Glowing Plastic Spores Spring from Invasive Vines in Mika Rottenberg’s ‘Vibrant Matter’

    September 2, 2025

    ArtNature

    Grace Ebert

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    When a virulent material enters an ecosystem, it can wreak havoc on existing life. Bittersweet vines in Upstate New York, for example, were brought to the region in the second half of the 19th century to combat erosion and for their sinuous, woody beauty. Native to eastern Asia, these largely poisonous plants quickly became invasive, smothering other specimens and even uprooting trees.

    For Mika Rottenberg, there’s another substance that would fall into this category: plastic. Like the bittersweet vines that have decimated forest populations near her studio, plastics have infiltrated innumerable systems, from the oceans to our homes to deep within our own bodies.

    “Lampshare (bx 1.4)” (2025), milled reclaimed household plastic, plant, resin, and electric hardware, 36 x 33 x 34 inches. Photo by Pete Mauney

    In a video from Hauser & Wirth, Rottenberg discusses how these two materials became the basis for a new body of work. On view at the gallery’s Menorca location, Vibrant Matter is the Argentinian artist’s first solo show in Spain and presents a series of glowing fungi sculptures that meld these two toxins.

    “I’ve always been interested in collaborating with the forces of nature, thinking about an artwork as something you grow and harvest,” Rottenberg says. As she began to think about the “footprint of the studio,” she turned her focus to the invasive vines in the nearby forest and laundry jugs and other disposables sourced from dumpsters and local recycling centers.

    Illuminated spores sprout from pedestals and dangle from the gallery ceiling, their vibrant, plastic tops adding a surreal veil to the largely organic forms. These Lampshares, as the artist calls them, question humanity’s enduring inclination toward toxicity, even when incorporating such pernicious materials into our lives ultimately puts us in danger.

    Rottenberg has long been interested in consumption and the rampant nature of capitalism. Along with several video installations, the sculptural works in Vibrant Matter prompt questions about agency and the necessity of regeneration.

    “I am interested in these human-made systems where the starting point is to have no clue what is really going on and to try to impose a certain logic on things, and the madness of that,” she adds.

    Vibrant Matter is on view through October 26. Find more from Rottenberg on Instagram.

    Installation view of ‘Mika Rottenberg: Vibrant Matter’ at Hauser & Wirth Menorca (2025). Photo by Damian Griffiths

    “Lampshare (with plant 2)” (2025), milled reclaimed household plastic, plant, resin, and electric hardware, 16 x 14 x 12 inches. Photo by Pete Mauney

    Installation view of ‘Mika Rottenberg: Vibrant Matter’ at Hauser & Wirth Menorca (2025). Photo by Damian Griffiths

    “Lampshare (chandelier #5)” (2024), milled reclaimed household plastic and bittersweet vines, resin and electric hardware, 45 x 12 x 12 inches. Photo by Sarah Muehlbauer

    Installation view of ‘Mika Rottenberg: Vibrant Matter’ at Hauser & Wirth Menorca (2025). Photo by Damian Griffiths

    “Lampshare” (2025), milled reclaimed household plastic and plant, batteries, resin, and electric hardware, 18 x 30 x 11 inches. Photo by Pete Mauney

    Installation view of ‘Mika Rottenberg: Vibrant Matter’ at Hauser & Wirth Menorca (2025). Photo by Damian Griffiths

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    In ‘Aqueous Renaissance,’ Christy Lee Rogers Conjures Beauty and Interconnectivity Under Water

    “Harmony.” All images © Christy Lee Rogers, courtesy of Art Labor Gallery, shared with permission

    In ‘Aqueous Renaissance,’ Christy Lee Rogers Conjures Beauty and Interconnectivity Under Water

    September 2, 2025

    ArtPhotography

    Kate Mothes

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    Born in Hawai’i, Christy Lee Rogers was fascinated by water from an early age. “For me, water has always been both chaos and freedom,” the artist says. “It strips away control and asks us to see ourselves in a different light. That’s where my stories begin.”

    Rogers is known for her large-scale, maximalist photographs shot completely under water, suspending figures in the midst of billowing garments. Using a range of lighting effects and vibrant fabrics to compose dramatic images, her style is evocative of Baroque or Rococo paintings and murals.

    “Candy”

    Aqueous Renaissance, the artist’s forthcoming solo exhibition at Art Labor Gallery, showcases Rogers’ unique exploration of underwater photography throughout the last two decades. Tapping into the term “renaissance” as a period of revival or rebirth, she aims to highlight beauty and grace in our contemporary era marked by factions and division.

    Rogers’ photos are achieved by submerging her subjects in dark water, which she illuminates with a range of lights. As the figures twist and turn, the light creates a dreamlike, painterly effect. “Her underwater visions are not escapist fantasies but mirrors of our collective condition—fragile, fluid, and searching for meaning,” the gallery says.

    Aqueous Renaissance runs from September 6 through October 26 in Shanghai. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    “A Dream Blossomed Right in Front of My Eyes”

    Image from Lavazza Calendar

    “Our Hopes and Expectations”

    “Tenderness”

    “A Dream Dreamed in the Presence of Reason”

    “Candy”

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    Atmospheric Oil Paintings by Martin Wittfooth Illuminate Nature’s Timeless Cycles

    “Aspect of Summer,” oil on canvas, 36 x 60 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Corey Helford Gallery, shared with permission

    Atmospheric Oil Paintings by Martin Wittfooth Illuminate Nature’s Timeless Cycles

    August 29, 2025

    ArtNature

    Kate Mothes

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    In large-scale, elaborate oil paintings of powerful, glowing creatures, Martin Wittfooth explores the timeless cycles and forces of nature in a celebration of the sublime. Known for his enigmatic and atmospheric depictions of wild animals in dystopian settings, the artist blends traditional European painting techniques with critical contemporary concerns surrounding the human impact on the environment.

    Wittfooth’s new solo exhibition, Deus Ex Terra at Corey Helford Gallery, features 19 new oil paintings on canvas, linen, or wood panels. Some take the form of tondos 18 to 24 inches in diameter, while others assume vast proportions, like “Duel,” a diptych that spans 12 feet wide. The stallion also appears as a regular embodiment of elemental forces, like in “Aspect of Fire” or “Aspect of Air,” in which silhouettes of powerful horses made of molten rock or clouds of steam rear up into towering positions.

    “Aspect of Earth,” oil on panel, 48 x 36 inches

    The show’s title, Deux Ex Terra, loosely translates to “god out of the earth.” It’s a nod to the ancient Greek and Roman phrase deux ex machina, which describes a dramatic or literary device in which a character or a “god” is introduced into the plot to solve a seemingly insolvable conflict. During a play, the character would be introduced via a crane, hence the “machine.” Wittfooth flips this notion back to nature and the elemental forces of the earth—weather, orbits, the seasons, life, water—to explore cyclical, self-sustaining rhythms.

    “The Hermetic maxim, ‘As above, so below; As within, so without,’ has echoed through centuries of philosophical, mystical, and artistic inquiry,” the gallery says. “In Deus ex Terra, this principle serves as a guiding thread, illuminating the ways nature repeats its patterns across scale and time: in the branching of rivers and the veins of leaves, in the spiral of galaxies and the coiling of shells, in the cyclical turning of seasons and the rhythms of breath and heartbeat.”

    In earlier work, Wittfooth concentrated on the strained relationship between humans and nature, with its effects revealed in the form of piles of plastic or shorn tree trunks. In his current work, he reflects on the instinctive and enduring facets of nature—the “ancient rhythms that prevail despite our human tumult,” the gallery says. “In a time of deep cultural and ecological upheaval, these paintings offer an invitation to acknowledge, to remember, and perhaps to heal.”

    Deus Ex Terra opens tomorrow and continues through October 4 in Los Angeles. Explore more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    “Aspect of Fire,” oil on panel, 48 x 36 inches

    “Parallelism 5 (Jellyfish 1),” oil on wood, 24 inches diameter

    “Aspect of Spring,” oil on canvas, 56 x 58 inches

    “Duel,” oil on panel, diptych, 36 x 144 inches

    “Aspect of Winter,” oil on canvas, 50 x 57 inches

    “Parallelism 4 (Snail),” oil on wood, 18 inches diameter

    “Aspect of Air,” oil on panel, 48 x 36 inches

    “Aspect of Autumn, “oil on canvas, 46 x 64 inches

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    ‘Where’s Waldo?’ Meets Sarcastic, Dystopian Visions in Ben Tolman’s Elaborate Ink Drawings

    “Apartments” (2025), ink on paper, 91.4 x 120.7 centimeters. All images courtesy of the artist and Galerie LJ, shared with permission

    ‘Where’s Waldo?’ Meets Sarcastic, Dystopian Visions in Ben Tolman’s Elaborate Ink Drawings

    August 28, 2025

    ArtIllustration

    Kate Mothes

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    Rendered in delicately cross-hatched ink, dozens of figures inhabit towering structures or assemble in crowds in the elaborate scenes of Pittsburgh-based artist Ben Tolman. Evoking the playfulness of Where’s Waldo? and the optical illusions of M.C. Escher, the artist conjures what Galerie LJ calls “a kind of human zoo.”

    Opening next month, the gallery presents Tolman’s solo exhibition, Control, the title of which takes its cue from current events. Throughout the last 15 years, the artist has channeled an undercurrent of disconnection and imagined dystopian settings. His forthcoming show acknowledges the uncomfortable notion that some of these elements have become disconcertingly close to reality.

    “Connected” (2025), ink and acrylic on paper, 109.9 x 82.5 centimeters

    Tolman depicts faceless humans that move in sheeplike herds, “willingly following paths that clearly go against their own interests: technology, invisible barriers, belief systems, trends, politics,” the gallery says. The works in Control ask: how far are they (or we) willing to go? At what cost comes folly—or simply not paying attention?

    In works like “Apartment” and “Routine,” anonymous figures mill about in individual, soulless boxes. Some appear to be working, relaxing, or socializing. Others just seem to stand there, staring into their phones. And in the darkly comical “Connected,” people queue to walk up a towering ramp structure, absorbed so much in their screens as they head up the incline that it’s too late before they realize they’ve stepped right off the precipice.

    “With a generous dose of cynicism and voyeurism, Tolman portrays the eccentric truths and social failures of Western society,” the gallery says. “That’s what (he) is trying to understand—or to condemn. The future he sketches might seem bleak, were it not infused with a delicious sarcasm.”

    Control runs from September 5 to October 4 in Paris. Find more on Tolman’s website and Instagram.

    Detail of “Routine”

    “Caution” (2025), ink and acrylic on paper, 72.4 x 117.5 centimeters

    “Naked Bike Ride” (2025), ink on paper, 22.9 x 81.3 centimeters

    “Routine” (2025), ink on paper, 68.6 x 55.9 centimeters

    Detail of “Apartments”

    “Migration” (2025), ink on paper, 61 x 91.4 centimeters

    Detail of “Migration”

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    Janet Echelman’s Suspended Nets Radiate Across 25 Years in ‘Radical Softness’

    All images courtesy of Princeton Architectural Press, shared with permission

    Janet Echelman’s Suspended Nets Radiate Across 25 Years in ‘Radical Softness’

    August 28, 2025

    ArtBooks

    Grace Ebert

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    For two and a half decades and across five continents, Janet Echelman (previously) has established spaces for gathering, although her approach emerges from an unusual angle. The artist is known for suspending enormous nets from ceilings and outdoor structures, which often cast colorful shadows or glowing light onto their surroundings. Swaying with gusts of wind, the architectural installations invite viewers to pause and meditate on interconnectedness.

    Now, the artist’s works are collected in a monograph titled Radical Softness: The Responsive Art of Janet Echelman. Published by Princeton Architectural Press and edited by Gloria Sutton, the tome chronicles Echelman’s evolution while situating her practice within contexts of art history, engineering, climate activism, and more. As this list suggests, her reach is broad, and each piece tethers larger systems to which we’re all bound, whether political and ecological or aesthetic.

    “The way that my art finds power is through its resiliency and adaptability rather than brute strength, because it lets the wind move through it rather than fighting it. I think that’s a metaphor for how to live in these times,” Echelman says in the introduction.

    Containing sketches, diagrams, and photos documenting both the process and final works, the book offers a broad look at the artist’s practice. It also contains interviews and essays from art historians, curators, engineers, thinkers, and more, entwining Echelman’s projects within a vast ecosystem.

    Radical Softness will be released on September 16 and is available for pre-order in the Colossal Shop.

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    Brett Allen Johnson Harnesses the Glow of the American Southwest in Dreamy Oil Paintings

    “In the Land of the Sage,” oil, 40 x 40 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Maxwell Alexander Gallery, shared with permission

    Brett Allen Johnson Harnesses the Glow of the American Southwest in Dreamy Oil Paintings

    August 27, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    As though seared into our collective consciousness, some images of the American Southwest seem to fully embody its inhospitable terrain, mercurial weather, and intense, challenging beauty. One of these would most certainly be Edward Curtis’ dramatic 1904 photograph of the sacred Canyon de Chelly (pronounced “deh-shay”) in Arizona, featuring a string of Navajo riders on horseback, silhouetted against towering rock formations behind them.

    Both a record of the Indigenous inhabitants who called this land home for centuries, taken 40 years after the forced march known as the Long Walk, the photo is also a testament to a quickly evolving nation. And the drama of the region’s canyons, ridges, mountains, buttes, and mesas continue to enthrall us today. For Brett Allen Johnson, these timeless, arid landscapes inspire glowing oil paintings that draw upon the legacies of Western painters like Maynard Dixon and Georgia O’Keeffe.

    “Two Worlds,” oil, 50 x 100 inches

    A solo show of Johnson’s paintings, Two Worlds, opens next month at Maxwell Alexander Gallery. Most of the images shown here are included, like the mineralized, colorful outcrops of “Banded Cliffs, Fruita,” based on a historic location in Capitol Reef National Park. The exhibition also includes the show’s titular painting, “Two Worlds,” which shows an anonymous, completely uninhabited canyon rim from the opposite side.

    Johnson’s forms are brushy and somewhat simplified, although not to the extent that they appear cartoonish. He smooths rocky ledges, gives clouds the weight of dense felt, and illuminates apertures in pueblos, mountains, and rainstorms. Through the interplay of light, shadow, and hue, he renders soaring buttes with fleshy folds and highlights unique patterns in nature.

    “Technique, composition, color, and paint handling—they all say something even if we don’t intend them to,” Johnson says. “But the more I can get to the heart of it, the more I can simplify a painting into just the parts I find indispensable—the essence—those fundamentals become just tools in service of a vision.”

    Two Worlds opens on September 6 in Pasadena. Explore more on Johnson’s Instagram.

    “Glass Window,” oil, 30 x 34 inches

    “Banded Cliffs, Fruita,” oil, 20 x 20 inches

    “Chocolate Ripple,” oil, 16 x 40 inches

    “Not Some Other Place,” oil, 44 x 40 inches

    “Cottonwood Stand with Distant Rain,” oil, 18 x 26 inches

    “Long Shadows,” oil, 18 x 30 inches

    “Uinta Veil,” oil, 18 x 30 inches

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