Art Archivi ~ Page 8 of 262 ~ art-news.space - All about the world of art and culture!

More stories

138 Shares129 Views
in Art
‘Of Salt and Spirit’ Celebrates the Legacy of Black Southern Quilters
by Aurelia Butler 23 April 2025, 19:42
Hystercine Rankin (1929–
2010), “Memory Quilt” (ca. 1994), fabric; appliquéd, hand-embroidered, and hand-quilted, 88 x 82 inches. All images courtesy of Mississippi Museum of Art, shared with permission
‘Of Salt and Spirit’ Celebrates the Legacy of Black Southern Quilters
April 23, 2025
ArtCraft
Kate Mothes
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
You may have heard of the remarkable quilters of Gee’s Bend, but do you know about the Crossroads Quilters, like Gustina Atlas? Or Hystercine Rankin? Mary Mayfair Matthews? You’re in luck if you have a chance to visit Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South at the Mississippi Museum of Art, which shines a light on dozens of incredible Black Southern quilters and takes a celebratory approach to showcasing their myriad styles and techniques.
MMA is home to one of the South’s largest collections of quilts, from which more than 50 handmade and machine-stitched examples were drawn for this expansive exhibition. Merging research, interpretation, and community engagement, curator Dr. Sharbreon Plummer aimed for “a cohesive, experiential study of American art through a Black feminist lens.” The show parses cultural narratives around the art form, spotlighting the impact of the craft across generations and geography.
Emma Russell, “Star Quilt” (1978), cotton blend; hand-pieced, appliquéd, and hand-quilted, 81 x 77 inches
A wide range of contemporary and historic pieces converge in Of Salt and Spirit, including figurative and narrative works alongside vibrant geometric compositions. Many of the works were acquired by the museum from Roland L. Freeman (1936-2023), a photographer who documented African-American craftspeople and guilds in his work as a stringer for Time magazine and Magnum Photos.
Freeman collected more than 100 quilts, made several of his own, and published a couple of books on the subject. “Quilts have the power to create a virtual web of connections—individual, generational, professional, physical, spiritual, cultural, and historical,” he says in his second book, A Communion of the Spirits (1996).
In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum also highlights the large-scale, ongoing AIDS Memorial Quilt project, which was initiated in 1985 at the height of the epidemic. Paralleling Of Salt and Spirit’s focus on creative expression, identity, and strength, the AIDS quilt—which will be on display at MMA for a two-week period beginning May 5—honors quilting for its role in resistance and remembrance.
Of Salt and Spirit continues through May 18 in Jackson. Plan your visit on the museum’s website. You may also enjoy a look back at Souls Grown Deep Like the Rivers, a monumental survey recognizing the artistic traditions of Black artists.
Mary Mayfair Matthews, “Folk Scenes Quilt” (1992), rayon, cotton polyester blend, lace, lamé, and buttons; hand-pieced and appliquéd, 86 1/4 x 74 inches
Annie Dennis (designed by Roland L. Freeman), “Voodoo Quilt” (1987), fabric; hand-pieced, appliquéd, hand-embroidered, and hand-quilted, 83 1/2 x 64 inches
Detail of “Voodoo Quilt”
Gustina Atlas, “Variation on Dresden Plate Quilt” (1998), cotton; machine- pieced and hand-quilted, 81 1/2 x 80 inches
Clancy McGrew, quilted and appliquéd by Jeraline Nicholas, “Storytime at the Library” (2004), fabric; machine-pieced, appliquéd, embroidered, and hand-quilted, 41 3/4 x 83 1/8 inches
Mabel Williams, “Improvisational Strip Quilt” (1968), cotton, polyester, wool, twill; hand-pieced and hand- quilted with appliquéd and embroidered backing, 85 x 65 inches
Clancy McGrew, quilted by Tammy McGrew, “Clancy’s Beauty Salon” (2004), fabric; machine-pieced, appliquéd, and hand-quilted, 67 5/8 x 49 1/2 inches
Roland Freeman, “Maya Angelou, Author, Educator, and Quilter (top left and bottom right); Dolly McPherson, Maya Angelou, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall (top right and bottom left), Winston-Salem, North Carolina, November 1992” (1992), Chromogenic print with quilted mat (1996) by Anita Knox, 36 x 36 inches
Roland Freeman, “Catherine Gill with Sunburst Quilt (left) Made by Her Mother, Classy Blaylock, fromDecatur, Mississippi, Flagstaff, Arizona, April 1993″ (1993), Chromogenic print, 27 x 38 inches
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Next article More
138 Shares189 Views
in Art
Tiff Massey Celebrates Detroit Culture and Style in Monumental Mixed-Media Installations
by Aurelia Butler 23 April 2025, 14:20
“I’ve Got Bundles and I Got Flewed Out (Green)” (2023). All images courtesy of the artist and Detroit Institute of Arts, shared with permission
Tiff Massey Celebrates Detroit Culture and Style in Monumental Mixed-Media Installations
April 23, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
From larger-than-life double-bobble hair bands to a wall of elaborate braids, Tiff Massey spotlights distinctive Detroit style. Trained as a metalsmith, the artist employs the power of material and scale to highlight the city’s neighborhoods and Black identity and culture.
7 Mile + Livernois, Massey’s solo exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts, takes inspiration from the crossroads at the heart of the city’s Black business and fashion district, where the artist grew up. The area will soon be home to a new arts and community space that Massey is spearheading in an effort to guide and celebrate local kinship.
“Everyday Arsenal” (2018)
Personal adornment is central to the artist’s expression, which she channels through jewelry, sculptures, and mixed-media assemblages to underscore Black style with a focus on her hometown. “Whatupdoe” and “Everyday Arsenal,” for example, respectively transform a contemporary chain necklace and silver rings into monumental installations, creating terrains of portal-like tunnels and interlocked angles.
The “ancestral flyness” of the artist’s parents and previous generations also provides a limitless well of inspiration. “How they adorned themselves has definitely been influential not only to how I adorn myself but also to the ideas that I have within the works,” Massey says in an interview for the DIA exhibition catalogue. “Detroiters, when we step outside, we step outside. We want people to see it. We want people to see us. And that has left a tremendous impression on me.”
7 Mile + Livernois continues through May 11. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Baby Bling” (2023)
“Whatupdoe” (2024)
Detail of “I’ve Got Bundles and I Got Flewed Out (Green)”
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Previous articleNext article More
125 Shares169 Views
in Art
In Luminous Portraits, Florence Solis Invokes Feminine Power Amid Constraint
by Aurelia Butler 22 April 2025, 20:09
“Makahiya IX” (2025),
acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches. All photos by Julieta Christy Sarmiento, courtesy of The Mission Projects, shared with permission
In Luminous Portraits, Florence Solis Invokes Feminine Power Amid Constraint
April 22, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
When touched, the hypersensitive makahiya plant folds its minuscule leaflets inward, protecting itself from any potential threat.
Florence Solis draws on this defensive response in an ethereal collection of portraits. Beginning with digital collages that meld figures and delicate, organic ornaments, the Filipino-Canadian artist translates the imagined forms to the canvas. Shrouded in dainty, beaded veils or entwined with botanicals, each protagonist appears bound and concealed, their bodies and faces obscured by hair or grass.
“Sirena” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches
As Solis sees it, the figures may be restricted, but they’re also able to find strength and transformation. “Filipino women, much like the makahiya, have been taught to yield, to soften, to take up less space,” she says. “And yet, beneath this quietness lies an undeniable force—one that persists, adapts, and reclaims space in its own way.”
Working in saturated, often single-color palettes, Solis renders figures who appear to harness magical powers. She references Filipino folklore and the belief in the power of the everyday to lead to the divine, painting women rooted in tradition and myth, yet determined to see their transformation through.
The vivid portraits shown here will be on view at EXPO CHICAGO this week with The Mission Projects. Find more from Solis on Instagram.
“Sa Lupa (On Ground)” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches
“Totem” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches
“Makahiya VIII” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches
“Makahiya VII” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches
“Alay (Offering)” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Next article More
150 Shares169 Views
in Art
Reviving an Ancestral Hawaiian Tradition, Lehuauakea Reimagines Kapa in Bold Textile Works
by Aurelia Butler 22 April 2025, 15:06
“Since the Beginning and End of Time” (2024), hand-embroidery, bells, and shell buttons
on hand-stitched indigo-dyed kapa (barkcloth) garment, approx. 50 x 44
inches. All images courtesy of Lehuauakea, shared with permission
Reviving an Ancestral Hawaiian Tradition, Lehuauakea Reimagines Kapa in Bold Textile Works
April 22, 2025
ArtCraftHistory
Kate Mothes
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
“My favorite thing about kapa is that it is simultaneously ancestral, ancient, and contemporary,” says Lehuauakea (Kanaka Maoli), who recently received the Walker Youngbird Foundation grant for emerging Native American artists. Kapa, the Indigenous Hawaiian practice of clothmaking, uses the inner bark of the wauke, or paper mulberry tree, to create garments and textiles. For Lehuauakea, the technique forms the foundation of a practice rooted in the artist’s Hawaiian lineage and material traditions.
Softening the fibers enough to create cloth requires a labor-intensive method of soaking pieces of bark. Through an arduous process of beating and stretching with tools like the iʻe kuku, a thin, pliable fabric emerges. “It is a very malleable material that reflects the current state of the natural environment, and the surrounding community and personal hand of the maker,” Lehuauakea tells Colossal. “It requires a level of patience and perseverance while also paying close attention to the nature of the bark and pigments you are working with.”
“Still Finding My Way Back Home” (2025), kapa (barkcloth), reclaimed Japanese fabrics, indigo and madder root dyes, ceramic beads, bells, earth pigments, hand-embroidery, and metal leaf, approx. 18 x 9 feet
Kapa is derived from ancient Polynesian practices—it’s called tapa in other parts of the Pacific—and Hawaiians elaborated on the custom by incorporating watermarks, natural pigments, and fermentation.
Traditionally, kapa possessed both practical and spiritual qualities, as it was used for everyday apparel and bedding but also served as a carrier of mana, or healing life force. When the U.S. controversially annexed the territory and the import of cotton amped up in the late 19th century, the practice all but died out.
Lehuauakea’s interest in kapa emerged when their family relocated to Oregon when they were young. Over time, the artist felt increasingly disconnected from their home and sought a way to conjure a link to their Hawaiian ancestry.
“I remembered learning about kapa as a child and how we’d use patterns to tell stories, so in my junior year of college I taught myself how to carve ʻohe kāpala, or traditional carved bamboo printing tools used for decorating finished kapa,” the artist says. Then it was onto learning how to make the barkcloth itself, with the help of artisan and mentor Wesley Sen, spurring Lehuauakea’s passion for the medium.
“Puka Komo ʻEkahi: Portal to Grant Permission” (2024), earth pigments and metal leaf on kapa (barkcloth), 28 x 28 inches
Fascinated by the potential to not only continue a time-honored Kanaka Maoli art form but also to experiment and push the boundaries of the material, Lehuauakea makes large-scale installations, hand-stitched garments, mixed-media suspended works, and hand-painted two-dimensional compositions— “in other words, forms that you wouldn’t see in ancestral samples of pre-contact Hawaiian kapa,” they say. The artist continues:
As an Indigenous cultural practitioner and artist, I believe it is important to have a solid foundation in the traditional knowledge of the practice before attempting to expand on it or experiment with more contemporary expressions of the medium because I am not singular in this work; I am simply building on a tradition that was passed down through many generations before me, and I can only hope that I am able to inspire future generations to continue it.
Lehuauakea is currently working toward solo exhibitions at the Center for Contemporary Art Santa Fe and Nunu Fine Art in New York City, exploring ideas around Native Hawaiian cosmology, celestial cycles, and the relationship between Native Hawaiian language and pattern. Find more on the artist’s website.
“Kūmauna” (2024), earth pigments hand-painted on kapa (barkcloth), 26 x 48 inches
Detail of “Still Finding My Way Back Home”
“I Walk With My Ancestors (1 of 2)” (2024), earth pigment and wildfire charcoal hand-painted on kapa (barkcloth), 29 x 61.5 inches
“Night Eyes” (2024), earth pigments and wildfire charcoal hand-painted on kapa (barkcloth), 78 x 18.5 inches
“Mele o Nā Kaukani Wai (Song of a Thousand Waters)” (2018), mixed mulberry papers, handmade plant dyes and mineral pigments, gouache, ceramic beads, and thread, approx. 11 x 8 feet
Detail of “Mele o Nā Kaukani Wai (Song of a Thousand Waters)”
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Previous articleNext article More
125 Shares99 Views
in Art
Here’s What We’re Excited to See at EXPO CHICAGO 2025
by Aurelia Butler 21 April 2025, 17:44
Wangari Mathenge, “Re-Membering (Folded In Time)” (2025), oil on canvas, 57.99 x 82.01 inches
Here’s What We’re Excited to See at EXPO CHICAGO 2025
April 21, 2025
ArtColossalPartner
Grace Ebert
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
This week marks the beginning of Chicago’s art world Olympics as the largest fair returns to Navy Pier. From April 24 to 27, EXPO CHICAGO will host hundreds of galleries, site-specific projects, talks, and multi-disciplinary programming both downtown and across the city.
To help you navigate, we’re sharing the artworks we’re most looking forward to seeing. And, if you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, use the code COLOSSAL25 for $5 off.
1. Wangari Mathenge with Pippy Houldsworth Gallery (London)
The Chicago-based, Kenyan artist will present a collection of vivid new paintings that speak to the immense amount of information generated through her intensive research process. Surrounded by books, plants, and brightly patterned East African Kanga fabrics, Mathenge’s figures lounge among objects that transcend colonial narratives.
Ilhwa Kim, “Calculative Flight” (2024), hand-dyed hanji paper, 132 x 164 x 13 centimeters
2. Ilhwa Kim, Gordon Cheung, and Zheng Lu with HOFA (London)
We’ve long been enamored by Kim’s roving, rolled-paper compositions that delineate dense pathways through broader expanses. Her dynamic works will be on view alongside Cheung’s decadent paintings and Lu’s stainless steel splashes.
Florence Solis, “Makahiya VI” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches
3. Florence Solis with The Mission Projects (Chicago)
Beginning with digital collage before moving to acrylic and canvas, Solis renders ethereal portraits of women infused with Filipino folklore. Delicate leaves and flowers entwine with coiled hair, while veils shroud the figures in luminous coverings, binding each with a protective, yet restrictive layer.
Suntai Yoo, “The Words” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 91 x 117 centimeters
4. Suntai Yoo with Galerie Gaia (Seoul)
Fragmented, surrealist landscapes figure prominently in Yoo’s paintings, which frequently pair common objects like books, bicycles, and apples with Korean letters. The artist is particularly interested in metaphor and how distinct items interact to create meaning.
Desmond Beach, “The Guardian of the Small & Sacred” (2025), digital painting, woven Jacquard loom, hand and machine sewn pieceworked fabric, 47″x 47 inches
5. Desmond Beach with Richard Beavers Gallery (Brooklyn)
Mixing digital painting with patchwork quilts, Beach creates bold, forward-looking portraits. The Baltimore-born artist invokes the ways that trauma can be harnessed for resistance and collective solidarity.
Jimmy Beauquesne, “Phase 3. Knight of infinite resignation” (2023-2024), colored pencils on paper, hand-cut metallic frame, 62 x 41 x 2 centimeters
6. Jimmy Beauquesne with Fragment (New York)
Nested inside hand-cut metallic frames, Beauquesne’s colored-pencil works imagine a dreamy, apocalyptic world that drips with fantastic details. The nine pieces form a narrative of humanity’s transformation sparked by phantasmagorical change.
Next article More
113 Shares169 Views
in Art
Monumental Murals by Agostino Iacurci Vibrantly Reimagine Urban Facades
by Aurelia Butler 21 April 2025, 14:35
“Cardi (1571-2021)” (2021), wall painting, dimensions variable. Borgo Universo, Aielli. Photo by Domenico d’Alessandro
Monumental Murals by Agostino Iacurci Vibrantly Reimagine Urban Facades
April 21, 2025
ArtDesign
Kate Mothes
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
Murals by Agostino Iacurci bring drab buildings to life in bold jewel tones, playful patterns, color blocks, and symmetry. Whether painting directly onto bricks and plaster or designing immense fabric sheaths to cover construction scaffolding, the artist’s vibrant compositions enliven street corners and urban thoroughfares.
Iacurci often emphasizes geometric patterns, flora, classical vases, and niches that hold symbolic objects or figures. You might enjoy checking out Gingko Press’s Mural Masters, a survey of the next generation of street artists, and see more on Iacurci’s website and Instagram.
“Landscape n.1” (2021), wall painting, 27.7 x 7.1 meters. Las Vegas, Nevada. Commissioned by Life is Beautiful
“Disegno d’esame” (2021), enamel on wall, dimensions variable. Pascucci Elementary School, Santarcangelo di Romagna. Photo by Francesco Marini
“Grüne Oase” (2024). Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Photo by Ivan Murzin
“COINCIDENCES.” Ensorinstituut, Oostende, Belgium. Produced by The Crystal Ship
Detail of “COINCIDENCES”
“Landscape n.2” (2021), print on PVC scaffold sheet, 17 x 14 meters. Pastificio Cerere, Rome. Photo by Carlo Romano
“Landscape n.3” (2021). Pinacoteca Civica, Foggia. Photo by Domenico d’Alessandro
“L’antiporta” (2021), paint on wall, dimensions variable. Biblioteca Ugo Tognazzi, Pomezia. Curated by Marcello Smarrelli and Pastificio Cerere for Sol Indiges. Photo by Lorenzo Palmieri
Detail of “L’antiporta”
Detail of “Cardi (1571-2021).” Photo by Domenico d’Alessandro
Detail of “Disegno d’esame.” Photo by Domenico d’Alessandro
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Previous articleNext article More
175 Shares199 Views
in Art
With 60 Artists, ‘The Golden Thread’ Weaves Together a Survey of Contemporary Fiber Art
by Aurelia Butler 17 April 2025, 14:56
Ana María Hernando, “El intento del agua/The Intent of Water” (2025), tulle, wood, metal lattice, felt, velvet. All images courtesy of BravinLee, shared with permission
With 60 Artists, ‘The Golden Thread’ Weaves Together a Survey of Contemporary Fiber Art
April 17, 2025
ArtCraft
Grace Ebert
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
The monumental textile exhibition that took over an 18th-century warehouse last spring is back for a second iteration.
In the South Street Seaport area of Manhattan, The Golden Thread 2: A Fiber Art Show returns with more than 100 artworks made by 60 artists from around the globe. As with the first iteration, this reprisal includes eight site-specific installations that respond to the former mercantile space.
Tomo Mori, “(we) keep going” (2025), donated fabrics, used clothes and linens, acrylic and cotton fillings, and anodized aluminum wires
Organized by BravinLee, The Golden Thread is a sweeping survey of contemporary fiber art encompassing a vast array of materials, aesthetics, and subject matter. Several artists connect textiles’ historical association with femininity and domesticity, including Ana María Hernando’s pair of cascading tulle works. Frequently working with the gossamer fabric, Hernando sees her sculptures as an act of rebellion in which “softness becomes less a discreet quality and more a function of power, both formally and symbolically.”
Similarly, Diana Weymar presents “American Sampler,” a collection of embroidered, typographic works made during a five-year period. Created to showcase a woman’s skill and literacy throughout the 18th century, samplers have a long history as sites of feminine expression. Weymar draws on this legacy for this patchwork tapestry, which is part of her ongoing Tiny Pricks Project created in 2018 in response to Donald Trump’s tumultuous first term.
Colossal readers will recognize several artists in this second exhibition, including Caitlin McCormack, Rima Day, Willie Cole, and Ulla-Stina Wikander. The Golden Thread is on view through May 16.
Tiny Pricks Project (Diana Weymar), “American Sampler” (2020-2025), vintage textiles and cotton floss
Detail of Tiny Pricks Project (Diana Weymar), “American Sampler” (2020-2025), vintage textiles and cotton floss
Caitlin McCormack, “Babylon Rec Room,” vintage wallpaper on salvaged drywall with crochet cotton string and glue embellishment
Ali Dipp, “Concession No 3 (Trumbull, Capitol)” (2024), manually stitched threads on denim jeans, 79 x 117 inches
Left: Fran Siegel, “Medicine Wheel” (2020), cyanotype, scrim, embroidery, sewing, string, and mounted on bar, 90 x 60 x 10 inches. Right: Manju Shandler, “The Elephant in the Room” (2024), mixed media soft sculpture, 6 x 6 x 9 feet
Traci Johnson. Left: “Lil Femme,” yarn on cloth, 12.5 x 22 inches. Right: “Love Me in a Place Where There’s no Space or Time” (2023), yarn on cloth, 7.5 x 7.2 feet
Sam Dienst, “Clutter Conundrum” (2024), hand-woven tapestry with yarn, beads, paint, and felt, 56 x 57 x .25 inches
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Previous articleNext article More
238 Shares129 Views
in Art
Five Years in the Making, an MiG-21 Fighter Jet Gets a Glow-Up from Tens of Millions of Glass Beads
by Aurelia Butler 15 April 2025, 20:16
Photo by Mauricio Hoyos. All images courtesy of Ralph Ziman, shared with permission
Five Years in the Making, an MiG-21 Fighter Jet Gets a Glow-Up from Tens of Millions of Glass Beads
April 15, 2025
ArtHistorySocial Issues
Kate Mothes
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
“We’re going to make stuff out of beads that is going to take people’s breath away,” says Ralph Ziman in the trailer for “The MiG-21 Project,” a military jet that he and a transcontinental team coated nose to tail in millions upon millions of glass beads.
For the past 12 years, the Los Angeles-based artist has examined the impacts of the Cold War Era and the global arms trade through a trilogy titled Weapons of Mass Production, motivated by his upbringing in Apartheid-era South Africa. More than half a decade in the making, “The MiG-21 Project” completes the series.
The first installment, “The AK-47 Project,” reimagined the aesthetic of one of the world’s most ubiquitous wartime weapons, the Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947, by coating dozens of the guns in colorful glass beads. The second project revolved around the Casspir, a heavy-duty Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle (MRAPV) introduced in the 1970s, which he likewise ornamented in vibrant geometric patterns.
“The idea was to take these weapons of war and to repurpose them,” Ziman says, flipping the narrative about icons of violence and transforming them instead into symbols of resilience, collaboration, and collectivity. Vehicles and firearms morph into a theater of hope and strength in the face of a terrible 20th-century legacy.
Apartheid, which in Afrikaans means “separateness,” is the name assigned by the minority white-ruled Nationalist Party of South Africa to a harsh system of racial segregation that began in 1948. The period lasted until 1991 and was closely linked within the context of international relations to the Cold War as tensions erupted between the U.S. and the former U.S.S.R. Spurred by the deterioration of the two countries’ WWII alliance and fears about the spread of Communism into the West, the war began in 1947 and also ended in 1991 when the U.S.S.R. was dissolved.
During this time, the Russians produced a fighter jet called the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21. The plane is “the most-produced supersonic fighter aircraft of all time,” Ziman says. “The Russians built 12,500 MiG-21s, and they’re still in use today—just like the Casspir and just like the AK-47s. But it’s one thing to say, hey, I want to bead a MiG, and then the next thing, you’ve got a 48-foot MiG sitting in your studio.”
The MiG-21 cockpit
“The MiG-21 Project” combines photography and costume design with historical research and time-honored Indigenous craft. The project encompasses not only the jet but a series of cinematic photographs and elaborate Afrofuturist regalia inspired by military flight suits, African tribal textiles, and space travel.
Ziman’s team comprises numerous skilled artisans from Zimbabwe and Indigenous Ndebele women from South Africa’s Mpumalanga Province, who are renowned for their beadwork. For the Ndebele, beadwork is a means of expressing cultural identity and rites of passage, taking on powerful political connotations in the 20th century as it became associated with pre-colonial African traditions and identity.
Tapping into the lessons of our not-so-distant past, Ziman addresses current conflicts like war and the global arms race, modern colonialism, systemic racism, and white supremacy through the lens of Apartheid. Funds raised throughout the process, part of the mission of the Weapons of Mass Production trilogy as a whole, are being donated to the people of Ukraine in support of the country’s ongoing conflict with Russia.
You’ll be able to see the “The MiG-21 Project” later this year in Seattle, where it will be on view from June 21 to January 26, 2026, at the Museum of Flight. Explore more on Ziman’s website.
Photo by Mauricio Hoyos
Photo by Mauricio Hoyos
“Hero Of Cuito Cuanavale,” Inkjet on Moab Entrada paper, 43 x 56 inches
Photo by Mauricio Hoyos
Detail of the MiG-21 cockpit
Photo by Mauricio Hoyos
“The Raider and Her MiG-21,” Inkjet on Moab Entrada paper, 43 x 56 inches
Photo by Mauricio Hoyos
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Next article More

Art

More stories

‘Of Salt and Spirit’ Celebrates the Legacy of Black Southern Quilters

Tiff Massey Celebrates Detroit Culture and Style in Monumental Mixed-Media Installations

In Luminous Portraits, Florence Solis Invokes Feminine Power Amid Constraint

Reviving an Ancestral Hawaiian Tradition, Lehuauakea Reimagines Kapa in Bold Textile Works

Here’s What We’re Excited to See at EXPO CHICAGO 2025

Monumental Murals by Agostino Iacurci Vibrantly Reimagine Urban Facades

With 60 Artists, ‘The Golden Thread’ Weaves Together a Survey of Contemporary Fiber Art

ITALIAN LANGUAGE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE