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    Experimenting with Color and Reflection, Kenny Harris Brews Beautiful Still Lifes

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    All images © Kenny Harris, shared with permission

    Experimenting with Color and Reflection, Kenny Harris Brews Beautiful Still Lifes

    August 8, 2025

    ArtDesignFood

    Kate Mothes

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    In 1933, Alfonso Bialetti and his son Renato began to market an aluminum contraption for brewing coffee that would make an indelible mark on Italian culinary culture and beyond. Called a moka pot after the Yemeni city of Mokha, the appliance is still manufactured today by the coffee equipment company Bialetti under the name Moka Express, providing a steam-powered, filterless way to make a rich brew on the stovetop.

    For Venice, California-based artist Kenny Harris, the metallic, faceted surface of the iconic maker inspires an ongoing series of lovely still-life oil paintings. Exploring color and form, the artist focuses on reflections and their effects. Delicate gradients and patterns are mirrored across the pot’s surface, sometimes blurring the boundary between the object and its surroundings.

    “I find delight in searching for harmonies, lost edges, and texture variation,” the artist says. “In the end, these are color experimentations in the tradition of Joseph Albers or Albert Moore: reiteration of the same forms with different color combinations. Also, I love coffee.”

    A solo show of Harris’s work titled Passage opens on September 6 at Galerie Mokum in Amsterdam, and he’s currently working toward another show in early 2026 at Billis Williams Gallery in Los Angeles. Explore more work on the artist’s website and Instagram.

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      In ‘Bourdon Street Chippy,’ Lucy Sparrow Celebrates a British Culinary Institution in Felt

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      Photos by Alun Callender for JBPR. All images courtesy of the artist and Lyndsey Ingram, shared with permission

      In ‘Bourdon Street Chippy,’ Lucy Sparrow Celebrates a British Culinary Institution in Felt

      August 7, 2025

      ArtCraftFood

      Kate Mothes

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      From fried cod to red saveloy sausage to the carb-lover’s chip butty—a simple sandwich made with chunky fries on a buttered roll—the menu at Bourdon Street Chippy resembles what you’d expect to see at a traditional British fish and chips shop. The only real difference, despite the delectable-looking cones of deep-fried treats and perfectly formed pies, is that everything from the jarred, picked eggs to the battered haddock to the wall decor is made from felt.

      The brainchild of artist Lucy Sparrow (previously), Bourdon Street Chippy is the latest in a series of elaborate, large-scale, interactive installations highlighting quotidian places like supermarkets, pharmacies, and bodegas that we visit all the time but rarely think of much in the way of aesthetics. Crafted in soft fiber, many of the artist’s renditions of merchandise and food sport cute, smiling expressions while faithfully replicating iconic dishes and products.

      Bourdon Street Chippy is presented by Lyndsey Ingram Gallery, which is located on Bourdon Street in London. While the scampi and chips that Sparrow whips up aren’t edible, they are available for purchase. Visitors are welcome to peruse the menu and order their takeaway directly from the artist. “As much theatre as art, the familiarity of…these spaces disarms the viewer, taking them to a playful, often nostalgic place,” the gallery says.

      The exhibition includes handmade banquette seating and a wall-to-wall gallery of sewn portraits of the chippy’s famous patrons. Read fabric menus, have an even tougher time than usual getting ketchup to come out of the Heinz bottles, and be reminded not to feed the seagulls. All in all, the installation includes more than 65,000 individual felt pieces, including 15 chip shapes in different colors.

      The exhibition continues through September 14. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

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      in Art

      Thijs Biersteker’s Digital Sculptures Translate Climate Data into Urgent Calls to Action

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      “ORIGIN.” All images courtesy of Thijs Biersteker, shared with permission

      Thijs Biersteker’s Digital Sculptures Translate Climate Data into Urgent Calls to Action

      July 16, 2025

      ArtClimateDesignFoodNatureScience

      Kate Mothes

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      An unassuming cacao tree in Indonesia has made a unique connection to a high-tech artwork in China. Thanks to multimedia digital artist Thijs Biersteker, “ORIGIN” is a sculpture — a “digital twin” — that reflects the elemental experiences of the tropical tree through pulses of light.

      “When it rains in Indonesia, you see the sap flow through the sculpture in real time,” the artist says. “When the air quality shifts, the flows respond. During a heatwave, the tree visibly struggles. This real-time installation reveals just how fragile the cacao supply chain has become.”

      A majority of cacao, the primary ingredient in chocolate, is cultivated in places that are also the most vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis. Extreme weather, habitat destruction, and other issues also mean that global food resiliency is increasingly threatened.

      For Biersteker, data provides unique insights into changes on the ground, and through a recent collaboration with the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute (ICCRI), he devised a way to literally illuminate environmental impacts.

      The artist is particularly interested in the relationship between data and nature, especially our scientific understanding of climate change and how it affects biodiversity, food, and habitats. Hooking up sensors to a specimen at ICCRI’s research site in Java, Bierksteker created a translucent, sculptural mirror of the tree, which is currently installed at Zaishui Art Museum in the city of Rizhao, Shandong Province.

      Another work, “WITHER,” in collaboration with UNICEF, comprises a tropical installation with flickering leaves representing rainforest loss. Each flicker symbolizes 128 square meters of deforestation, based on data from Amazon rainforest watch groups. And “ECONTINUUM,” a collaboration with Stefano Mancuso, invites us into a kind of “conversation” occurring between tree roots in a twinkling digital composition. The work nods to recent scientific discoveries that suggest trees communicate with one another via their intricate subterranean systems to provide or request nutrients or warn others of dangers like disease or infestations.

      “WITHER”

      For “ORIGIN,” the live cacao tree in Java transmits information, its digital copy animating with fluctuating light. “This mirrors the role of the institutions behind it: making the invisible visible and reconnecting people with the systems that feed them,” Biersteker says in a statement. “It is where data begins to speak to the imagination and where data-driven art becomes a new language for change.”

      Explore more on Bierksteker’s website and Instagram. If you enjoy pieces that explore the intersection of data and nature, you’ll also like Marshmallow Laser Feast’s “Of the Oak” installation at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

      Details of cacao tree in Java and “ORIGIN”

      Detail of “ORIGIN”

      Detail of “ECONTINUUM”

      Detail of “ORIGIN”

      Detail of “ORIGIN”

      “WITHER”

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    • 150 Shares189 Views

      in Art

      Dr. Ella Hawkins Reimagines Ancient Artifacts and Prized Objects as Edible Replicas

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      William Morris Biscuit Set. All images courtesy of Ella Hawkins, shared with permission

      Dr. Ella Hawkins Reimagines Ancient Artifacts and Prized Objects as Edible Replicas

      May 31, 2025

      ArtDesignFoodIllustration

      Grace Ebert

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      Academic research is notoriously niche and often opaque, but Dr. Ella Hawkins has found a crowd-pleasing way to share her studies. The Birmingham-based artist and design historian translates her interests in Shakespeare performance, costume, and matieral culture into edible replicas.

      Hawkins bakes batches of cookies that she tops with royal icing. Decorating takes a scholarly turn, as she uses tiny paintbrushes and a mini projector to help trace imagery of William Morris’ ornate floral motifs or coastal scenes from English delftware. Rendering a design on a single cookie can take anywhere between two and four hours, depending on the complexity. Unsurprisingly, minuscule calligraphy and portraits are most demanding.

      Ancient Greek Pottery Sherds

      Hawkins first merged baking and her research about a decade ago while studying undergraduate costume design at the University of Warwick. She decided to bake cupcakes based on Shakespeare productions that her class examined. “It felt like a fun way to look back at all the different design styles we’d covered through the year,” she tells Colossal, adding:

      I carried on decorating cakes and cookies based on costume design through my PhD (mainly as goodies to give out during talks, or as gifts for designers that I interviewed), then branched out and spent lots of time doing cookie versions of other artefacts to keep busy during the pandemic.

      She has since published an academic book on the topic and is a senior lecturer at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. But she also continues to translate artifacts and prized objects held within museum collections into delicious canvases.

      There’s a set made in collaboration with Milton’s Cottage, a museum in the country house where John Milton finished his epic Paradise Lost. Anchored by a delicately crosshatched portrait evoking that of the frontispiece, the collection contains typographic titles and signs that appear straight from a 17th-century book.

      Delftware Tiles

      Hawkins ventures farther back in history to ancient Greece with a collection of pottery sherds inspired by objects within the Ashmolean Museum. With a bowed surface to mimic a vessel’s curvature, the irregular shapes feature fragments of various motifs and figures to which she applied a sgraffito technique, a Renaissance method of scratching a surface to reveal the layer below.

      The weathered appearance is the result of blotting a base of pale brown-grey before using a scribe tool to scratch and crack the royal icing coating the surface. She then lined these etchings with a mix of vodka and black food coloring to mimic dirt and wear. (It’s worth taking a look at this process video.)

      Other than a select few preserved for talks and events, Hawkins assures us that the rest of her cookies are eaten. Find more of her work on her website and Instagram.

      Medieval Tiles, inspired by The Tristram Tiles, Chertsey, Surrey, England (c. 1260s-70s)

      Milton’s Cottage Biscuit Set developed in collaboration with Milton’s Cottage

      Outlander Biscuit Set

      Elizabethan Gauntlet Biscuit Set

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    • 150 Shares159 Views

      in Art

      Delight in Heather Rios’s Delectable Cakes Made from Polymer Clay and Embroidery

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      All images courtesy of Heather Rios, shared with permission

      Delight in Heather Rios’s Delectable Cakes Made from Polymer Clay and Embroidery

      March 17, 2025

      ArtCraftFood

      Kate Mothes

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      While Heather Rios’s slices of layer cake look ready to stick a fork into, you may want to think twice. Formed of polymer clay and finished with embroidery, the artist pairs the sweets with a vintage plate—and sometimes a fork—in playful trompe l’oeils.

      Enveloped in realistic frosting and decorated with berries, blossoms, and sprinkles, each work evokes pieces you’d be ready to dig into at a birthday or wedding. Rios meticulously embroiders each sponge element, fashioning patterned layers in thread on a hoop before transferring the finished panel to the sculpture.

      In addition to freestanding forms, Rios embellishes small paintings with shallow reliefs of cakes on canvas, emphasizing vibrant color and the fluffy texture of the exposed interiors.

      Many of Rios’s cakes would be exceedingly difficult to achieve in reality, like detailed floral designs or motifs from blue-and-white porcelain. Lucky for us, we can have our cake and keep it, too. Find more on the artist’s Instagram, and purchase a slice from her Etsy shop.

      A sponge embroidery in progress

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    • 163 Shares199 Views

      in Art

      Wayne Thiebaud’s Passion for Art History Shines in ‘Art Comes from Art’

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      “Buffet” (1972-1975), oil on canvas, 48 1/8 x 60 1/8 inches. Photo by Katherine Du Tiel. All images © Wayne Thiebaud Foundation, licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, courtesy of UC Press, shared with permission

      Wayne Thiebaud’s Passion for Art History Shines in ‘Art Comes from Art’

      February 20, 2025

      ArtBooksHistory

      Kate Mothes

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      If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021) knew how to appropriate most ardently. The renowned artist once said, “It’s hard for me to think of artists who weren’t influential on me because I’m such a blatant thief.”

      Next month, a major retrospective highlights Thiebaud’s six-decade career, featuring around 60 quintessential works spanning a range of subject matter. From his celebrated still-lifes of dessert displays and prosaic household objects to portraits, cityscapes, and expansive natural vistas, Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art takes a deep dive into the artist’s engagement with art history.

      “Five Seated Figures” (1965 ), oil on canvas, 60 x 72 inches

      Thiebaud spent time in the 1950s with abstract artists like Franz Kline and Elaine and Willem de Kooning in New York City, where he also met Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns whose mixed-media practices incorporated found objects in conceptual, proto-Pop Art paintings and assemblages. While in the city, Thiebaud made small paintings of food displayed on windows, which he further explored when he returned to California.

      Thiebaud’s career originated with a focus on illustration and cartoons, which aligned with the emergence of Pop Art in the U.S. in the early 1960s. A response to the austerity of the First and Second World Wars, the movement celebrated bold colors, repetition, and everyday objects and commodities.

      Art Comes from Art showcases how Thiebaud borrowed from the breadth of European and American masterworks, from Henri Matisse to Richard Diebenkorn to Andrea Mantegna. “I believe very much in the tradition that art comes from art and nothing else,” the artist said.

      Thiebaud copied, reinterpreted, mashed up, and transformed art history into his own artistic vision, viewing other artists’ cumulative work as a kind of archive or repository—an encyclopedic “bureau of standards” that he could “steal” from while simultaneously paying tribute to titans of the Western art canon.

      “Three Machines” (1963), oil on canvas, 30 x 36 1/2 inches. Photo by Randy Dodson, courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

      In oil paintings like “35 Cent Masterpieces,” Thiebaud renders a display of artwork reproductions evocative of postcards or bookshelves in a museum gift shop. And lighting redolent of Edward Hopper, also known for depicting everyday American scenes, contrasts the subjects of “Five Seated Figures.” Along with Thiebauld’s vibrant, buttery portrayals of meals and treats with characteristically glowing blue shadows, additional pieces reference Rembrandt, George Seurat, Édouard Manet, and many more.

      Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art opens at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor on March 22 and continues through August 17. The show is accompanied by a catalog published by UC Press slated for release in mid-April. Find your copy on Bookshop.

      “Bar-B-Qued Chickens” (1961), oil on canvas, 19 x 24 inches

      “Canyon Mountains” (2011-2012), oil on canvas, 66 1/8 x 54 1/8 inches. Photo by Katherine Du Tiel

      “Betty Jean Thiebaud and Book” (1965-1969), oil on canvas, 36 x 30 inches

      Front cover of ‘Art Comes from Art’ featuring “35 Cent Masterworks” (1970-1972), oil on canvas, 36 x 24 inches

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    • 188 Shares179 Views

      in Art

      Naomi Peterson Channels a Sweet Tooth and Sense of Togetherness in Her Vibrant ‘Cup-Cakes’

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      “Mud Pies.” All images courtesy of Naomi Peterson, shared with permission

      Naomi Peterson Channels a Sweet Tooth and Sense of Togetherness in Her Vibrant ‘Cup-Cakes’

      February 4, 2025

      ArtCraftFood

      Kate Mothes

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      Frosted sponge and overstuffed pies are just a few of the sweet treats Naomi Peterson crafts from clay. Her playful “cup-cakes” take confectionery as a starting point, adding layers reminiscent of fondant, ice cream scoops, berries, and sprinkles.

      Many of Peterson’s pieces are functional, incorporating lids or handles to be used as vessels or coffee mugs. “I’m drawn to visual sweetness, imagining the potential enjoyment of confectioneries rather than physically consuming them,” she tells Colossal. “I actually prefer savory and salty foods to sweet ones!”

      “Topiary Jar 2”

      Flowers complement playful lattice patterns in vibrant hues, sometimes leaning into a garden theme with topiary forms. Peterson relies on an intuitive approach that combines wheel-thrown techniques with hand-building methods like coils, slabs, and pinching. “I construct different forms and plan surfaces later,” she says. “I find if I pre-plan the surface and shape from the beginning, the process becomes too controlled, limiting spontaneity.”

      Once the basic form is complete, Peterson adds or removes elements through darting—cutting wedge-shaped pieces from a cylinder of clay—and embellishing with sprig or press molds. “My surfaces require many applications and separate firings to achieve vibrant, layered effects,” she says. “Before ceramics, I spent many years painting mainly with oils, influencing much of my surface decisions.”

      We often think of confectionery as a token of joy, celebration, and togetherness. Every cake and bon bon reflects Peterson’s interest in relationships and the way our actions and emotions entwine us with others and our communities. The spaces in between the dot patterns are essential, “not to keep each element distant but to connect them,” she says. “Although not physically connected, each of us is important as part of a whole.”

      Peterson’s work will be part of Dirt Folk: Planted, a pop-up exhibition running concurrently with the 2025 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference in March in Salt Lake City. If you’re on the East Coast, you’ll be able to see her work in Lines and Patterns from March 22 to May 24 at Baltimore Clayworks. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

      Assorted “Cakes”

      “Flower Pot”

      Assorted “Bon Bons”

      “Bloom Cake 2”

      Assorted “Bon Bons”

      “Pluff Jar”

      Confectionery-inspired mugs

      “Harmonia”

      Assorted “Cakes”

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    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Art

      Through Ceramics, Stephanie Shih Considers the Disillusioning Price of Domestic Bliss

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      “Nuclear Family” (2024). Photo by Robert Bredvad courtesy of the artist and Alexander Berggruen, shared with permission

      Through Ceramics, Stephanie Shih Considers the Disillusioning Price of Domestic Bliss

      January 27, 2025

      ArtSocial Issues

      Jackie Andres

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      Nothing says true love like arguing about who left the cap off the toothpaste, right? From a darkly comedic perspective, Stephanie Shih explores the multiple meanings of “domestic bliss” in a social landscape fraught with consumerism and clashing politics.

      It all started with the 1998 self-help book, Divorce for Dummies. The sardonic humor of a goofy cartoon character exclamatorily holding up a finger offering counsel to one’s broken marriage—for the totally reasonable price of $19.99—was a catalyst for Shih’s interest in the capitalist absurdity that came with the divorce boom of the 1980s and ’90s.

      “Chores” (2024). Photo by Robert Bredvad

      Shifting social and cultural factors, such as the introduction of no-fault divorce laws and emergent waves of feminism, drastically impacted the outlook on divorce in America. Rising individualism, disillusionment with the idea of a nuclear family, and the reclamation of feminine independence all played a part in annulment rates doubling for those aged over 35.

      In Shih’s solo exhibition aptly titled Domestic Bliss, the Brooklyn-based artist spotlights what the gallery, Alexander Berggruen, describes as “artifacts of a single household.” The array of objects evoke the reality of a time when materialism, distorted expectations, and self-loathing created a perfect storm.

      A Thigh Master one likely ordered from QVC in the deep hours of night sits alone on a pedestal, epitomizing the ways in which consumer culture preyed upon insecurities, only to sell women the illusion of control. Prisoner of Desire rests face-down on an ironing board to hold one’s place as escapism is interrupted by the mediocrity of chores. TV dinners stack atop a glowing microwave to signify power dynamics, a substantial portion of Hungry Man reserved for the father and the smallest box reserved for the mother.

      Expanding upon her previous domestic sculptures, each ceramic object evokes a sense of realism, thanks to the artist’s thoroughness. As the exhibition text explains, Shih “scoured eBay listings for photo references and exact dimensions of discontinued packaging in order to faithfully sculpt each object in its era-appropriate likeness.” A range of materials and techniques are then applied to each form, such as hand-painted underglaze, dyed resin, and even electrical elements like lighting. Every step of the way, the artist skillfully instills the mundane with liveliness.

      Domestic Bliss is on view at Alexander Berggruen in New York City through February 26. Find much more on Shih’s Instagram and website.

      “Dissolution” (2024). Photo by Robert Bredvad

      Photo by Robert Bredvad

      “Jagged Little Pill” (2024). Photo by Robert Bredvad

      Installation of “Domestic Bliss” (2024). Photo by Dario Lasagni

      “Happy Meal” (2024). Photo by Robert Bredvad

      “Hot Pockets” (2024). Photo by Robert Bredvad

      Installation of “Domestic Bliss” (2024). Photo by Dario Lasagni

      Installation of “Domestic Bliss” (2024). Photo by Dario Lasagni

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    • 125 Shares169 Views

      in Art

      Chunbo Zhang Sandwiches Rich American Fare Between Ancient Chinese Treasures

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      All images courtesy of Chunbo Zhang, shared with permission

      Chunbo Zhang Sandwiches Rich American Fare Between Ancient Chinese Treasures

      January 24, 2025

      ArtFood

      Grace Ebert

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      In Chunbo Zhang’s Food Treasure series, cheese oozes from a patterned porcelain crust, while grease pools around a burger with a ceramic-like bun. Painted in acrylic or watercolor, the delicate compositions capture the gluttony and excess of the quintessential American diet.

      Zhang, who’s based in Chicago, began the series in 2018 after moving to the U.S. and was struggling to adapt to her new surroundings, particularly regarding food. “It is not only essential in our daily life but also an entry point for foreigners to understand an unfamiliar culture,” she tells Colossal.

      The artist found American dairy products difficult to digest and popular desserts like donuts and Oreos far too sweet. As she wondered how to bridge the divide between her Chinese background and adopted home, she began to paint realistic renderings of epicurean delights like deep-dish pizza and bagels thick with schmear. Except where a viewer might expect to find a glistening egg-wash glaze or crispy crust, Zhang painted motifs from antique porcelain.

      Food Treasure depicts many of the dishes on a larger scale, nodding to both the immense portions of the American diet and also the outsized impact meals have on shaping our cultural identities. Each work emphasizes myriad tensions: hard and soft, raw and cooked, inedible and nourishing, ancient and contemporary, functional and decorative, high and low aesthetics. Reflecting Zhang’s anxieties, the works ask, “Do the two cultures fight each other or can they merge?”

      Questions like this are fundamental to the series and inform how Zhang chooses reference imagery from Chinese wares that correspond to the dish. For example, the cheeseburger is sandwiched between a motif that represents long life and happiness, another dichotomy considering the diner fare is unlikely to find itself among any dietician’s recommendations. These patterns also reflect movement and migration as blue-and-white porcelain and elaborate, vivid florals emerged from cultural exchanges dating back to the 13th century.

      In 2023, Zhang began to think about the ways food travels and painted an iteration of a drippy cheeseburger on remnants of a large FedEx box. The cardboard canvas references to-go culture and how pre-prepared and restaurant meals are often removed from their original context and consumed.

      Several works from the Food Treasure series are on view through April 27 in Sustenance & Land at Elmhurst Art Museum. Find more on Zhang’s website.

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