More stories

  • in

    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

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    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”

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Previous articleNext article More

  • in

    Sergiu Ciochinǎ’s ‘Blue Series’ Explores Personal Memories, Dreams, and Moods

    “Self-Portrait with a Swan.” All images courtesy of the artist, shared with permission

    Sergiu Ciochinǎ’s ‘Blue Series’ Explores Personal Memories, Dreams, and Moods

    September 10, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    Cradling tiny homes, seated amid flowers, or asleep and dreaming in a garden, the figures in Sergiu Ciochinǎ’s paintings rest and interact in moments of poignant solitude and reverie. The artist’s Blue Series is a visual collection of his own memories, reflections, and moods, which he elaborates into atmospheric and sometimes fantastical canvases.

    “For me, blue is the color of gentle melancholy, profound calm, and also a hidden hope,” Ciochinǎ says. Titles like “Don’t Eclipse Me” and “You Are Your Own Home” tap into our deep-seated desire for connection and a sense of belonging. They also hint at the nature of individuality within the context of our relationships with others, navigated in a series of dreamy scenes.

    “You Are Your Own Home”

    Ciochinǎ also creates glowing landscapes that capture building facades at sunrise or sun-dappled streets of historic European towns. Time and light play a significant role in his portrayals of anonymous figures, too, illuminating their skin with glowing details or situating them in the shadow of floral arrangements or verdant, dusky gardens.

    The figures’ positions and blue tone nod slightly to Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period around 1901 to 1904, when the artist’s earlier, more realistic depictions of people and domestic spaces were largely rendered in blue and blue-green tones to underscore themes of despair and turmoil. For Ciochinǎ, dreams and emotions center in his mystical compositions.

    “I wanted each canvas to convey a kind of breath, a calm vibration, almost musical,” the artist says. “Blue, for me, becomes a meeting space between reality and dream, between memory and the present—a bridge that invites the viewer to pause and contemplate.”

    Ciochinǎ is currently preparing for a solo exhibition in Paris next year, which will include work expanding on the Blue Series. See more on his website, and follow updates on Instagram.

    “Morning”

    “Nowhere”

    “Don’t Eclipse Me”

    “Silent Garden”

    “You Will Bloom Without Me”

    “Pick a Flower, or Even Me”

    “When the Flowers Weep, We Dream—So Beautiful, So Unaware”

    “Nights of June”

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Previous articleNext article More

  • in

    Yoshitoshi Kanemaki’s Sculptures Sport Kaleidoscopic Expressions in Their Search for a ‘True Self’

    Detail of “Breathing Caprice A,” paint on Torreya, 135 x 75 x 55 centimeters. All images courtesy of the artist and FUMA Contemporary Tokyo, shared with permission

    Yoshitoshi Kanemaki’s Sculptures Sport Kaleidoscopic Expressions in Their Search for a ‘True Self’

    September 2, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    Yoshitoshi Kanemaki is no stranger to human emotions, imbuing his playful sculptures with not one but several expressions all at once. The Tokyo-based artist is known for his “glitched” sculptures carved from single pieces of timber, and in his ongoing current series Prism, he continues to explore the nature of distortion, reflection, and self-consciousness.

    Insight Prism, the artist’s solo exhibition opening at FUMA Contemporary this month, combines two concepts the artist dovetails in his chiseled-wood compositions.

    “Insight Prism,” paint on Japanese nutmeg and katsura, 170 x 72 x 67 centimeters

    “The word ‘insight’ carries the meaning of seeing into the essence of things with clarity, while ‘prism’ metaphorically refers to elucidating what is complex,” Kanemaki says. Through a fragmented triangular motif, he highlights warped features that refract, separate, and reassemble—much like the ever-evolving nature of human consciousness and social interactions.

    Insight Prism marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in two years, presenting the largest sculpture he’s yet created in the Prism series—the namesake of the show. Kanemaki delves into the multiple roles we all play in our daily lives, switching between different versions of ourselves to contend with different situations or environments. He says:

    While such shifts can be seen as a necessary social manner to keep life running smoothly, there are times when we lose the vision of our “true self.”… The idea for my new sculptures began with the question: What might the form of searching for one’s “true self” look like?

    Insight Prism opens on September 12 and continues through September 27 in Tokyo. Find more on the artist’s Instagram.

    “Breathing Caprice A,” paint on Torreya, 135 x 75 x 55 centimeters

    Detail of “Insight Prism”

    “Reflection Prism,” paint on Torreya, 170 x 53 x 51 centimeters

    Detail of “Reflection Prism”

    “Ulala Caprice 3rd,” paint on Japanese nutmeg and camphor wood, 100 x 34 x 34 centimeters

    Detail of “Ulala Caprice 3rd”

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Next article More

  • in

    Tenderly Crocheted Sculptures by Caitlin McCormack Contend with Existential Dread

    “Let’s Get Demonized (Instructional Polyhedron).” Photos by Jason Chen. All images courtesy of Caitlin McCormack, shared with permission

    Tenderly Crocheted Sculptures by Caitlin McCormack Contend with Existential Dread

    July 10, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    Caitlin McCormack is known for her crocheted, skeletal animals and otherworldly plants that nod to a speculative future in which the earth has endured environmental catastrophe. Motifs of skeletal baby birds and mammals read as cautionary tales about the human relationship with nature today and how much more disconnected—and disastrous—it could become.

    Through crochet, with which we often associate domestic comfort and even quaintness, the artist channels a nostalgic medium to peer more closely at what we ignore in the present. Bundles of stones and knick-knacks encased in lacy fibers are complemented by skeletal specimens and strange botanical sculptures.

    “Never Let the Party Die”

    A new body of work that goes on view this weekend in There You Will Find the Stone at Harman Projects. The show includes a nebulous, blue wall sculpture titled “Earth Before Eyeballs Existed,” containing niches for tiny bundles of found objects. Pairing a slightly unnerving hue and a collection of tenderly crocheted packets, McCormack illuminates a reverence for tiny overlooked or discarded items.

    Many of the titles of the artist’s pieces express a sense of dread, tension, or excess. A series of bundles titled They Come Back But They’re Never the Same and sculptures like “Don’t Let the Party Die” hint at a human crisis of control. “You Picked the Wrong One,” with a nest of unsettling, skeletal baby birds, brims with foreboding.

    McCormack’s recent work emerges also from her attempts to process loss and illness in her family, including her own medical diagnoses. “These experiences have catalyzed a reevaluation of deep-rooted existential positions, specifically those grounded in skepticism, atheism, and a lifetime of anxiety,” she says in a statement. These pieces “serve as manifestations of an evolving worldview shaped by grief, loss, and an obsessive search for meaning.”

    There You Will Find the Stone runs from July 12 to August 2 in New York City. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    “Earth Before Eyeballs Existed”

    Detail of “Earth Before Eyeballs Existed”

    “Milkvetch, How Much More Can They Hold”

    Detail of “Milkvetch, How Much More Can They Hold”

    “They Come Back But They’re Never the Same V”

    “You Picked the Wrong One”

    Detail of “You Picked the Wrong One”

    Detail of “Never Let the Party Die”

    “I Came Here to Try to Have a Good Time”

    Detail of “I Came Here to Try to Have a Good Time”

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Previous articleNext article More

  • in

    Through Fairy Lights and Butterflies, Chiharu Shiota Tethers Presence and Absence

    “Metamorphosis of Consciousness” (2025), mixed media, dimensions variable. All images courtesy of Red Brick Art Museum

    Through Fairy Lights and Butterflies, Chiharu Shiota Tethers Presence and Absence

    May 22, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    In one of the foundational texts of Taoism, Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou recalls a dream in which he was a butterfly, soaring through the sky with no recollection of his human form. Upon waking, though, he finds himself firmly in a bipedal body, prompting an important question: is he a butterfly dreaming he’s Zhuang Zhou or a man dreaming he’s a butterfly?

    This ancient story of transformation and the thin line between states of mind informs a dazzling new installation by Chiharu Shiota (previously). “Metamorphosis of Consciousness” suspends glimmering lights and faint butterfly wings above an iron-framed twin bed topped with a white blanket and pillow. Rejecting the strict separation between body and mind, Shiota references her belief in the spirit’s ability to endure long after one’s final breath. “While each time we slip into sleep, it is a rehearsal for death—a journey beyond the body,” she says.

    “Metamorphosis of Consciousness” (2025), mixed media, dimensions variable

    Exemplary of the artist’s interest in memory and knowledge, “Metamorphosis of Consciousness” is just one of the immersive works in the monumental exhibition Silent Emptiness at Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing.

    On view through August 31, the show revolves around Shiota’s ongoing explorations into the “presence in absence,” this time extending such inquiries into ideas of emptiness as it relates to Eastern philosophy and enlightenment.

    Included in the exhibtion is an antique Tibetan Buddhist doorway that anchors “Gateway to Silence,” an explosive installation that entwines the elaborately carved wood structure in a dense, criss-crossing labyrinth of string. Red thread, one of the artist’s favored materials, symbolizes relationships. And in this case, it’s an invitation to introspection and finding an awareness of the present moment.

    Metaphorically interlacing art, memory, and faith, Shiota very literally visualizes the intextricable web in which we’re all bound, regardless of geography or era. Pieces like “Echoes of Time” and “Rooted Memories” incorporate materials like soil and large stones, presenting the passage of time as cyclical and the past as always shaping the present.

    Detail of “Gateway to Silence” (2025), antique porch and red wool, dimensions variable

    Born in Osaka, the artist has lived in Berlin for much of her life, and Silent Emptiness also tethers her roots to more global experiences. Shiota likened her understanding of herself to the way salt molecules appear as crystals only after water evaporates. “I was not visible as an individual in Japan,” she says. “Whereas I did not know who I was, what I wanted to do, and what was necessary in the water, I feel that I became an individual and crystal, and understood those things for the first time by coming to Germany.”

    Another example of finding presence in absence, Shiota’s migration and experience of discovery provides an important touchstone for her thinking and practice. She adds, “Absence does not signify disappearance but rather an integration into a vaster universe, re-entering the flow of time and forming new connections with all things.” (via designboom)

    “Gateway to Silence” (2025, antique porch and red wool, dimensions variable

    Detail of “Gateway to Silence” (2025, antique porch and red wool, dimensions variable

    Detail of “Metamorphosis of Consciousness” (2025), mixed media, dimensions variable

    “Rooted Memories” (2025), red rope, boat, and earth, dimensions variable

    “Rooted Memories” (2025), red rope, boat, and earth, dimensions variable

    Detail of “Rooted Memories” (2025), red rope, boat, and earth, dimensions variable

    “Multiple Realities” (2025), mixed media, dimensions variable

    “Echoes of Time” (2025), black yarn and rock, dimensions variable

    “Echoes of Time” (2025), black yarn and rock, dimensions variable

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Previous articleNext article More

  • in

    Metaphysical Interactions Unfold in Moonassi’s Surreal ‘Mind Illustrations’

    “Same difference” (2024), ink and acrylic on Hanji, 72.7 x 60.6 centimeters. All images courtesy of the artist, shared with permission

    Metaphysical Interactions Unfold in Moonassi’s Surreal ‘Mind Illustrations’

    May 12, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    Through ink on hanji paper that juxtaposes deep blacks with delicate cross-hatching, surreal scenes unfold in the drawings of Seoul-based artist Moonassi (previously). Through the dramatic use of chiaroscuro and simple yet elegantly delineated faces, hands, and limbs, the artist constructs dreamlike worlds in which figures commune and explore.

    Moonassi’s use of meok, a traditional Korean inkstick ground with water against a stone to produce a liquid, results in a deep black medium achieved through a meditative process. He refers to his work as “mind illustration,” delving into the emotional and psychological bonds between pairs, small groups, and otherworldly surroundings.

    “Meme” (2024), ink and acrylic on Hanji, 130.3 x 193.9 centimeters

    Recent pieces like “Same difference” explore dualities like opaqueness and transparency, weight and lightness, and unity and individuality. Moonassi’s compositions are often intrinsically introspective, as the figures interact with others that may or may not be versions of themselves or figments of their own imaginations.

    Repetition and scale play significant roles in the artist’s work, like in “Meme,” in which a central figure crouches onto the ground and gently cups another tiny figure in their hands, who in turn does the same. At some point, it dawns on us that the main figure is also framed by enormous hands, akin to an otherworldly Matryoshka nesting doll. Moonassi’s scenes challenges our senses of perspective, presence, care, and the spiritual world.

    Find more on the artist’s website.

    “Mineral Wait” (2024), ink on Hanji, 76 × 145 centimeters

    “Acrobat IV” (2024), ink and acrylic on Hanji, 72.7 x 60.6 centimeters

    “Becoming Nature” (2024), ink and acrylic on Hanji, 72.7 x 60.6 centimeters

    “The feeling aligned for us” (2024), ink and acrylic on Hanji, 130.3 x 190.4 centimeters

    “Rippled and sparkled” (2024), ink on Hanji, 130.3 x 193.9 centimeters

    “Feeling Kintsugi” (2024), ink and acrylic on Hanji, 72.7 x 60.6 centimeters

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Next article More

  • in

    David Surman’s Gestural Paintings Question How We Understand Animal Emotion

    “Bathers At K’gari” (2024), oil on canvas, 100 x 120 centimeters. All images courtesy of David Surman and Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery, shared with permission

    David Surman’s Gestural Paintings Question How We Understand Animal Emotion

    March 7, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    Now based in London, David Surman was raised in a small coastal village in southwest England. The bucolic scenery and access to animals left an indelible impact on the artist, who plumbs his memory and draws on a vast array of art historical references in his paintings.

    Surman’s most recent body of work is on view in his solo exhibition at Rebecca Hassock Art Gallery. In comparison to previous collections, After the Flood is less abstract but similarly gestural, as sweeping brushstrokes delineate a bull’s sinewed musculature or the curled mane of a bashful horse.

    “Clarion Call” (2024), oil on canvas, 120 x 100 centimeters

    Interested in the ways we project our experiences and ideologies onto the natural world, Surman renders recognizable subjects in a manner that reflects our tendency to ascribe human emotion and feeling to other species. “I like painting animals because they short-circuit people’s interpretive routines and get them looking at paint without the self-consciousness they might bring to abstract painting,” he said in a 2023 interview, adding:

    The creatures that I paint are caught up in our human problem, which is the separation from the world caused by consciousness. The way in which my animals look at the viewer deliberately sets up a feeling of intensity, perhaps troubled engagement, a kind of accusation or affection. But in every case, the creature possesses a trace or residue of conscious agency.

    In “Old Stew Head,” for example, viewers encounter a deeply troubled fox grasping a limp fish in its jaws. The dog in “Bathers At K’gari” is similarly anxious as it carries a young pup under a bright blue sky.

    After the Flood continues in London through March 29. Find more from the artist on his website and Instagram.

    “Old Stew Head” (2025), oil on canvas, 60 x 50 centimeters

    “Icarus And Daedalus” (2024), oil on canvas, 120 x 100 centimeters

    “Kelpie Of Loch Ailort” (2024), oil on canvas, 60 x 50 centimeters

    “The Explorers” (2025), oil on canvas, 100 x 120 centimeters

    “Leo The Lion (Art For Art’s Sake)” (2025), oil on canvas, 120 x 100 centimeters

    “Ostracon” (2025), oil on canvas, 160 x 140 centimeters

    “A Frog In An Endless Pond” (2024), oil on canvas, 60 x 50 centimeters

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Previous articleNext article More

  • in

    Lena Guberman’s Emotive Sculptures Call Upon Childhood Social Anxiety

    All images courtesy of Lena Guberman, shared with permission

    Lena Guberman’s Emotive Sculptures Call Upon Childhood Social Anxiety

    February 12, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    For any of us who are shy or anxious about interacting with others in the outside world, we might think of the face we “put on” that enable us to feel less fearful. For Lena Guberman (previously), a recent series of ceramic sculptures titled INS_IDE_OUT delves into her childhood experiences with social anxiety and the uncertainties of the unknown.

    “The mask provides a protective shell and presents a ‘perfect’ appearance to the outside world but fails to stop the fears and emotions from bursting out,” Guberman tells Colossal.

    Each piece is modeled on the same melancholy face of a young, brown-haired girl, with painted and sculpted elements that range from spikes to arrows to a dead bird. Emotionally evocative and sometimes slightly unsettling, her sculptures explore the spectrum of feelings associated with anxiety.

    Guberman is currently planning a project that expands upon her use of ceramics by adding other materials. See more work on her website, Instagram, and Behance.

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Next article More