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The reptilian “Pier 865” is the work of Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article A Sculpture Made of Tens of Thousands of Aluminum Facets Writhes in a Knoxville Park appeared first on Colossal. More
Photo by Steve Kroodsma. All images courtesy of Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY, shared with permission
A Sculpture Made of Tens of Thousands of Aluminum Facets Writhes in a Knoxville Park
November 25, 2025
ArtDesign
Kate Mothes
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A vibrant new pavilion rises to meet the square’s picturesque trees in Cradle of Country Music Park in Knoxville, Tennessee, connecting the city’s Old Town and its theater district. Made from tens of thousands of individual pieces of painted aluminum, the vivid “Pier 865” provides both a resting place and a vantage point in a reinvigorated public square.
The reptilian sculpture is the work of Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY, continuing the designer’s interest in high-tech, large-scale installations that involve meticulously assembled elements. Conceived digitally, the structure has a bold, futuristic quality that looks exactly like a 3D model made real—one can imagine its pixel-like pieces puzzling together in a computer program.
Photo by Steve Kroodsma
The pavilion is painted in greenish gradients in a nod to its surrounding trees. “Its organic shape brings to mind different life forms from different angles: from ground level, the sculpture suggests alien flora growing from the concrete—but viewed from the sky, a tensile, reptilian form reveals itself,” a statement says.
See more work by Fornes on his website and Instagram.
Photo by Keith Isaacs
Photo by Steve Kroodsma
Photo by Steve Kroodsma
Photo by Steve Kroodsma
Photo by Keith Isaacs
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Since 2019, the festival has been transforming Georgia’s capital city into a giant public art gallery.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Tbilisi Mural Fest’s Dynamic Murals Brighten the Sides of Buildings Throughout the City appeared first on Colossal. More
All images courtesy of Tblisi Mural Fest, shared with permission
Tbilisi Mural Fest’s Dynamic Murals Brighten the Sides of Buildings Throughout the City
November 21, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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Established in 2019, Tbilisi Mural Fest has a deceptively simple goal: to turn Georgia’s capital city into one huge public gallery. For the artist-organizers, who also create works under the moniker TMF Studio, contemporary murals have the ability to transform unsightly, blocky developments into giant works of art. The paintings are not only a pleasure to look at but also create a more inviting urban environment.
With a few exceptions, much of the recent work created for the festival is representational, showing people engaged in activities like harvesting grapes or dancing. International artists bring a variety of styles to often narrow, vertical compositions, adorning the sides of multilevel buildings.
Afzan Pirzade and TMF Studio, part of the “Dance” series
Through a wide range of figurative, geometric, or abstract styles, Tbilisi’s mural program is expanded each year, engaging viewers in both commercial and residential areas. Find more on the festival’s website and Instagram.
TMF Studio
Detail of work by TMF Studio
Edoardo Ettorre, “Concrete Horizons”
Afzan Pirzade and Besik Maziashvili, “The Most Sacred Connection of All.” Photo by David Chalodze and Anano Kekelia
Afzan Pirzade and Besik Maziashvili, “The Most Sacred Connection of All” (detail)
Fintan Magee, “Girl in Mirrors”
Afzan Pirzade and TMF Studio, “Samaya”
Afzan Pirzade and TMF Studio, part of the “Dance” series (detail)
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Laveuve is known for his meticulously sculpted miniatures rendered in 1/24 and 1/35 scale.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Simon Laveuve’s Scaled-Down Tableaux Reveal Post-Apocalyptic Lifestyles appeared first on Colossal. More
“Une Place Au Soleil” (2025) from ‘Vestige,’ mixed media, 1/35 scale, 31 x 26 x 20 centimeters. All images courtesy of the artist, shared with permission
Simon Laveuve’s Scaled-Down Tableaux Reveal Post-Apocalyptic Lifestyles
November 20, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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There is always something a bit uncanny about Simon Laveuve’s playful miniatures. Whether a ramshackle residence is built impossibly tall or seems to be both upside-down and right-side-up at the same time, we’re drawn into a strange yet alluring world filled with a range of precisely rendered homes and hangouts.
Laveuve is known for his meticulously sculpted miniatures that evoke post-apocalyptic settings, from stilt houses hovering precariously on rock formations to playful amalgamations of numerous “found objects” like tires and old windows. Typically crafted at 1/24 or 1/35 scale, these tiny tableaux are devoid of people yet feel lived in, as if the inhabitants have just stepped away.
“La Beauté Des Aurores” (2025), from ‘Les Étoiles,’ mixed media, 1/35 scale, 19 x 28 x 13 centimeters
Some of Laveuve’s sculptures feature multiple levels, while others focus on a particular interaction between, say, a beach umbrella that someone appears to have pitched not too long ago next to a car that has been abandoned for years, with giant roots growing through the hood. Whether installed on the wall or propped up on a post, the scenes reveal new details when viewed from different vantage points.
Laveuve has been exceptionally productive lately, as Galerie Decorde just exhibited 10 pieces at an art fair in Strasbourg, France, and the artist has work included in Lucas Nadel’s show at Tagliatella Galleries in Paris, which opens on November 22 and continues through December 20. Among other projects, Galerie Decorde will also include Laveuve’s work in its December group show.
Check out Laveuve’s website, and follow updates on Instagram.
“Rêve De Cime” (2025), from ‘Les Étoiles,’ mixed media, 1/35 scale, 34 x 16 x 11 centimeters
Detail of “Rêve De Cime”
Detail of “La Beauté Des Aurores”
“Une Place Au Soleil” (2025) from ‘Vestige,’ mixed media, 1/24 scale, 31 x 26 x 20 centimeters
“Jour De Fête” (2025), from ‘Vestige,’ mixed media, 1/24 scale, 38 x 26 x 18 centimeters
“Jour De Fête” (2025), from ‘Vestige,’ mixed media, 1/24 scale, 38 x 26 x 18 centimeters
Detail of “Jour De Fête”
“Fleur d’IPN” (2025), from ‘Vestige,’ mixed media, 1/24 scale, 33 x 30 x 21 centimeters
Detail of “Fleur d’IPN”
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“Den” (2025), oil on wood, 31.5 × 31.5 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Thinkspace Projects, shared with permission
In ‘Inward,’ Cinta Vidal Folds Time and Space in Perspective-Bending Paintings
November 10, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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Known for her perplexing compositions of domestic interiors, Cinta Vidal continues to mesmerize with a new body of paintings at Thinkspace Projects. The artist’s solo show, Inward, continues her exploration of what she describes as “un-gravity constructions,” in which space and time appear folded or warped.
In Vidal’s dizzying compositions, people occupy different areas of invented apartments and homes. Perhaps each tableau represents a different period of time; perhaps they are parallel universes. “For Vidal, depicting macro and micro levels of inverted apartment buildings and city structures illustrates the various ways the world is experienced by a mass population,” the gallery says.
“Flat” (2025), acrylic on wood, 31.5 x 31.5 inches
“The word ‘inward’ speaks to both layers of interiority: the shared indoor spaces we inhabit and the private, inward-facing state we enter when we disconnect from what surrounds us,” Vidal says. A sofa, for example, can be a place of togetherness or quiet retreat. “These scenes reflect that subtle coexistence: being together, yet each within their own space,” she adds.
Inward continues through November 29 in Los Angeles. And as a complement to the exhibition, Vidal painted a new mural on the side of a local frame shop called Sherman Gallery in Marina del Rey. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Side by Side” (2025), acrylic on wood, 23.6 x 23.6 inches
“Meet Up” (2025), oil on wood, 31.5 x 31.5 inches
“Condominium” (2025), acrylic on wood, 31.5 x 31.5 inches
“Bond” (2025), oil on wood, 27.5 x 27.5 inches
“Brerhen” (2025), oil on wood, 27.5 x 27.5 inches
“Sofascape 1” (2025), acrylic on wood, 35.4 x 35.4 inches
“Attic” (2025), acrylic on wood, 31.5 x 31.5 inches
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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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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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