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    ‘Companions’ Celebrates Our Animal Friends and Colleagues

    Misato Sano, “なるほど! /  Oh, I see!” (2025), camphor wood and oil paint

    ‘Companions’ Celebrates Our Animal Friends and Colleagues

    September 22, 2025

    ArtPartner

    Joy Machine

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    “Play between humans and pets, as well as simply spending time peaceably hanging out together, brings joy to all the participants. Surely that is one important meaning of companion species.” –Donna Haraway, ‘Companion Species Manifesto‘

    Companions is a group exhibition celebrating our closest animal friends and colleagues. Featuring works across media by Lola Dupre, Debra Broz, Roberto Benavidez, Misato Sano, William Mophos, and Nicolas V. Sanchez, this show revels in the ways we share our lives with non-human species.

    Debra Broz, “Horse Boxer” and “Boxer Horse” (2025), secondhand ceramic figurines and mixed media

    Each artist translates their furry and feathered subjects in a distinctively human way: Dupre and Broz distort any realistic likeness in favor of surreal, exaggerated amalgamations, while Benavidez translates a small kitten into the celebratory form of a piñata. Sano similarly gouges small pieces of camphor wood to carve a range of expressive pups, which she then paints in oils.

    Although their renderings take a more realistic approach, Sanchez and Mophos utilize substrates embedded within human life, the former gravitating toward the blank pages of a sketchbook and the latter scouring the streets of São Paulo for architectural remnants that become small jagged canvases.

    In this way, these artists present companionship as a bridge between nature and culture. They see their companions as being both of their own making–in that any relationship is influenced and created by both parties– and as independent beings with big personalities all their own.

    Companions opens on September 27, 2025. RSVP to our opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday.

    Roberto Benavidez, “Medieval Kitten” (2025), paper, paperboard, wire, glue, crepe paper, fallen cat whiskers, 5.5 x 6 x 3 inches

    Lola Dupre, “Geordi” (2025), paper collage, 12 x 16 inches

    William Mophos, “Tom Tom” (2025), acrylic painting on wall fragments in an acrylic frame with cement board backing, 16.6 x 21 x 7.5 centimeters

    Nicolas V. Sanchez, “Mariana with lambs” (2018), color ballpoint pen on paper, 5.5 x 10.5 inches

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    Stéphanie Kilgast’s Book ‘Utopia’ Chronicles Ten Years of Vibrant, Post-Apocalyptic Sculptures

    “LoFi Girl” (2024). All images courtesy of the artist, shared with permission

    Stéphanie Kilgast’s Book ‘Utopia’ Chronicles Ten Years of Vibrant, Post-Apocalyptic Sculptures

    September 22, 2025

    ArtBooksNature

    Kate Mothes

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    In Stéphanie Kilgast’s vibrant yet poignant pieces, a speculative future without humans gives rise to unusual relationships. “In my artwork, humanity is absent, leaving behind its legacy of objects, buildings, and trash,” the artist says. She continues:

    Flora and fauna are taking over. Animals, mushrooms, lichens, plants, and corals are inhabiting every nook and cranny, thus creating new habitats. This symbiosis between the object and the growing environment reflects the balance and respect that humanity has lost, and that I symbolically recreate in my work by expressing hope, joy, and the beauty of nature in an explosion of color.

    Kilgast’s lighthearted, vivd, post-apocalytpic sculptures often include objects we tend to find discarded along the side of the road, like aluminum cans or glass bottles. Uncanny habitats also emerge around outmoded items like VHS tapes, portable CD players, or alarm clocks, which people rarely have a need for anymore thanks to smartphones or streaming services.

    “Cycle” (2025)

    The artist has also recently announced a new book, Utopia, which chronicles the last ten years of her work. The volume brings together a decade of sculptures, paintings, and sketchbook pages, complemented by essays and a complete catalogue of her pieces.

    Utopia will print if at least 150 pre-orders are made by October 3. Dibs your copy today via Dashbook. Orders are anticipated to ship in December. Explore more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    Front view of “Plastic Play” (2022)

    “Alice Following the White Rabbit” (2023)

    “Chemical Candy Dragonfly” (2024)

    “Snapshot” (2024)

    “Moving Pictures” (2024)

    “Copper” (2024)

    Rear view of “Plastic Play” (2022)

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    Expressive Kitties Emerge from Energetic Graphite Lines in Drawings by ShouXin

    All images courtesy of ShouXin, shared with permission

    Expressive Kitties Emerge from Energetic Graphite Lines in Drawings by ShouXin

    September 18, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    From simple yet deft strokes of graphite, ShouXin summons cats that jump, roll, crash, and express their curiosity. Detailed eyes, mouths, and noses complement the artist’s gestural use of pencil for the rest of the felines’ bodies, conveying energy, sounds, and plenty of cattitude through the fundamental use of line.

    Prints and occasionally originals are available for purchase in ShouXin’s online shop, and you can follow updates on Instagram.

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    Surreal Narratives Unfurl Between Animals in Laura Catherwood’s Dreamy Paintings

    “Flying Lesson (Dusk).” All photos by Matt Wenc. Images courtesy of the artist and Vertical Gallery, shared with permission

    Surreal Narratives Unfurl Between Animals in Laura Catherwood’s Dreamy Paintings

    September 15, 2025

    ArtIllustrationNature

    Kate Mothes

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    Curious foxes, sleepy fawns, and daring mice are just a few of the woodland creatures that populate Laura Catherwood’s dreamy drawings and paintings. Working primarily in graphite and oil, she situates recognizable animals into unexpected and fantastical situations in illustrations that “explore the inner emotional landscape while simultaneously soothing the viewer,” she says.

    It often takes a moment to comprehend the scope of each of Catherwood’s scenarios. A pair of spotted frogs in “Rue,” for example, is not what it seems at first, as two heads emerge from one body, and their long tongues are both pierced with a fishing hook. And in “Inexhaustible,” a toad with an unusual, bowl-like back full of water provides a tiny oasis for a troupe of flying fish.

    “Inexhaustible”

    Catherwood is interested in the power of illustration to channel feelings, questions, and experiences that may be challenging or revolve around grief. Her scenarios are surreal and even a little cryptic, yet we’re invited to witness intimate, affecting, and enigmatic narratives that prompt curiosity and wonder.

    A couple of these works are currently on view alongside Jerome Tiunayan and Joseph Renda Jr. in The Scenic Route at at Vertical Gallery, which runs through September 27 in Chicago.

    Catherwood is also currently working on a series of nine small murals as part of a public outreach project about invasive species, plus a small body of work related to species found in Upstate New York, where she’s soon moving. And she’s also preparing for two solo exhibitions next year. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    “Rue”

    “Stirring”

    “Listen”

    “Flying Lesson (Dawn)”

    “The Bridge”

    “Hard to Find”

    “Everything Happens for the First Time”

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    Uncanny Papier-Mâché Creatures by Roberto Benavidez Mingle in ‘Bosch Beasts’

    “Illuminated Piñata No. 19” (2021), paper, paperboard, glue, wire, and crepe paper, 33 x 20 x 12 inches. Photos by Paul Salveson. All images courtesy of the artist and Perrotin, shared with permission

    Uncanny Papier-Mâché Creatures by Roberto Benavidez Mingle in ‘Bosch Beasts’

    September 15, 2025

    ArtHistory

    Kate Mothes

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    Most often associated with Mexico, the piñata’s origins may actually trace back to China. By the 14th century, the celebratory tradition of breaking open a container filled with treats had arrived in Europe. Then, Spanish colonists and missionaries imported the custom to Mexico during the 16th century, although a similar practice was already in use within Indigenous Mayan and Aztec communities in observation of special events. Today, piñatas are an integral element of cartonería, the Mexican craft of papier-mâché.

    For Los Angeles-based artist Roberto Benavidez, the art of the piñata is a central tenet of a practice exploring intersecting themes of race, sexuality, humor, sin, and beauty. He draws upon the paper art form’s early religious significance in Mexico, when Spanish missionaries used a seven-pointed version as a tool for converting Indigenous people to Christianity. This motif, which appears in some of Benavidez’s distinctive sculptures, nods to its past colonial use.

    “Bosch Bird No. 11” (2022), paper, paperboard, glue, wire, and crepe paper, 24 x 60 x 18 inches

    “The points of the star represented the seven deadly sins, the blindfold worn by the bat-wielding assailant represented faith, and the treats found inside were the rewards for blind and unwavering belief,” Diva Zumaya says in an exhibition essay for the artist’s current solo exhibition, Bosch Beasts, at Perrotin.

    Benavidez continues to make piñata-like sculptures that resemble uncanny, hybrid creatures, often inspired by the marginalia of illuminated manuscripts and the surreal characters in Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” which the Netherlandish artist painted between 1490 and 1510.

    Bosch Beasts highlights Benavidez’s ongoing fascination with the rare and extraordinary, exhibiting new works alongside pieces he’s made throughout the past decade. Installed on the floor or suspended from the ceiling, his creatures appear independently occupied and immersed in an esoteric group activity.

    Each piece comes to life through papier-mâché, using a balloon to create the central form before adding more structure with Bristol board and additional layers of glue-slathered paper. Wire supports more delicate limbs and appendages, and to achieve the final texture, Benavidez cuts and attaches every tiny feather or scale.

    “Bosch Beast No. 14” (2025), paper, paperboard, glue, wire, and crepe paper, 33 × 19 × 14 inches

    “Drawing from his personal experience as a queer and mixed-race MexicanAmerican, Benavidez starts from a foundation of hybridity in which these monsters are the perfect actors,” Zumaya says, continuing:

    Every mixed-race person who has become well acquainted with the question, “What are you?” is all too familiar with how it feels to live at the borders of identities, appearances complicating the compulsion to categorize. The way Benavidez uses these hybrid bodies to conjure ideas around race echoes their meaning in sixteenth-century Europe, where notions of the monstrous were profoundly intertwined with early formations of race.

    Bosch Beasts continues through October 18 in Los Angeles. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    Installation view of ‘Bosch Beasts’

    “Bosch Beast No. 16” (2025), paper, paperboard, glue, wire, crepe paper, 23 × 23 × 19 inches

    “Bosch Beast No. 10” (2020), paper, paperboard, glue, wire, and crepe paper, 3 1/2 x 26 1/2 x 7 inches

    Installation view of ‘Bosch Beasts’

    “Bosch Bird No. 12” (2025), paper, paperboard, glue, wire, and crepe paper, 71 x 11 x 11 inches

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

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

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

    September 9, 2025

    ArtBooksNatureScience

    Kate Mothes

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

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

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

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

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

    Pre-order your copy now in the Colossal Shop.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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    ‘Between the Lines’ Showcases the Subversive Traditions of Art-Making While Incarcerated

    Djan Shun Lin, “Eagle” (ca. 1994, York County Prison, York County, Pennsylvania), paper and paint. All photos by Addison Doty, courtesy of the Museum of International Folk Art, shared with permission

    ‘Between the Lines’ Showcases the Subversive Traditions of Art-Making While Incarcerated

    September 3, 2025

    ArtSocial Issues

    Grace Ebert

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    Artists aren’t strangers to creative constraints. Perhaps they work full-time and have to sneak in just an hour of painting before bed. Or a grant requires that they follow a particular set of guidelines that push their practice in a new direction. Whatever the situation, artists are often uniquely positioned to find innovative, experimental approaches to making.

    For those included in Between the Lines: Prison Art and Advocacy, which was on view this past month at the Museum of International Folk Art, constraints are plentiful. Featuring an eclectic array of works by incarcerated artists, the group exhibition offers a survey of creativity in confinement.

    Artist name redacted, “Envelope (Austin, Texas)” (June 2002, Snyder, Texas), paper envelope, color pencil, pen

    A primary thread in the exhibition—which tends to connect most artworks made during a period of incarceration—is an innovative use of materials. John Paul Granillo, for example, renders blue pen portraits on a pair of canvas prison-issue shoes. Other drawings appear on envelopes sent to the Coalition For Prisoners’ Rights, a nonprofit project that mailed newsletters inside for several decades.

    There are also several paños, a genre utilizing commissary handkerchiefs, pillowcases, or bedsheets that originated with incarcerated Chicanos in the 20th century. The largely self-taught art form is perhaps one of the best-known traditions to emerge from inside carceral facilities and is a subversive mode of expression: often sent to family and loved ones on the outside, these fabric pieces offer both a way to communicate what might otherwise be censored in letters and a financial opportunity for particularly talented artists who might sell the paños for birthday, anniversary, and other gifts.

    While much of the work comes from facilities in the Southwest and Western states, Between the Lines extends its reach to connect carceral systems across the globe. A vibrantly beaded bird with bold text reading Masallah, or may Allah, comes from 1960s Anatolia. Purchased in 2005 in Istanbul, the piece is a “protective amulet and hung from car rearview mirrors or other places,” the museum says.

    As Brian Karl points out in Hyperallergic, the exhibition is less concerned with prison reform and larger questions of abolition than it is with showcasing the necessity of creating in such a dehumanizing environment. The eagle, a motif associated with freedom in the U.S., appears in several works and speaks to the lack of agency and autonomy in such a punishing system. When people are very literally confined with meager, if any, resources for self-expression, creating becomes both a mode of survival and a revolutionary act. As the exhibition’s title suggests, prison art is always bound up with advocacy and requires makers to find defiance in interstitial spaces.

    John Paul Granillo, “Shoes with ink drawing” (2011–2012, Federal Correctional Institution, Ray Brook, New York), blue pen ink, white fabric, rubber

    Michael Guzman, “PA. LA. Casa (To the House)” (1982–1984, New Mexico State Penitentiary, Santa Fe), paper, colored pencil, pen. Work courtesy of Stuart Ashman in honor of the talented inmates at the New Mexico State Penitentiary

    Artist name redacted, “Envelope (buffalo skull and stepped chevron design)” (October 2005,Salinas Valley State Prison, Soledad, California), paper envelope, color pencil, pen

    Artist unrecorded, “Picture Frame” (1980s, New Mexico State Penitentiary, Santa Fe), plastic-coated gum wrappers, photograph

    Artist unrecorded, “Amulet” (1960–1970, Anatolia, Republic of Türkiye), glass beads, cotton string, sequins, stuffing

    J.D., “Te Amo (I Love You)” (2018–2020, Cibola County Correctional Center, Milan, New Mexico), torn cotton bedsheets and ink

    Carlos Cervantes, “Hispanic History in the Southwest” (1996, New Mexico State Penitentiary, Santa Fe), cotton handkerchief, lead pencil, colored pencils, ink pens

    Ray Materson, “Where Are You Now” (1990, Somers, Connecticut), sock thread, silk, fiber

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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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