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Tomislav Topić Meticulously Layers Hundreds of Panels into Prismatic Mesh Installations

by Aurelia Butler 18 November 2025, 14:54

“Echoverse.” All images courtesy of Tomislav Topić, shared with permission

Tomislav Topić Meticulously Layers Hundreds of Panels into Prismatic Mesh Installations

November 18, 2025

Art

Kate Mothes

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From dozens of painted mesh fabric panels, Tomislav Topić’s undulating, site-specific installations transform airy spaces into immersive experiences. Superimposed in layers that are meticulously suspended from the ceiling or between outdoor structures, the panels interact with sunlight and one another to create vibrant gradients.

One of Topić’s most recent interventions, Echoverse, consists of 57 different colors on 451 panels, stretching nearly 100 feet long and about 25 feet wide. It’s currently installed in a spacious former chapel home to Les 3 CHA, an art center in Châteaugiron, France, where the work flutters wave-like through the open space.

Detail of “Echoverse”

Additional recent pieces include “Nexus Lucis,” which centered above the altar of a large church in Gisors, France, earlier this year. And new this fall, an outdoor installation titled “Afterburn” floats above Intendencia Street in downtown Pensacola, Florida.

Geometry, hue, and light interact to create prismatic interactions. “Every color, every layer, every viewpoint responds to another—like lines of a poem extending one another, or like sound waves traveling through the space and refracting in the air,” Topić says in a statement. Hovering independently yet arranged with precision, the perceived effect evolves as one walks around the work. From one vantage point, the installation may appear more opaque, but from another, its faceted and translucent nature is revealed.

Topić carefully considers the nature of spaces, how we interact within them, and how shifting light throughout the day changes how they feel. “It is important to me to create a work that introduces a deliberate contrast, yet still merges with the space,” he says. “I love this symbiosis; for me, it is essential—especially in a place that carries more than 800 years of history.”

Echoverse continues through December 14. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

“Afterburn”

Detail of “Afterburn”

“Echoverse”

“Nexus Lucis”

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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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Through Illuminated Compositions, Raúl de Nieves Transforms a Hall into a Bold Sanctuary
by Aurelia Butler 17 September 2025, 19:44
“In Light of Innocence” (2025). Photos by Dan Bradica, courtesy of Pioneer Works, shared with permission
Through Illuminated Compositions, Raúl de Nieves Transforms a Hall into a Bold Sanctuary
September 17, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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In a monumental new installation, Raúl de Nieves brings Catholic imagery, Mexican folklore, and tarot into dazzling view. For “In Light of Innocence,” Pioneer Works’ Main Hall transforms into a vibrant sanctuary complete with 50 stained glass-like panels that reach up toward the heavens. The individual pieces are fitted into the space’s windows, with a larger lightbox mural radiating from below.
De Nieves is known for utilizing common materials, including wood, glue, tape, and, for this project, brilliantly colored acetate that allows light to filter into the open hall. Along with swapping plastic for glass, the artist also upends the typical cathedral environment with non-religious imagery and typographic panels. Included are a skeleton riding a horse—long a symbol of transformation in tarot—and bold phrases like “happiness runs in circular motion” and “words are like weapons they wound sometimes.”
This medley of spiritual references creates a welcoming environment that allows for reflection and connection across belief systems. A statement says, “‘In Light of Innocence’ invites viewers to embrace change not as loss, but as renewal—a passage that leads to deeper insight and inner strength.”
The immersive project marks de Nieves’ first institutional exhibition in New York City and is on view through December 14. Find more of the artist’s work on Instagram.
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Giant Inflatable Sculptures by Steve Messam Reimagine Everyday Environments
by Aurelia Butler 11 September 2025, 14:10
“Accommodation:Occupation.” All images courtesy of Steve Messam, shared with permission
Giant Inflatable Sculptures by Steve Messam Reimagine Everyday Environments
September 11, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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From bubble-like bulges amid the arches of London’s iconic Old Billingsgate to a 15-meter-tall red droplet frozen in the center of a disused swimming pool in Aberdeen, Steve Messam explores scale, form, and our experiences of the built environment in large-scale installations.
Messam is known for his large-scale inflatable works that reinterpret architecture and explore human influence over the landscape. Often, he fills apertures like arcades or underpasses with forms that balloon and billow, drawing attention to structural forms while considering their fundamental function as places to enter or move through.
“Facade”
In “Accommodation:Occupation,” Messam delves into the history of 19th-century infrastructure in the U.K. through an exploration of what are known as accommodation and occupation bridges—railroad crossings designed for rural areas that provided a tunnel beneath, so that farmers could still access their land on the other side of the tracks. Some of these historic bridges still exist, often on private land, such as two in County Durham along the former route of the Stockton & Darlington Railway.
For “Below,” which Messam situated under a bridge in Tianfu Art Park in Chengdu, China, the site’s use as a thoroughfare is retained by creating two symmetric forms with a gap between them, which people can walk through while immersing themselves in the installation.
Whether popcorn-like, spiked, bubbling, or cascading, Messam’s playful interventions prompt us to view our surroundings with renewed attention. Explore even more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Below”
“Facade”
“Packaged”
“Cascade”
“Accommodation:Occupation”
“Accommodation:Occupation”
“Below”
“Below”
“Packaged”
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Cheng-Tsung Feng’s “Sailing Castle” Cruises Through 400 Years of Taiwanese History
by Aurelia Butler 9 September 2025, 14:33
All images courtesy of Cheng-Tsung Feng, shared with permission
Cheng-Tsung Feng’s “Sailing Castle” Cruises Through 400 Years of Taiwanese History
September 9, 2025
ArtCraftDesign
Kate Mothes
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Through the study of time-honored craft techniques, Taiwanese artist Cheng-Tsung Feng envisions contemporary installations that connect us not only to the past but also to nature and our present surroundings.
Working across sculpture, installation, craft, and design, the artist draws on what he describes as “ancient and gradually forgotten oriental culture,” translating traditional motifs and methods into new works that nod to the continuum of East Asian art and ingenuity. One might even position his practice within the realm of storytelling, tapping into collective cultural memories and overlapping histories.
In his installation “Sailing Castle” in Tainan, Feng evokes the sails of wooden ships as a visual metaphor for the urban landscape, “where clusters of buildings resemble vessels gathered in harbor,” he says. Symbolizing movement, discovery, and societal progress and expansion, he creates a dialogue between architecture and advancement, along with memory and the present moment.
The beams and sails are inspired by a number of actual buildings in Tainan like the Confucius Temple, Fort Zeelandia—built by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century—and Chihkan Tower, another Dutch outpost also known as Fort Provintia.
Called Formosa in the mid-1600s, Taiwan was under colonial rule by the Dutch, whose trade interests centered predominantly around Chinese silks imported to Europe, where they were prized for their luxury and highly sought after. Situated at the Anping Shipyard historical site, amid the canals of the West Central District, Feng wraps the area’s maritime heritage and four-centuries-long legacy of shipping into “Sailing Castle.”
“The overlapping sails evoke both the gathering of ships along the waterfront and the simultaneous anticipation of departure and the arrival of returning voyagers,” he says.
Using primarily wood and canvas, Feng’s pavilion is a cross between artistic intervention and functional meeting space, complete with small surfaces jutting out of the posts on which visitors can sit. Cruising, as it were, through a green park and illuminated at night, “Sailing Castle” sparks a sense of awe at the same time as it encourages us to slow down for a moment or two of contemplation and rest.
Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
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A Glowing Inflatable Canyon by ENESS Squeezes Inside Melbourne’s Prahran Square
by Aurelia Butler 15 August 2025, 14:08
All images courtesy of ENESS, shared with permission
A Glowing Inflatable Canyon by ENESS Squeezes Inside Melbourne’s Prahran Square
August 15, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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Although it appears that thousands of tons of boulders have been dropped into Prahran Square in Melbourne, the enormous rocks are actually as light as air. Art and technology studio ENESS (previously) has installed its inflatable “Iwagumi Air Scape” in the park, creating an immersive canyon for visitors to wander through.
While the 16 massive stones have a grainy, granite-like texture during the day, at night, they glow in otherworldly pinks and yellows, creating a surreal landscape that illuminates the urban environment. Audio of flora and fauna accompanies the work, so that when viewers squeeze through what would be a treacherous pass between real boulders, the soft inflatables and mountain sounds wrap them in a natural embrace.
The outdoor installation is on view through August 17, when it will travel to additional locations. Keep up with its stops on ENESS’s Instagram.
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In Immersive Mixed-Media Tapestries, Lillian Blades Reflects on Pattern and Presence
by Aurelia Butler 18 June 2025, 17:49
Detail of “Perennial” (2024). Photo by Cydney Maria Rhines. All images courtesy of the artist and SAM, shared with permission
In Immersive Mixed-Media Tapestries, Lillian Blades Reflects on Pattern and Presence
June 18, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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Reveling in the interplay of light, material, and space, Lillian Blades creates expansive and immersive installations that reflect on how we experience pattern and texture. Through the Veil, now on view at Sarasota Art Museum, marks the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition, bringing together a sweeping array of the Atlanta-based artist’s large-scale works.
Blades takes a multimedia approach to tapestry, combining fabric, stained glass, wood, acrylic, and found materials to create glimmering surfaces. She suspends some pieces from the ceiling, meandering through the gallery space like mixed-media curtains, while other assemblages hang on the wall. Colored light bounces onto the floor, and the loose latticework casts dramatic shadows onto the surrounding walls.
“Perennial” (2024)
“My patchwork veils are wired tapestries of images and texture…I want it to feel complex but simple at the same time,” Blades says. “I want the details and the objects to carry memory and trigger viewers into thinking about their associations with certain patterns and textures.”
Through the Veil continues in Sarasota through October 26. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
Installation view of ‘Through the Veil’ at Sarasota Art Museum
The artist working in her studio. Photo by Marie Thomas
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In ‘Of the Oak,’ a Magnificent Tree at Kew Gardens Gets an Immersive ‘Digital Double’
by Aurelia Butler 30 May 2025, 14:30
All images courtesy of Marshmallow Laser Feast, courtesy of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, shared with permission
In ‘Of the Oak,’ a Magnificent Tree at Kew Gardens Gets an Immersive ‘Digital Double’
May 30, 2025
ArtDesignNatureScience
Kate Mothes
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“We believe in the power of stories to tickle senses and shift perceptions,” says Marshmallow Laser Feast, an experiential artist collective merging art, extended reality (XR), and film into large-scale, immersive exhibitions.
MLF’s latest work, Of the Oak, situates a monumental, six-meter-tall, double-sided video of the titular tree in London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The piece focuses on the garden’s Lucombe oak, portraying a “digital double” using real-world data.
Photo by Barney Steel
MLF collaborated with researchers from Kew to create a vibrant, scientific rendering, blending advanced technologies with artistic imagery. The team stitched together thousands of images, used LiDAR to map the tree’s form with laser pulses, CT-scanned soil samples, employed ground-penetrating radar to trace the root system, and recorded a series of 24-hour soundtracks.
“Of the Oak is a celebration for the oak tree as a living monument of vital ecological relationships and species interdependence,” MLF says. “It is an invitation to witness the oak as a keystone in the web of life, majestic and unassuming, stretching its branches skyward and its roots deep into the soil, embodying both quiet strength and boundless generosity.”
Visitors can access a stunning digital field guide on their phones or via desktop from anywhere, featuring a series of meditations that “tune into the invisible bond between humans and trees.” The app also includes an interactive species guide highlighting the diverse range of birds, insects, fungi, and other inhabitants that rely on oak trees for survival.
Of the Oak continues at Kew through September 28. Marshmallow Laser Feast is also currently presenting an immersive, seven-room exhibition titled YOU:MATTER at the National Science and Media Museum as part of Bradford 2025 U.K. City of Culture. See more projects on the collective’s website.
Photo by Sandra Ciampon
Photo by Barney Steel
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Through Fairy Lights and Butterflies, Chiharu Shiota Tethers Presence and Absence
by Aurelia Butler 22 May 2025, 13:33
“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
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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
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immersive

Latest story

Tomislav Topić Meticulously Layers Hundreds of Panels into Prismatic Mesh Installations

More stories

Twelve Trailblazing Women Artists Transform Interior Spaces in ‘Dream Rooms’

Through Illuminated Compositions, Raúl de Nieves Transforms a Hall into a Bold Sanctuary

Giant Inflatable Sculptures by Steve Messam Reimagine Everyday Environments

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

A Glowing Inflatable Canyon by ENESS Squeezes Inside Melbourne’s Prahran Square

In Immersive Mixed-Media Tapestries, Lillian Blades Reflects on Pattern and Presence

In ‘Of the Oak,’ a Magnificent Tree at Kew Gardens Gets an Immersive ‘Digital Double’

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

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