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    Sinister Skies Set the Scene for Derelict Buildings in Lee Madgwick’s Surreal Paintings

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    “Fracture.” All images courtesy of Lee Madgwick, shared with permission

    Sinister Skies Set the Scene for Derelict Buildings in Lee Madgwick’s Surreal Paintings

    October 14, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Beneath ominous skies and set within flat, green parkland, Lee Madgwick’s folly-like buildings strike an unsettling note. His surreal paintings feature dilapidated facades and uncanny shrubbery against cloudy, deep gray skies—usually with something just a little strange going on.

    In “Drift,” for example, bricks dislodge from the top of a boxy structure and float into the sky one by one, and “Fracture” defies gravity altogether with a hovering apartment tower that crumbles from below. Madgwick’s rural scenes nod to landscapes and developments that are often overlooked, imbuing them with what he describes as “an undercurrent of mischievous menace.”

    “Echoes”

    Madgwick’s paintings aren’t without hints of dark humor, like in “Echoes,” in which half a building appears to be missing, as if washed away in a now-calm stream. Inside the ragged remains, a waterslide makes use of the height.

    People are nowhere to be seen in Madgwick’s compositions, although their presence is felt in the graffiti left on walls or curtains drawn in various windows. His latest body of work continues “to portray that mysterious and melancholic otherworldliness of seemingly long abandoned and isolated buildings under heavy skies,” he tells Colossal.

    The artist’s work will be on view at Brian Sinfield Gallery in Burford, Oxfordshire, from October 18 to November 4. Find more on Madgwick’s website and Instagram.

    “Badlands”

    “Drift”

    “Boom!”

    “Empire”

    “Evanescence”

    “Hope”

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      Descend into the Underworld via Anish Kapoor’s Sculptural Subway Station Entrances

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      All images courtesy of Anish Kapoor, shared with permission

      Descend into the Underworld via Anish Kapoor’s Sculptural Subway Station Entrances

      September 17, 2025

      ArtDesign

      Kate Mothes

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      West of Naples, along the Tyrrhenian coast, sits the storied Lake Avernus. Situated in a volcanic crater, its Latin name is synonymous with hell or the underworld, and to the ancient Romans, it was considered the portal to Hades. Dante Alighieri echoed the belief in his seminal Inferno. More recently, Anish Kapoor set out to explore the notion in a striking new entrance to the Monte Sant’Angelo subway station in central Naples. “In the city of Mount Vesuvius and Dante’s mythical entrance to the Inferno, I found it important to try and deal with what it really means to go underground,” the artist says.

      Kapoor is renowned for large-scale sculptures and installations that tap into visceral psychological experiences, from a perpetually swirling whirlpool of black water in “Descension” to a meat-like slab of wax being wedged through a doorway in “Svayambhu,” which references a Sanskrit word meaning “self-born.” And, of course, there’s the iconically mirrored “Cloud Gate,” known fondly as “The Bean,” in downtown Chicago.

      University entrance

      “At Monte Sant’Angelo station, three integral themes of Kapoor’s practice have coalesced in more potent form than ever: the mythological object, the body, and the void,” a statement says. The artist’s design for two separate entrances, initiated more than two decades ago, tap into his interest in dualistic relationships like internal and external experiences or lightness and darkness.

      Kapoor’s two entrances exist in dialogue with one another, as one is made from weathered steel with a rusty patina that suggests an amorphous bodily form. The other is conceived as something of the inverse, where a tubular steel form is presented more smoothly and “cleanly” while likewise hovering over travelers like a mysterious system or gigantic conduit.

      “The station is a remarkable symbiosis of sculpture and architecture, a dynamic that has always been a central force in Kapoor’s work,” a statement says. “Kapoor’s work both holds and creates the new space in which it is experienced.”

      Explore dozens of works on Kapoor’s website, and discover even more artistic subway stations around the world.

      Looking up from within the Traiano entrance

      A side view of the university entrance

      Looking down into the university entrance

      Traiano entrance

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      Giant Inflatable Sculptures by Steve Messam Reimagine Everyday Environments

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      “Accommodation:Occupation.” All images courtesy of Steve Messam, shared with permission

      Giant Inflatable Sculptures by Steve Messam Reimagine Everyday Environments

      September 11, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      From bubble-like bulges amid the arches of London’s iconic Old Billingsgate to a 15-meter-tall red droplet frozen in the center of a disused swimming pool in Aberdeen, Steve Messam explores scale, form, and our experiences of the built environment in large-scale installations.

      Messam is known for his large-scale inflatable works that reinterpret architecture and explore human influence over the landscape. Often, he fills apertures like arcades or underpasses with forms that balloon and billow, drawing attention to structural forms while considering their fundamental function as places to enter or move through.

      “Facade”

      In “Accommodation:Occupation,” Messam delves into the history of 19th-century infrastructure in the U.K. through an exploration of what are known as accommodation and occupation bridges—railroad crossings designed for rural areas that provided a tunnel beneath, so that farmers could still access their land on the other side of the tracks. Some of these historic bridges still exist, often on private land, such as two in County Durham along the former route of the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

      For “Below,” which Messam situated under a bridge in Tianfu Art Park in Chengdu, China, the site’s use as a thoroughfare is retained by creating two symmetric forms with a gap between them, which people can walk through while immersing themselves in the installation.

      Whether popcorn-like, spiked, bubbling, or cascading, Messam’s playful interventions prompt us to view our surroundings with renewed attention. Explore even more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

      “Below”

      “Facade”

      “Packaged”

      “Cascade”

      “Accommodation:Occupation”

      “Accommodation:Occupation”

      “Below”

      “Below”

      “Packaged”

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      Cheng-Tsung Feng’s “Sailing Castle” Cruises Through 400 Years of Taiwanese History

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      All images courtesy of Cheng-Tsung Feng, shared with permission

      Cheng-Tsung Feng’s “Sailing Castle” Cruises Through 400 Years of Taiwanese History

      September 9, 2025

      ArtCraftDesign

      Kate Mothes

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      Through the study of time-honored craft techniques, Taiwanese artist Cheng-Tsung Feng envisions contemporary installations that connect us not only to the past but also to nature and our present surroundings.

      Working across sculpture, installation, craft, and design, the artist draws on what he describes as “ancient and gradually forgotten oriental culture,” translating traditional motifs and methods into new works that nod to the continuum of East Asian art and ingenuity. One might even position his practice within the realm of storytelling, tapping into collective cultural memories and overlapping histories.

      In his installation “Sailing Castle” in Tainan, Feng evokes the sails of wooden ships as a visual metaphor for the urban landscape, “where clusters of buildings resemble vessels gathered in harbor,” he says. Symbolizing movement, discovery, and societal progress and expansion, he creates a dialogue between architecture and advancement, along with memory and the present moment.

      The beams and sails are inspired by a number of actual buildings in Tainan like the Confucius Temple, Fort Zeelandia—built by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century—and Chihkan Tower, another Dutch outpost also known as Fort Provintia.

      Called Formosa in the mid-1600s, Taiwan was under colonial rule by the Dutch, whose trade interests centered predominantly around Chinese silks imported to Europe, where they were prized for their luxury and highly sought after. Situated at the Anping Shipyard historical site, amid the canals of the West Central District, Feng wraps the area’s maritime heritage and four-centuries-long legacy of shipping into “Sailing Castle.”

      “The overlapping sails evoke both the gathering of ships along the waterfront and the simultaneous anticipation of departure and the arrival of returning voyagers,” he says.

      Using primarily wood and canvas, Feng’s pavilion is a cross between artistic intervention and functional meeting space, complete with small surfaces jutting out of the posts on which visitors can sit. Cruising, as it were, through a green park and illuminated at night, “Sailing Castle” sparks a sense of awe at the same time as it encourages us to slow down for a moment or two of contemplation and rest.

      Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

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      Architecture Converges with the Human Form in Antony Gormley’s ‘Body Buildings’

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      “Resting Place II” (2024) terracotta, 132 figures, dimensions variable. All images of ‘Body Buildings’ at Galleria Continua, Beijing, China 2024–25. Photos by Huang Shaoli. All images courtesy of the artist and Skira, shared with permission

      Architecture Converges with the Human Form in Antony Gormley’s ‘Body Buildings’

      August 21, 2025

      ArtBooks

      Kate Mothes

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      In Edinburgh, along a stream known as the Water of Leith, six bronze figures known as “6 TIMES” stand amid the current and beside bridges, peering enigmatically down the urban waterway. Similarly, in Liverpool, “Another Place” comprises 100 life-size sculptures made from 17 molds that artist Antony Gormley (previously) took from his own body, installed permanently along Crosby Beach. In fact, the artist has dozens of permanent installations throughout the U.K. and all over the world, the majority of which interact with shorelines, parkland, and historic sites.

      Gormley has long been fascinated by the relationship between humans, landscape, and the built environment. While many of his figurative sculptures retain natural, muscular curvatures and a true-to-life scale, he also ventures into abstract territory, incorporating cubist and brutalist elements into geometric, three-dimensional forms. In spite of their blockiness, which we associate with built structures of rigid materials like concrete and steel, his pieces are anything but soulless.

      “Resting Place II”

      Gormley’s recent solo exhibition, Body Buildings at Galleria Continua in Beijing, ran from November 2024 and April 2025 and forms the basis of a new monograph of the same title. Forthcoming from SKIRA, the volume is slated for release on October 7.

      Using terracotta clay and iron for pieces like “Resting Place II” and “Buttress,” Gormley taps into materials often found in construction in the form of bricks or angular frameworks. He describes his approach as a means “to think and feel the body in this condition.” Whether arranged on the floor in various positions or leaning against walls, his figures are simultaneously independent of the architecture and indelibly connected to it. “Buttress,” for example, prompts us to inquire whether the wall is holding up the person or the other way around.

      New scholarship published in Body Buildings by Hou Hanru and Stephen Greenblatt explores Gormley’s engagement with China over the course of the past three decades. And a photo essay by the artist traces his interactions with the region, sharing never-before-seen archival photographs that document a 1995 research trip, where he visited the phenomenal army of terracotta warriors in Qin Shi Huang’s tomb in Xi’an.

      Pre-order your copy of Body Buildings on Bookshop, and explore more of Gormley’s work on his website.

      “Buttress” (2023), cast iron, 176.8 x 54.5 x 67.2 centimeters

      Detail of “Resting Place II”

      “Shame” (2023), cast iron, 161.7 x 59 x 42.9 centimeters

      Detail of “Resting Place II”

      Detail of “Resting Place II”

      Detail of “Resting Place II”

      “Circuit” (2022), cast iron, 29.3 x 201.3 x 122.4 centimeters

      Installation view of Detail of “Resting Place II”

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      An Inflatable Building Recreates the Iconic Mecca Flats at the Heart of Chicago’s Black Renaissance

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      All images courtesy of Floating Museum, shared with permission

      An Inflatable Building Recreates the Iconic Mecca Flats at the Heart of Chicago’s Black Renaissance

      August 12, 2025

      ArtDesignHistory

      Grace Ebert

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      As the World’s Fair loomed on Chicago’s horizon, architects Willoughby J. Edbrooke and Franklin Pierce Burnham built a 98-unit hotel to house visitors. After the exposition was finished, the Romanesque Revival building with a large central courtyard was converted into apartments and became known as Mecca Flats.

      Chicago adhered to strict segregation codes in the 19th century, and Mecca Flats, located in the Bronzeville neighborhood at 3360 S. State Street, wasn’t immune. The complex originally only allowed white residents, before allowing Black residents in 1911. Quickly, the building became a site for creatives well-known in the Black Renaissance. Gwendolyn Brooks famously titled a book after the tenement, and luminaries Muddy Waters and Katherine Dunham called Mecca Flats home.

      View of the indoor atrium at the Mecca Flats, East 34th and South State Street, Chicago, Illinois.

      Although a historical beacon of Black creativity, the Illinois Institute of Technology razed the building in 1952. It was replaced by the Mies van der Rohe-designed S.R. Crown Hall.

      While Mecca Flats are long gone, its memory lives on throughout Chicago, and thanks to the collective known as Floating Museum, a new artwork revives the cultural hub. “for Mecca” is a large-scale inflatable structure recreating the once-thriving complex in grayscale polyester. Scaled down, this iteration stretches 41 feet long, with a U-shaped passageway for viewers to walk through.

      Floating Museum is co-directed by avery r. young, Andrew Schachman, Faheem Majeed, and Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, who share that the project offers a “tangible artifact” of Chicago’s lost history. They say:

      “for Mecca” represents our collective interest in Bronzeville’s complex history. We can no longer view nostalgic images of Mies van der Rohe—enjoying a cigar in the emptiness of S.R. Crown Hall—without also imagining Mecca Flats, collapsed under his feet, and recalling the slow strategic displacement of the African American community signified by the presence of its absence.

      The project also includes several nods to former South Side institutions, including the jazz dancehall Savoy Ballroom and the Regal Theatre, a popular night club and performance venue.

      Debuting this past weekend at the original site, the project will travel around the city’s parks through the summer of 2026. “for Mecca” is the latest project in the collective’s Floating Monuments series, which seeks to uncover critical cultural and historical legacies within Chicago through public installations.

      Find more from Floating Museum on its website.

      The Stroll, Regal Theater, and the Savoy Ballroom, Chicago, 1941. Photo by Russell Lee. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives.

      Savoy Ballroom, 47th Street and South Parkway, Chicago, 1929. Curt Teich Postcard Archives Digital Collection, Newberry Library.

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      Gabrielle Garland’s House Portraits Illuminate Daily Life, Individuality, and the ‘Fabric of Society’

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      “Good morning, winner. Take a deep breath. Good. You’re ready to dominate this day. —
      Motivational Voice,
      Booksmart (2019)” (2024), acrylic and oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Miles McEnery Gallery, shared with permission

      Gabrielle Garland’s House Portraits Illuminate Daily Life, Individuality, and the ‘Fabric of Society’

      July 31, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      Gabrielle Garland may not depict people in her square-format, mixed-media paintings, yet the works might as well be described as portraits. From mailboxes and landscape choices to colorful stoops and glowing interior lights, her vibrant depictions of houses seem to come alive with saturated color and almost palpable feeling.

      Distorted, even cartoonish, Garland’s homes portray a range of American vernacular styles, from ranches to bungalows to Queen Annes. Often, neighborhood happenings enter the scene, like the shoulder of an adjacent house, power lines, trees, or planes flying overhead.

      “Remember, you’re the one who can fill the world with sunshine. — Snow White, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)” (2024), acrylic and oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

      A new solo exhibition of Garland’s work opens at Miles McEnery Gallery next month, titled I’ll Get You, My Pretty, and Your Little Dog Too. Her titles typically reference quotes from films, ranging in tone and topic as much as her homes also appear to do.

      “Stairs, flower boxes, and mailboxes swell or shrink disproportionately, revealing the distortions of the artist’s memory (that murky area where structural logic intermingles with emotional noise),” says a gallery statement. Whether depicted at night, during fireworks displays, in a storm, or in the blazing sun, the details of each house converge with out-of-context sentiments from movies that draw us into their unique characteristics and quirks while also affording a playful insight into the artist’s frame of mind.

      Garland takes inspiration from everyday observations around her home in New York and beyond. She often works from her own photographs, sometimes using found images. “My body of work might be interpreted as an investigation of the physical fabric of society,” Garland told Dovetail. “I believe it documents the constantly shifting balance between our desire for independence and interconnection, between the comfort and familiarity we seek and the strangely disorienting spaces we create.”

      I’ll Get You, My Pretty, and Your Little Dog Too opens on September 4 and continues through October 25 in New York City. Find more on Garland’s website and Instagram.

      “Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. —Blanche DuBois, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)” (2025), acrylic, oil, and glitter on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

      “I’m glad he’s single because I’m going to climb that like a tree. —Megan, Bridesmaids (2011)” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

      “We have enough. You can stop now. —Ava Fontaine, Lord of War (2005)” (2024), acrylic, molding paste, glitter, and oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

      “And… and… c’mon, Nick, what do you expect? To live happily ever after? —Elizabeth James, The Parent Trap (1998)” (2024), acrylic, oil, and glitter on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

      “I don’t bite, you know… unless it’s called for. —Regina Lampert, Charade (1963)” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

      “I’m scared. —Christine, Before I Go to Sleep (2014)” (2025), acrylic and glitter on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

      “That is why every day we pray for rain. —Daena, Planet of the Apes (2001)” (2024), acrylic and glitter on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

      “It’s just, living alone, you know? And, the thought of buying those books like Cooking For One, and… it’s just too depressing. —Allison Jones, Single White Female (1992)” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

      “I guess it feels different when it’s someone you love —Cassandra, Promising Young Woman (2020)” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

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      Order an Object at the New V&A East Storehouse to Get Up-Close to 5,000 Years of Cultural Heritage

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      The Weston Collections Hall at V&A East
      Storehouse, including over 100 mini
      curated displays in the ends and sides of the storage racking. The
      space is anchored by six large-scale objects, including a building section from the now-demolished Robin Hood
      Gardens, a former residential estate in
      Poplar, east London. Photo by Hufton +
      Crow for V&A. All images courtesy of V&A, shared with permission

      Order an Object at the New V&A East Storehouse to Get Up-Close to 5,000 Years of Cultural Heritage

      June 3, 2025

      ArtDesignHistory

      Kate Mothes

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      What do the largest Picasso painting in the world, punky Vivienne Westwood apparel, pins for securing a 17th-century ruff, and a complete Frank Lloyd Wright interior have in common? That’ll be the U.K.’s Victoria and Albert Museum, or the V&A, the world’s largest collection of design and applied and decorative arts.

      In South Kensington, the palatial museum has awed visitors since 1852, and in recent decades, the institution has greatly expanded, with locations like the Young V&A in Bethnal Green, the Wedgwood Collection in Stoke-on-Trent, the ship-like V&A Dundee in Scotland, and the brand new V&A East Storehouse in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

      The largest Picasso work in the world, the 1924 front stage cloth for the Ballets Russes’ production, ‘Le Train Bleu,’ at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by David Parry/PA Media Assignments. Pablo Picasso, “Le Train Bleu front stage cloth” (1924) © The estate of Pablo Picasso

      Spanning 5,000 years of human creativity through hundreds of thousands of objects requires a lot of space. Rather than hiding it all away in a dark warehouse, the new Storehouse takes over a portion of the former 2012 London Olympics Media Centre, providing a purpose-built home for more than 250,000 objects, 350,000 library books, and 1,000 archives from across the V&A’s diverse collections.

      The best part? You can visit! Storehouse hosts workshops, screenings, performances, and pop-up displays of special collections, along with the opportunity to observe conservators at work preserving a wide range of cultural heritage objects.

      Peruse more than 100 curated mini-displays throughout the building, and book in advance to get up-close and personal through the Order an Object experience. Pick any object in storage, and a member of the Collections Access team will assist you in interacting safely with everything from artworks to textiles to musical instruments.

      Plan your visit on the V&A website.

      The 17th-century Agra Colonnade, an extraordinary example of Mughal architecture from the bathhouse at the fort of Agra, visible through the Weston Collections Hall glass floor, and accessible via Object Encounters at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by Hufton + Crow for V&A

      View of Weston Collections Hall, which features more than 100 mini curated displays, at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by Kemka Ajoku for V&A

      Welcome area at V&A East Storehouse with pull-out framed textiles to explore. Photo by Kemka Ajoku for V&A

      Mesh roll-out storage racking at V&A East Storehouse. Available via Object Encounters visits. Photo by Hufton + Crow for V&A

      Multi-purpose conservation studio, visible from the Conservation Overlook at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by David Parry/PA Media Assignments

      View of the Weston Collections Hall at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by David Parry/PA Media Assignments

      Order an Object appointment at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by Bet Bettencourt forV&A Object pictured is Althea McNish, “Rubra” (1961), furnishing fabric

      View of a section of Robin Hood Gardens, a former residential estate in Poplar, east London, at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by David Parry/PA Media Assignments

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      A Rippling Townhouse Facade by Alex Chinneck Takes a Seat in a London Square

      by

      Photos by Charles Emerson. All images courtesy of Alex Chinneck Studio, shared with permission

      A Rippling Townhouse Facade by Alex Chinneck Takes a Seat in a London Square

      May 22, 2025

      ArtDesign

      Kate Mothes

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      It takes a real knack for design to make something as hefty and industrial as steel and bricks appear weightless or even playful. But British artist Alex Chinneck (previously) is no stranger to monumental projects that reimagine urban infrastructure and buildings into striking public installations.

      As part of London’s Clerkenwell Design Week, Chinneck unveiled “A week at the knees,” a new sculpture in Charterhouse Square that takes its cue from an iconic predecessor. The artist installed the “From the Knees of my Nose to the Belly of my Toes” in 2013 on a dilapidated townhouse in Margate, appearing as though the entire front of the building had simply slid right off. On view through June in London, his new work boasts a frame made from 320 meters of repurposed steel and 7,000 bricks.

      “A week at the knees” playfully anthropomorphizes a classic Georgian facade, with its lower two levels rippling over a pathway as if seated in the park with its knees up. London is famous for its green squares and gardens, and Chinneck’s work invites visitors to pass through a unique portal that calls upon the history of its surroundings, complete with downspout and lamps flanking the arched front door.

      Chinneck fabricated the sculpture in collaboration with numerous British companies to source and create bespoke steel beams, curving windows, and bricks. At five meters tall and weighing 12 tons, the piece mimics a life-size building while sporting a thickness of only 15 centimeters. The effect lends itself to the experience of a hefty, architectonic structure with a graceful, lightweight personality.

      Explore more on Chinneck’s website and Instagram.

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