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Imagination and Introspection Suffuse Hans Op de Beeck’s Immersive ‘Whispered Tales’
by Aurelia Butler 13 November 2024, 16:30
“Zhai-Liza (Angel).” All images courtesy of Hans Op De Beeck and Templon, shared with permission
Imagination and Introspection Suffuse Hans Op de Beeck’s Immersive ‘Whispered Tales’
November 13, 2024
Art
Kate Mothes
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In his characteristically gray, monochrome palette, Hans Op de Beeck‘s current solo exhibition Whispered Tales at Templon fashions enigmatic narratives from lifelike silhouettes. The immersive, sprawling presentation brings together a mix of new and previous work, inviting viewers into an atmospheric, introspective space.
People and dioramas appear frozen in time in Op de Beeck’s sculptures, as if plucked from a memory or dream. “Zhai-Lia (Angel),” for example, portrays a young girl wearing fairy wings and a holding a wand, seated pensively in front of a swathe of bamboo. In “Zhai-Lia (mother’s shoes),” she wears a tutu and oversized high heels.
Installation view of “Zhai-Lia (mother’s shoes)” in ‘Whispered Tales’ at Templon, New York
The artist often depicts children who interact with the adult world yet remain innocent to concerns beyond their own, channeling the engrossing otherworldliness of youthful imagination and play. The invariable flatness of the gray palette makes the figures appear removed from reality, while lending a universal feel to their presence.
Time also finds purchase in works like “Danse Macabre,” in which a miniature carousel is raised to eye level on a pole and a skeleton stands amid celestial objects in Victorian-era garments. Along with a sculpture titled “Vanitas Table” in which a classic still life setting features a human skull, Op de Beeck taps into the tradition of memento mori, the reminder that life inevitably ends.
“The way the artist plays with the perception of scale and atmosphere sparks a disconnect, a feeling of strangeness when confronted with scenes lifted out of the ordinary,” says a gallery statement. “Each work offers us the seed of yet another possible story … [and] transforms the prosaic into an almost magical experience where simplicity gives birth to the unexpected.”
Whispered Tales continues through December 21 in New York. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Danse Macabre”
Detail of “Danse Macabre”
Detail of “Maurice”
Installation view of ‘Whispered Tales’ at Templon, New York
Installation view of ‘Whispered Tales’ at Templon, New York
Installation view of “Zhai-Liza (Angel)” in ‘Whispered Tales’ at Templon, New York
“My Uncle’s Country House”
Installation view of ‘Whispered Tales’ at Templon, New York
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Cosmic Birds Soar Through New York City Subway Stations in Fred Tomaselli’s New Mosaics
by Aurelia Butler 13 November 2024, 14:02
‘Wild Things’ (2024), glass and ceramic mosaics. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design for 14 St-7 Av station. Photo by Photo: Trent Reeves. All images © Fred Tomaselli and NYC Transit 14 St Station Complex, shared with permission
Cosmic Birds Soar Through New York City Subway Stations in Fred Tomaselli’s New Mosaics
November 13, 2024
Art
Kate Mothes
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Known for his large-scale, collaged resin paintings and ongoing series of reimagined front pages of The New York Times, Fred Tomaselli is captivated by what he describes as the “friction” between beauty and ugliness or internal and external forces. He often observes interactions between humanity and nature through rhythmic patterns and vibrant colors.
In New York City’s 14 St-6 Av and 14 St-7 Av subway stations, a series of new murals titled Wild Things have been unveiled in the historical spirit of the MTA mosaics. An avid birder, the Brooklyn-based artist highlights species that live year-round in New York City.
Detail of mosaic in 14 St-7 Av station
Scenes brightening up passageways and stairwells include orioles mobbing a falcon, a bright sky full of electric blue clouds, a spiral-eyed, cosmic cardinal, and more.
Wild Things marks Tomaselli’s first permanent public artwork in Manhattan and reflects his mixed-media approach to collage in ceramics and glass. Commissioned by MTA Art & Design, the mosaics join more than 350 permanent installations accessible to public 24/7.
Learn more about the artist’s work on Instagram. You might also enjoy Contemporary Art Underground, a celebration of New York City Subway art, Nick Cave’s 360-food “Soundsuit” installation, or Nancy Blum’s sprawling tile blossoms.
Passageway from 7 Av to 6 Av
Detail of work in passageway from 7 Av to 6 Av
Mosaic located in 14 St-6 Av
Mosaic located in 14 St-6 Av
Detail of mosaic located in 14 St-6 Av
Mosaic located in 14 St-6 Av
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Empowering and Protective Bodies Merge in Laura Berger’s Metaphysical Paintings
by Aurelia Butler 12 November 2024, 19:30
“Ghost Garden.” All images courtesy of Laura Berger, shared with permission
Empowering and Protective Bodies Merge in Laura Berger’s Metaphysical Paintings
November 12, 2024
Art
Kate Mothes
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In complementary shades of blue and orange or pink and green, Laura Berger’s oil paintings (previously) meld embracing figures with botanicals, landscapes, and celestial phenomena. Women lounge comfortably in a steam bath or walk across an expanse of dunes, often rendered lightly transparent as if floating over or absorbing their surroundings.
Berger situates the figures’ interactions in the center of the composition, bending and arranging limbs, foliage, fabric, or strings of stars into intimate, metaphysical geometries.
“Resurfacing”
Her imagery adopts a subtle rhythm, sometimes even near-symmetry, in a nod to spirituality and transformation. Emanating empowerment and a sense of safety, the women wrap around one another in endearing, protective collectivity.
Berger will have work in a booth presented by Mama Projects at Untitled Art Fair, which runs December 4 to 8 in Miami Beach, and will be part of the exhibition Ultraviolet Catastrophe at The Pit’s Palm Springs location, which is scheduled to open on December 17.
Find more on the artist’s website, and follow updates on Instagram.
“Desert Walking”
“The Steam Bath”
“Night Thoughts”
“Behind the Garden”
“The Garland”
“Tracing Your Outline”
“Transience”
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Endless Fields of Detritus Blanket Cássio Vasconcellos’s Aerial Composites
by Aurelia Butler 12 November 2024, 16:00
Detail of “Air Force.” All images courtesy of Cássio Vasconcellos and Nara Roesler Gallery, shared with permission
Endless Fields of Detritus Blanket Cássio Vasconcellos’s Aerial Composites
November 12, 2024
ArtClimatePhotography
Kate Mothes
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Where do jets go when they no longer fly? What happens to shipping containers when they aren’t useful anymore for cargo? The answer is invisible to most of us, but for Cássio Vasconcellos, abandoned trains, planes, and automobiles are far from forgotten.
For more than four decades, the São Paolo-based artist has been fascinated by the relationship between humans and the landscape. Over the years, his work has captured dramatic impressions of sprawling cities around the globe, often from the air, spurring an ongoing series called Collectives that condenses details of urban infrastructure like highways and parking lots into sprawling, all-over compositions.
“Collective 11: Airplanes”
Collectives 2, to which these images belong, focuses solely on the mesmerizing—and mind-boggling—quantity of scrapped vehicles and metal indefinitely parked in nondescript places. Vasconcellos draws from tens of thousands of aerial photographs he has made of junkyards, scrap heaps, airplane graveyards, and dumps to create remarkable, large-scale composite images.
The artist has mapped all of the junkyards around São Paolo, plus numerous more near the Brazilian cities of Cubatão, Santos, and Rio de Janeiro. He has also documented desert landscapes in the U.S. that serve as final resting places for commercial airliners and military jets.
“Over,” for example, considers numerous associated meanings, like “overview,” “all-over,” “overdose,” or “game over.” The title references not only excess but the overflow of visual information in contemporary society.
“Seeing an image like this is to make clear that there is no ‘throw away,’” Vasconcellos says in a video about “OVER,” which took him about a year and three months to complete. “This volume of things that are in the work… they are out there,” he adds. “I just put them together.”
Detail of “Over”
“These photos may look like post-apocalyptic scenarios, but they could be our future,” the artist says in a statement. “We still have to learn that by throwing things away and taking them out of our sight, we don’t make themdisappear. In fact, they keep existing somewhere else, outliving us mostof the time.”
Vasconcellos cuts out individual shipping containers, trucks, dumpsters, and piles of detritus in a meticulous and time-consuming digital process. He never repeats an element in a composition, and each piece is scaled and situated so that the shadows align with the directionality of the light. He then adds dust and dirt to the surfaces, simultaneously emphasizing the patina of time and an eerie sense of timelessness.
Devoid of people, Vasconcellos’s images nevertheless describe the human predilection to produce, consume, and cast aside. “It’s kind of nonsense, because there are some paths, but you don’t really understand how a person or a car can get in there—or get out,” Vasconcellos says. “It is a possible world, but at the same time, an absurd one.”
Vasconcellos is represented by Nara Roesler Gallery, and you can explore more of his work on his website and Instagram.
“Collective 12: Boats”
“Collective 10: Containers”
“Air Force”
“Collective 7: Metal Scrap”
Detail of “Collective 7: Metal Scrap”
“Collective 9: Scrap Dumpster”
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‘Crafted Kinship’ Unravels the Creative Practices of 60 Carribbean Artists, Designers, and Makers
by Aurelia Butler 8 November 2024, 20:23
Morel Doucet. Photo by Alaric S. Campbell. All images excerpted from ‘Crafted Kinship’ by Malene Barnett and published by Artisan Books, © 2024, shared with permission
‘Crafted Kinship’ Unravels the Creative Practices of 60 Carribbean Artists, Designers, and Makers
November 8, 2024
ArtBooksSocial Issues
Grace Ebert
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A new book by Malene Barnett celebrates more than 60 artists, designers, and craftspeople whose work has been shaped by their Caribbean roots.Published by Artisan, Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practices of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers peers into a range of multi-faceted practices influenced by the diaspora. Whether drawing on connections to the land and memory or speaking to colonial histories and African origins, each creative shares insight into their practices, histories, and communities through insightful interviews.
April Bey
Several artists featured previously on Colossal have contributed their stories to the nearly 400-page tome. Firelei Báez, for example, discusses how her work strives to center the Caribbean within a global context by capturing traditions like Carnival or perfectly translating the way sunlight would filter through her grandmother’s backyard in the Dominican Republic.
Similarly, Morel Doucet explains how foregrounding his Haitian identity has allowed him to tell his own story, rather than have others decide who or what his delicate, ceramic sculptures are about.
Also included in the book are April Bey, who illuminates the relationship between opulence and thriving futures, and Sonya Clark, who unravels the Eurocentric distinction between art and craft. Barnett, too, is an artist and maker who shares glimpses into her studio and meticulous ceramic practices.
Firelei Báez
As a whole, Crafted Kinship focuses on the processes, considerations, and histories that go into a vast range of works, drawing connections between each element, maker, and their ancestral ties.
Find your copy on Bookshop.
Lavar Munroe
Basil Watson
Sonya Clark. Photo by Alaric S. Campbell
Charmaine Watkiss
April Bey. Photo by Alaric S. Campbell
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Metaphysical Landscapes by Eliot Greenwald Illuminate the Mutuality of All Life
by Aurelia Butler 8 November 2024, 14:11
“Letter to the Center of the Lake” (2024), oil stick and acrylic on canvas over panel, diptych, 72 x 94 x 2 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and HARPER’S, shared with permission
Metaphysical Landscapes by Eliot Greenwald Illuminate the Mutuality of All Life
November 8, 2024
Art
Kate Mothes
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For Eliot Greenwald, humankind and the landscapes we occupy are essentially one in the same. Cycles of life, death, and rebirth may diverge from being to being, but the artist considers all existence to be fundamentally interconnected and substantially the same.
At HARPER’S in Chelsea, Greenwald’s solo exhibition Library continues to explore the artist’s fascination with landscape and the metaphysical, inviting us to explore a surreal realm of otherworldly botanicals, double moons, and enigmatic pathways.
“Ask the Arrow” (2024), oil stick and acrylic on canvas over panel, diptych, 72 x 94 x 2 inches
In oil stick and acrylic, Greenwald often repeats motifs of trees and mountains through variations in light and hue, nodding to the cyclical nature of the seasons and how the time of day or year influences how we perceive the world around us.
The artist also incorporates vehicles that wind their way through the scenes and illuminate their surroundings. “These miniature automobiles stand in for the human vessel itself—a subtle reminder that even the most engineered facets of the Anthropocene are just one piece in the grander puzzle of existence,” says a gallery statement.
In addition to Greenwald’s organically-shaped canvas pieces, Library also includes sculptural elements, like “Library of Paper Towels,” a tiny, freestanding room filled with books covered in colorful paper.
Made of reclaimed wood salvaged from an 18th-century barn in western Massachusetts, where the artist lives, the repository contains hundreds of hand-bound books made from paper towel. Employing a material made expressly to be used and thrown away, the artist reckons with the way knowledge is gained, shared, preserved, and valued.
Library continues through December 7 in New York City. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
Installation view of ‘Library’
“Detail of Library of Paper Towels” (2024), wood, hardware, hat light, extension cord, and artist books, 110 x 50 x 50 inches
“Blanket Drapes with its Fringe” (2024), oil stick and acrylic on canvas over panel, 78 x 47 x 2 inches
Detail of “Blanket Drapes with its Fringe”
“Not A Franz West” (2024), oil stick and acrylic on canvas over panel, 95 x 47 x 2 inches
“Wind Doesn’t Suck, It Blows” (2024), oil stick and acrylic on canvas over panel, diptych, 72 x 94 x 2 inches
Detail of “Wind Doesn’t Suck, It Blows”
Installation view of ‘Library’
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Quentin Garel’s Lifelike Sculptures Transport Us to the ‘Faraway Forest’
by Aurelia Butler 7 November 2024, 14:22
All images courtesy of the artist and Galerie LJ, shared with permission
Quentin Garel’s Lifelike Sculptures Transport Us to the ‘Faraway Forest’
November 7, 2024
ArtNature
Kate Mothes
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Lifelike mammals with sage expressions characterize the sculptures of Quentin Garel (previously). A deer with enormous antlers, an ibex—a type of wild goat—with curving horns, and a beady-eyed donkey are just a few of the creatures in the artist’s current solo exhibition with Galerie LJ, Dans la Forêt Lontaine—or, “in the faraway forest.”
Oscillating between reality and fantasy, Garel’s sculptures portray creatures threatened by overhunting, displaying them on the wall or atop metal rods like trophies. He works with the wood’s natural grain, allowing the whorls and knots to emphasize musculature.
Part of a commissioned series for a public installation in Thonon-les-Bains, France, Garel explores the theme of mountain animals, drawing attention to the needless impulse to hunt for sport. In Thonon-les-Bains, bronze casts of the pieces shown currently at Galerie LJ will be installed in a large wall fountain.
Dans la Forêt Lontaine continues through November 23 in Paris. Find more of Garel’s work on Instagram.
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Michael McGrath Summons Symbolism and a Folk Art Style in Expressive Paintings
by Aurelia Butler 6 November 2024, 18:07
“Unearthing Buried Gods.” All images courtesy of Michael McGrath, shared with permission
Michael McGrath Summons Symbolism and a Folk Art Style in Expressive Paintings
November 6, 2024
Art
Kate Mothes
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From fanged cats and all-seeing ravens to anthropomorphized botanicals and disembodied faces, Michael McGrath’s uncanny works nod to the symbol-rich, flat compositions of folk art or “naïve” painting. His mixed-media works combine materials like graphite, oil paint and oil stick, ink, and acrylic on a variety of surfaces, including wood, canvas, and burlap.
Inspired by the expansive scenes of contemporary artists Peter Doig and Mamma Andersson, and self-taught artists Henry Darger (1892-1973) and William Hawkins (1895-1990), McGrath harnessed a narrative approach in his own practice. “I decided to experiment with figures and storytelling in my painting,” he tells Colossal. He also counts Jim Henson among his influences.
“Threats and competition for tiny vampires” (2023), graphite, colored pencil, and India ink on wood panel, 14 x 11 inches
Populated with an array of characters, from trees with alarmed expressions to tiny, fairy-like black critters with bulbous wings and long legs, McGrath delves into mysterious, emotional tales with plots as enigmatic as they are supernatural.
The artist’s interest in painting evolved from an early fascination with design, especially album covers and advertising in magazines like Spin and Thrasher. “I never had the patience to develop classical skills, so I focused on dimensional and collage work for a while, until I eventually decided to invest more time in painting,” he says.
McGrath’s work will be part of an online group show with MePaintsMe, Slight of Hand, which opens on November 12. In February, he will also have pieces on view in a group show at Court Tree Collective in Brooklyn. Find more on his website and Instagram.
“Monster control, future systems No. 3,” (2024), acrylic, oil stick, and oil on canvas, 78 x 120 inches
“Night float, threat window” (2024), oil and oil stick on canvas, 60 x 48 inches
“Hunting songs” (2024), oil, oil stick, and grease pencil on linen, 30 x 24 inches
“Muppet moon nightmare choir” (2024), acrylic, acrylic yarn, embroidery thread, painted canvas, and burlap on burlap, 40 x 30 inches
“Moon float” (2024), acrylic, watercolor crayon, enamel, and oil pastel on canvas, 60 x 48 inches
“Stories to frighten your children with and dangerous literature” (2023), oil, oil pastel, and acrylic on linen, 30 x 40 inches
“Cat song, moon riot, No. 2” (2024), oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches
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Art

More stories

Imagination and Introspection Suffuse Hans Op de Beeck’s Immersive ‘Whispered Tales’

Cosmic Birds Soar Through New York City Subway Stations in Fred Tomaselli’s New Mosaics

Empowering and Protective Bodies Merge in Laura Berger’s Metaphysical Paintings

Endless Fields of Detritus Blanket Cássio Vasconcellos’s Aerial Composites

Metaphysical Landscapes by Eliot Greenwald Illuminate the Mutuality of All Life

Quentin Garel’s Lifelike Sculptures Transport Us to the ‘Faraway Forest’

Michael McGrath Summons Symbolism and a Folk Art Style in Expressive Paintings

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