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Ant Hamlyn’s Vibrant, Smushed Still Lifes Preserve the Impermanent

by Aurelia Butler 9 October 2025, 14:34

“Chandelier.” All images courtesy of the artist and Moosey

Ant Hamlyn’s Vibrant, Smushed Still Lifes Preserve the Impermanent

October 9, 2025

Art

Kate Mothes

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Known for his squishy flowers and foliage made of polyurethane-coated fabrics, often encased-slash-smushed behind panels of clear acrylic, Ant Hamlyn has a sense of humor when it comes to art history.

Nodding to genres in Western art like vanitas still-life paintings, he creates textile reliefs that tap into our contemporary condition. From fast food to houseplants to a vibrant bar cart, his compositions playfully explore themes of indulgence, impermanence, beauty, and the quotidian.

“Greasy Spoon”

Until recently, Hamlyn has focused predominantly on cartoonish botanicals, and he now delves further into the still-life genre. Works like “Greasy Spoon,” “Shelf Life,” and “Drive-Thru” incorporate motifs of food and trendy home decor evocative of quirky snapshots one might see on Instagram, with people just out of frame.

The works seen here were recently presented by Moosey, and you can find more of Hamlyn’s work on his website and Instagram.

“Potwash (I Ought to Give You a Lesson in How to Clean Tables, Boy!”

“Drive-Thru”

“Berry and Rye”

“Shelf Life”

“Soft Vanitas”

“Megadeal”

“Houseplant”

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Twelve Trailblazing Women Artists Transform Interior Spaces in ‘Dream Rooms’
by Aurelia Butler 6 October 2025, 14:58
Aleksandra Kasuba, “Spectral Passage” (1975), reconstruction of Haus der Kunst München, 2023. Adapted reconstruction for the spaces of M+, 2025. Photo by Dan Leung, © Estate of Aleksandra Kasuba. All images courtesy of M+, Hong Kong, shared with permission
Twelve Trailblazing Women Artists Transform Interior Spaces in ‘Dream Rooms’
October 6, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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With its roots in the conceptual and immersive experiments of the Dadaists and Surrealists in the early 20th century, installation art emerged as its own genre in the late 1950s. The approach gained momentum during the next couple of decades, usually revolving around site-specific responses to interior spaces. Taking many forms, installations sometimes incorporate light, sound, projections, performances, and participatory or immersive elements.
“While many of these works were made by women, histories of art havetended to focus on male artists,” says a statement from M+ in Hong Kong, which is currently presenting Dream Rooms: Environments by Women Artists 1950s-Now. The show “addresses this imbalance by foregrounding the visionary contributions of women artists.”
Pinaree Sanpitak, “The House Is Crumbling” (2017/2025), © Pinaree Sanpitak
Dream Rooms features 12 room-scale installations created by artists located across four continents. Originating at Haus der Kunst München in 2023 with the title Inside Other Spaces, the exhibition then traveled to M+, where the artworks have been reconstructed.
Some pieces date back several decades, like Yamazaki Tsuruko’s “Red (shape of mosquito net)” from 1956 and Aleksandra Kasuba’s “Spectral Passage” from 1975. “The exhibition explores forms and ideas that speak to their time, while also encouraging visitors to explore, laugh, wonder, or embrace feelings of unease,” the museum says.
Three new works have been commissioned from three Asian artists specifically for this exhibition. These include Pinaree Sanpitak’s “The House Is Crumbling,” which was first conceived in 2017 and is reimagined for Dream Rooms. Chiharu Shiota’s “Infinite Memory” features a cascade of the artist’s signature red string, and Kimsooja’s atmospheric “To Breathe” is composed of translucent film on window that diffracts the light into prismatic patterns around the museum.
Dream Rooms continues through January 18, 2026. Find more on the museum’s website. You might also enjoy exploring more site-specific work by women artists featured in Groundswell: The Women of Land Art.
Yamazaki Tsuruko, “Red (shape of mosquito net)” (1956), © Estate of Tsuruko Yamazaki. Photo by Agostino Osio–Alto Piano, courtesy of Haus der Kunst München
Kimsooja, “To Breathe” (2022), © Kimsooja, courtesy of Studio Kimsooja
Aleksandra Kasuba, “Spectral Passage” (1975), © Estate of Aleksandra Kasuba. Photo by Constantin Mirbach, courtesy of Haus der Kunst München
Chiharu Shiota, “Internal Line” (2024). Image © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn and Chiharu Shiota, courtesy of the artist
Judy Chicago, “Feather Room” (1966), © Chicago Woodman LLC, Judy Chicago. Photo by Lok Cheng
Pinaree Sanpitak, “The House Is Crumbling” (2017/2025), © Pinaree Sanpitak
Marta Minujín, “¡Revuélquese y viva!” (1964), © Marta Minujín
Lea Lublin, “Penetración / Expulsión (del Fluvio Subtunal)” (1970)
Marta Minujín, “¡Revuélquese y viva!”
(1964), © Marta Minujín.
Photo by Lok Cheng, courtesy of M+, Hong Kong
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Calder Gardens, a Light-Filled Museum and Prairie, Houses the Sculptor’s Work in Philadelphia
by Aurelia Butler 3 October 2025, 13:21
All artwork © Alexander Calder. All photos by Iwan Baan, courtesy of Calder Gardens, shared with permission
Calder Gardens, a Light-Filled Museum and Prairie, Houses the Sculptor’s Work in Philadelphia
October 3, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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Alexander Calder’s most widely recognized creation is perhaps the mobile. The lauded artist was a titan of Modernism whose desire to “draw” three-dimensional objects spirited the invention of what went on to become both an art historical achievement and a ubiquitous nursery item. Broadly interested in movement and space, Calder (1898–1976) is often cited as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.
Now, his work finds a new home in a sprawling museum in Philadelphia, the city where his family lived for generations and where he was born. Located on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Calder Gardens comprises a 1.8-acre landscape and an 18,000-square-foot building that presents a rotating selection of the artist’s works.
The museum is designed to bring art, architecture, and nature into a constant and ever-evolving conversation. Outdoor sculptures stand amid a lush prairie by Piet Oudolf, while architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron created an interior that interacts with Calder’s sculptures. Large-scale pieces loom inside airy concrete galleries, while smaller mobiles seem to nest perfectly in a well-lit opening.
Calder Gardens is open Wednesday through Monday. Find more on its website.
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Explore Trailblazing Street Photography in ‘Faces in the Crowd’ at MFA Boston
by Aurelia Butler 2 October 2025, 17:37
Dawoud Bey, “A Man and Two Women After a Church Service” (1976), photograph, gelatin silver print. Gift of David W. Williams and Eric Ceputis. © Dawoud Bey, photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. All images courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, shared with permission
Explore Trailblazing Street Photography in ‘Faces in the Crowd’ at MFA Boston
October 2, 2025
ArtHistoryPhotography
Kate Mothes
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When playwright Tennessee Williams reflected on the oeuvre of photographer Stephen Shore in 1982, he said, “His work is Nabokovian for me: Exposing so much and yet leaving so much room for your imagination to roam and do what it will.” The sentiment mirrors not only the power of Shore’s work but the capacity of street photography, more broadly, to provoke wonder and curiosity where we least expect it: the everyday.
Shore was among the first to adopt color photography as an artistic medium, traveling throughout America to document quotidian scenes of life in rural towns and big cities alike. His work followed behemoths of the medium like Walker Evans and Robert Frank and set the stage for others who emerged in his footsteps, including Alec Soth, Nan Goldin, and Martin Parr, among many others.
Stephen Shore, “El Paso Street, El Paso, Texas, July 5, 1975” (1975), photograph, chromogenic print. Museum purchase with funds donated by Scott Offen. © Stephen Shore, photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Shore is included in Faces in the Crowd: Street Photography at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which explores the ever-evolving techniques and approaches that photographers use to document people and daily life. Seminal works from the 1970s to the 1990s by Shore, Garry Winogrand, Helen Levitt, Dawoud Bey, and Yolanda Andrade, among others, are complemented by more recent contributions to the genre by artists like Parr, Luc Delahaye, Katy Grannan, Amani Willett, and Zoe Strauss.
Today, smartphones with powerful digital cameras have made photography more accessible than ever—and also completely transformed the medium. With people always unabashedly filming—taking photos, making videos, posting to social media—in the city, “photographers are now less concerned with surreptitiously capturing an image and much more likely to collaborate with their subjects in the street,” the MFA says.
The difference between snapshots and art is perhaps partly in intention, although that line is often purposely blurred. Bey’s striking “A Man and Two Women After a Church Service,” for example, captures a seemingly simple scene, yet the composition and clarity are a testament to timing and technical expertise. In what feels like simultaneously a public and private moment, the 1976 image glimpses both a particular scene and an American historical period.
Whether taken decades ago or snapped within the past few years, the images in Faces in the Crowd invite us into each experience. Luc Delahaye’s “Taxi,” for example, captures a solemn, intimate, enigmatic moment as a mother holds her young son in her arms in the back of a vehicle.
Luc Delahaye, “Taxi” (2016), photograph, chromogenic print. Museum purchase with funds donated by Richard and Lucille Spagnuolo. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Yasuhiro Ishimoto’s crowd photo, taken from the hip, immerses us in the thrum of a city thoroughfare. And Yolanda Andrade captures an uncanny blip when a street performer disappears behind the unsettlingly large head of a puppet. The MFA says, “Drawn to photography’s narrative potential, many employ the camera as a tool of transformation, taking everyday pictures from the ordinary to the strangely beautiful or even ominous.”
Faces in the Crowd opens on October 11 and runs through July 13, 2026. Find more on the museum’s website. You might also enjoy A Sense of Wonder, a monograph of the work of Joel Meyerowitz that was just released by SKIRA.
Yasuhiro Ishimoto “Untitled (71 1879B)” (about 1967), photograph, gelatin silver print, printed in the 1980s. Gift of David W. Williams and Eric Ceputis. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Cristobal Hara, “Cuenca (Crowded Bus)” (about 1973), photograph, gelatin silver print. Gift of Peter Soriano. © Cristóbal Hara, photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Helen Levitt, “New York” (1976, printed 1993), photograph, dye transfer color print. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Graham Gund. © Helen Levitt Film Documents LLC. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Yolanda Andrade, “La revisitación o nueva revelación” (1986), silver gelatin print. Museum purchase with funds donated by Elizabeth and Michael Marcus. © Yolanda Andrade, photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Joel Sternfeld, “New York City (# 1), 1976” (1976), photograph, pigment print. Gift of Ralph and Nancy Segall. © Joel Sternfeld, reproduction courtesy of Luhring Augustine Gallery. Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Michael Spano, Untitled, from the ‘Diptych Series’ (1999), photograph, gelatin silver print. Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund for Photography, reproduced with permission. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Matthew Connors, “Pyongyang” from the series ‘Unanimous Desires’ (2013), photograph, inkjet print. Museum purchase with funds donated by Scott Offen. Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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Lakota and Western Art History Converge in Dyani White Hawk’s Vibrant Works
by Aurelia Butler 1 October 2025, 19:00
“Wopila | Lineage II” (2023), acrylic, glass beads, synthetic sinew, and thread on aluminum panel, 96 x 120 inches. Gochman Family Collection. Photo by Rik Sferra. All images courtesy of Alexander Gray Associates, New York, and Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, shared with permission
Lakota and Western Art History Converge in Dyani White Hawk’s Vibrant Works
October 1, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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Throughout history, those who wield the most power or resources are typically the ones whose stories are represented in textbooks, passed down through generations, and etched into our collective consciousness. Without intentional effort, it can be difficult to hear more than a single narrative.
In art history, the reality is much the same. The canon has always privileged white male artists, from titans of the Renaissance like Michelangelo to bad-boy American Modernists like Jackson Pollock. The foundations of 19th-century American landscape painting, for example, are inextricable from the belief in Manifest Destiny, as the American government violently expanded westward. And Western painting and sculpture have historically reigned supreme in the market-driven hallows of galleries and auction houses. But what of the incredible breadth of—namely Indigenous—art forms that have long been overlooked?
“Visiting” (2024), acrylic, glass beads, thread, and synthetic sinew on aluminum panel with a quartz base, 120 x 15.5 x 15.5 inches (base 5 x 24 x 24 inches). Collection of the Denver Art Museum. Photo by Rik Sferra
For Sičáŋǧu Lakota artist Dyani White Hawk, the construction of American art history lies at the core of her multidisciplinary practice. “She lays bare the exclusionary hierarchies that have long governed cultural legitimacy, authority, value, and visibility,” says a joint statement from Alexander Gray Associates and Bockley Gallery. “In this light, White Hawk reframes Indigenous art and Western abstraction as inseparable practices—linked by a shared history that dominant narratives have labored to separate and obscure.”
Pablo Picasso is credited with the saying, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” Seminal paintings like “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” and others created in the early 1900s would not exist if it were not for his fascination with African masks. White Hawk draws a similar parallel between the 20th-century Color Field and Minimalism movements to highlight the influence of Native American art forms in the evolution of these styles. She prompts viewers to consider how these notions shape our aesthetic perceptions and judgment while also considering the role of cultural memory and community.
White Hawk’s work spans painting, sculpture, photography, performance, and installations. Alongside oil and acrylic paint, she incorporates materials commonly used in Lakota art forms, like beads, porcupine quills, and buckskin.
“I strive to create honest, inclusive works that draw from the breadth of my life experiences,” White Hawk says in a statement, merging influences from Native and non-Native, urban, academic, and cultural education systems. She continues: “This allows me to start from center, deepening my own understanding of the intricacies of self and culture, correlations between personal and national history, and Indigenous and mainstream art histories.”
“Nourish” (2024), ceramic tile installation of handmade tiles by Mercury Mosaics, 174 x 369 1/2 inches. Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Whitney Acquisition Fund 2024.13
Mirroring the meditative labor and incredible attention to detail required to create traditional Lakota artworks—from elaborately beaded garments to abstract buckskin paintings—White Hawk creates energetic installations that are bold and confrontational. Vibrant geometric patterns are direct and visceral in a way that “unsettles the categories of Eurocentric art history,” the galleries say.
White Hawk notes that her mixed-media canvases honor “the importance of the contributions of Lakota women and Indigenous artists to our national artistic history…as well as the ways in which Indigenous artists helped shape the evolution of the practices of Western artists who were inspired by their work.”
“Nourish,” an installation that spans nearly 31 feet wide and 14.5 feet tall, comprises thousands of handmade ceramic tiles that visually reference Lakota beadwork and quillwork. Permanently installed at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the piece enters into a dialogue with the history of American Modernism through painters such as Marsden Hartley and Pollock, who are credited as trailblazers of American abstraction and yet were indelibly influenced by Native American art.
Detail of “Visiting.” Collection of the Denver Art Museum. Photo by Rik Sferra
“At its core, White Hawk’s practice is sustained by ancestral respect and guided by value systems that center relationality and care for all life,” the galleries say. “By addressing inequities affecting Native communities, she creates opportunities for cross-cultural connection and prompts a critical examination of how artistic and national histories have been constructed. Her work invites viewers to evaluate current societal value systems and their capacity to support equitable futures.”
Minneapolis-based Bockley Gallery, which has represented White Hawk for more than a decade, has recently announced co-representation of the artist with New York City-based Alexander Gray Associates, where she’ll present a solo exhibition in fall 2026. If you’re in Minneapolis, Love Language opens on October 18 at the Walker Art Center and continues through February 15. The show then travels to Remai Modern in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where it will be on view from April 25 to September 27, 2026. See more on White Hawk’s website.
Installation view of ‘Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 6 to September 5, 2022). “Wopila | Lineage” (2022), acrylic, glass beads, and synthetic sinew on aluminum panel, 96 9/16 x 168 3/8 inches. Photo by Ron Amstutz
“Carry IV” (2024), buckskin, synthetic sinew and thread, glass beads, brass sequins, copper vessel, copper ladle, and acrylic paint, 123 x 12 x 10 inches. Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Photo by Rik Sferra
Detail of “Carry IV.” Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Photo by Rik Sferra
Installation view of “I Am Your Relative” (2020) in ‘Sharing the Same Breath,’ John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI, 2023. Courtesy of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Detail of “Visiting.” Collection of the Denver Art Museum. Photo by Rik Sferra
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Tenderness and Empathy Prevail in Bisa Butler’s Nostalgic and Vibrant Quilts
by Aurelia Butler 23 September 2025, 14:39
“Hold Me Close (My Starship)” (2025), after
Steve Edson, Untitled (1974), cotton, silk, lace, sequins, netting, vinyl, faux fur, and velvet, quilted and appliquéd, 90.5 x 54 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Jeffrey Deitch, shared with permission
Tenderness and Empathy Prevail in Bisa Butler’s Nostalgic and Vibrant Quilts
September 23, 2025
ArtCraft
Kate Mothes
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Harnessing the power of empathy, Bisa Butler presents a tender, evocative suite of new works in her current exhibition, Hold Me Close at Jeffrey Deitch. The artist is known for her chromatic, multi-patterned quilted artworks exploring Black history, identity, and craft traditions. Her elaborate pieces combine materials like printed cotton, silk, sequins, beads, and velvet to create both large-scale tapestries and intimate vignettes.
The work in Hold Me Close centers around the need for mutual respect, love, and togetherness in a society that has become increasingly factious. “This body of work is a visual response to how I am feeling as an African American woman living in 2025,” Butler says in a statement for the show. Deeply moved by our current era of division and violence, in which hard-won civil rights are being challenged and overturned, she taps in the past to shed light on our current moment.
“Down, down baby” (2024), after Gorden Parks, “Girls Playing in Water” (1956), cotton, silk, vinyl, velvet, lace netting, and polyester, quilted and appliquéd, 107 x 105 inches
Hold Me Close draws on imagery from trailblazing Black photographers like Gordon Parks, Jean Depara, and Gerald Cyrus, who captured street scenes depicting Black figures going about their daily lives and enjoying one another’s company. Parks, for example, was a staunch civil rights advocate who documented racial segregation and oppression of Black people to boldly illustrate the societal disparities in the 1940s and 1950s.
In his two-decade role at Life magazine, Parks captured some of his most significant work, ranging from celebrity portraits to the iconic March on Washington in 1963. Along with numerous other photographers—and acclaimed artists like Faith Ringgold and Kerry James Marshall—that Butler turns to for reference imagery, Parks’ images elucidate the evolving diversity of American culture and experience.
Butler renders her figures in brilliant, mixed-media textures and vivid patterns that draw attention to expressions and interactions. The artist describes her recent work as a “visual diary,” which she turns to for solace. “Protections and programs for non-white Americans, women, queer people, poor people, and people with disabilities are under attack, and it has left me feeling destabilized,” she says.
In the face of uncertainty, the artist summons affection and care. “Les Amoureux du Kinshasa,” after a photo titled “Amoureux Au Nightclub” by Jean Depara, celebrates young love by depicting a couple on a night out. More works like “Be Mine” and “My Cherie Amour” capture tender portraits of people who lean close together.
“Les Amoureux du Kinshasa” (2025), after Jean Depara, “Amoureux Au Nightclub” (1951-1975), cotton, silk, lace, sequins, netting, vinyl, glass rhinestones, plastic beads, and velvet, quilted and appliquéd, 95 x 59 inches
Butler’s compositions also explore familial endearment and the innocence and ease of children at play together. In “The Guardian,” a father warms his daughter inside of his large coat, and in “Down, down baby,” two young girls have an impromptu tea party in a puddle.
Most of Butler’s new works start with a base of jet black cotton or black velvet, onto which she layers colors and textures. “Using a dark base pushed me to incorporate more fabrics with shimmer and reflective qualities,” she says. Three-dimensional textures like beads and rhinestones create the illusion of depth, encouraging us to look beyond the immediate surface. This poetically parallels how, in order to identify and connect with others in our daily lives, we must do the same. Butler says, “This collection is my visual declaration that we need love over hate.”
Hold Me Close continues at Jeffrey Deitch’s Los Angeles location through November 1. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
Detail of “Down, down baby”
“My Cherie Amour” (2025), cotton, silk, lace, sequins, netting, vinyl, glass rhinestones and plastic beads, and velvet, quilted and appliquéd, 44 x 31. 5 inches
“The Guardian” (2024), after Earlie Hudnall Jr., “The Guardian” (1990), cotton, silk, wool, velvet, faux fur, sequins, rhinestones, and vinyl, quilted and appliquéd, 94 x 60 inches
“Be Mine” (2025), cotton, silk, lace, sequins, netting, vinyl, glass rhinestones and plastic beads, velvet, and faux fur, quilted and appliquéd, 45 x 45 inches
“Coco With Morning Glories” (2024), after Dana Lixenberg, “Coco” (1993), cotton, silk, lace, netting, tulle, sequins, glitter, beads, glass gems, metal beads, silk and polyester woven fabric, and velvet, quilted and appliquéd, 84 x 55 inches
“Strawberry Letter #23” (2025), after Gordon Parks, “Man With Straw Hat, Washington D.C,” (1942), cotton, silk, lace, sequins, netting, vinyl, glass rhinestones, plastic beads, and velvet, quilted and appliquéd, 46 x 34 inches
Detail of “Strawberry Letter #23”
“La Negra Tiene Tumbao” (2025), after Gerald Cyrus, “Barbara and Alencar, Itaparica, Brazil” (2002), cotton, silk, lace, sequins, netting, vinyl, and velvet, quilted and appliquéd, 89 x 53 inches
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Uncanny Papier-Mâché Creatures by Roberto Benavidez Mingle in ‘Bosch Beasts’
by Aurelia Butler 15 September 2025, 15:32
“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
by Aurelia Butler 9 September 2025, 23:16
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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‘Spirit Worlds’ Illuminates Our Timeless Quest to Comprehend the Supernatural
by Aurelia Butler 13 August 2025, 18:00
Agnes Pelton, “Fountains” (1926), oil on canvas. Photo courtesy of Peter Palladino/The Agnes Pelton Society. All images courtesy of TASCHEN, shared with permission
‘Spirit Worlds’ Illuminates Our Timeless Quest to Comprehend the Supernatural
August 13, 2025
ArtBooksHistoryPhotography
Kate Mothes
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Since time immemorial, humans have been both awed and guided by the power of the unknown. A basis of spiritual beliefs the world over is the abiding question, why?—a probing wonderment often followed closely by, what happens when we die?
Human belief systems provide structure that help us to make sense of the world, and yet the nature of our existence—and how we fit into the context of the cosmos—comprises some of the most beguiling mysteries of all. It’s no surprise that across cultures and throughout millennia, our search for meaning and connection with other worlds has inspired incredible creativity.
Adolf de Meyer, “Fortune Teller” (1921)
Spirit Worlds, forthcoming from TASCHEN on September 15, celebrates art’s relationship to other realms. More than 400 works spanning thousands of years, paired with essays and interviews with scholars and practitioners, illustrate our fascination with supernatural, from angels and celestial beings to darker forces like ghosts and demons.
The title marks the sixth installment in The Library of Esoterica series, which also includes titles like Plant Magick and Sacred Sites. Spirit Worlds clocks in at more than 500 pages, surveying death rites, altars, sacred temples, the messages of prophets, links mediums make with the other side, symbolic statuary, and more.
“In this expansive volume, we board the ferry across the storied river and enter the gloomy passages between lands, stepping across the threshold—to part the most sacred of veils,” the publisher says.
Pre-order your copy in the Colossal Shop.
Mariusz Lewandowski “Soul Hunter” (2015), 40 x 50 centimeters
The Jade Emperor or King of Heaven at Chua On Lang taoist temple, Ho chi Minh City, Vietnam
“Paradiso, Canto 12: The rings of glorified souls in the sun,” illustration from ‘The Divine Comedy’ by Dante Alighieri, 1885. Digitally colored engraving originally by Gustave Doré
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