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    Magical Realism Permeates Christian Ruiz Berman’s Labyrinthine Paintings

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    “Tesseract” acrylic on panel, 11 x17 inches. All images courtesy of Christian Ruiz Berman, shared with permission

    Magical Realism Permeates Christian Ruiz Berman’s Labyrinthine Paintings

    July 7, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    “I grew up in the magical realist tradition, not only in terms of literature and painting but as a school of thought and culture,” Christian Ruiz Berman says. Endlessly interested in “the surreal nature of being stuck between two worlds,” the Mexican artist channels his experiences of immigration and adapting to new environments—including his current home in upstate New York—through his painting practice.

    For Ruiz Berman, magical realism is a way to translate his realities into dense, surreal compositions that become a constellation of references and memories. His influences are broad, from Mexican muralist traditions and Latin American folk art to Taoism and Buddhism to poetry and Japanese printmaking, all of which converge in his work.

    “God giving god to god” (2023), acrylic on panel, 30 x 40 inches

    The resulting paintings become a place to encounter unexpected pairings and mystical associations free of hierarchies. Layering, in Ruiz Berman’s work, isn’t to privilege the objects and textures of the foreground but a manner of depicting the relationships between all elements.

    “Ultimately, my work very much reflects the collision of Eastern and Latin American culture, art, (and) thought, as much as it does my personal amalgamation of Mexico and the U.S.,” he tells Colossal. “The existence of high intentionality and care, but also playfulness and strangeness, is something that has always made me feel connected to East Asian culture, and particularly to places like Japan and Tibet.”

    Although Ruiz Berman offers many entry points to a single painting, his compositions provide an exacting path, however labyrinthine it might be. The eager raccoons in “God giving god to god” might catch the viewer’s eye first, for example, but they soon lead to the sleek lilies they offer up and the Mesoamerican stone statue that’s the object of their reverence. Another seated figure hovers to their left, against woodgrain, granite, and vibrant, swirling agate.

    “Mixcoatl Merkaba” (2025), acrylic on panel, 16 x 20 inches

    Combined with clean lines and exacting geometric shapes, this melange of symbols is undeniably eclectic and in service of a larger narrative. He shares:

    I examine the notion that each person, animal, and object is not only an essential component of the present moment but an entangled element in a greater apparatus of constant change and adaptation…Magic and surprise always happen as a result of shared experience, cross-cultural inspiration, and the subversion of established tropes and identities. I paint because I am fascinated by the way it can draw from the endless diversity and inherent tension of life’s web.

    Animals are often incorporated as “stewards of human culture,” the artist says. For example, Mesoamerican mythology tends to position jaguars as revered protectors able to move between worlds: those of the trees and water, day and night, and sites of the living and dead. Birds, too, are often seen as messengers and guides. Depicting these creatures not in their natural habitats but embedded in unusual compositions, Ruiz Berman seeks to recontextualize their meanings and expand the narratives each has come to symbolize.

    If you’re in Miami, you can see some of Ruiz Berman’s work this summer at Mindy Solomon Gallery. Next spring, he will show at Art Basel Hong Kong with Proyectos Monclov and Harper’s Gallery in New York. Until then, head to his website and Instagram for more.

    “Ursa Gevurah” (2025), acrylic on panel, 50 x 60 inches

    “Grackles of grace” (2023), acrylic on panel, 18 x 24 inches

    “Xacozelotl oz lat” (2025), acrylic on panel, 16 x 20 inches

    “Life cycle” (2024), acrylic on panel, 24 x 36 inches

    “Honeycreeper Harbingers” (2024), acrylic on panels, 15 x 11 inches

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    • 138 Shares151 Views

      in Art

      In a Baltimore Exhibition, the Transformative Potential of Today’s Griots Emerges

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      Alanis Forde, “A Sea Bath” (2023), oil on canvas, 25 x 20 inches. All images courtesy of the artists and Galerie Myrtis, shared with permission

      In a Baltimore Exhibition, the Transformative Potential of Today’s Griots Emerges

      June 27, 2025

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      Stories have long helped us to understand the world and our place within it. For the western Sahel in West Africa, storytellers known as griots are often responsible for sharing oral histories and local legends. As generations pass and culture shifts, griots add onto the narratives they’ve inherited with contemporary details relevant to their audiences.

      A group exhibition curated by Noel Bedolla and Ky Vassor at Galerie Myrtis gathers a dozen international artists continuing this tradition. Emergence: Stories in the Making presents “a mirror to contemporary society” by positing that the narratives we tell play a critical role in collective experiences, acts of solidarity, and ultimately, societal progress.

      Kachelle Knowles, “Queen’s College” (2025), graphite, decorative paper, colored pencils, thread, charcoal, acrylic paint, ink, acrylic gemstones, marker on paper, 28 x 18 inches. Image courtesy of the artist, Galerie Myrtis, and Tern Gallery

      For Alanis Forde, imagining paradise and its trappings is a way to excavate questions about internal conflict. She often paints figures with blue masks and bodies, the vibrant disguises becoming proxies that allow the artist to merge her likeness with a fictive version of herself. Subverting the art historical and cultural representations of Black women “as objects of pleasure and servitude,” Forde shapes an alternative narrative.

      Kachelle Knowles works in a parallel practice. Through mixed-media portraits with patterned paper, thread, and acrylic gems, the Bahamian artist focuses on Black teenagers and asserts their rights to fluid gender expressions.

      While portraits feature prominently in Emergence, Kim Rice’s “American Quilt” invokes the politics of the body without visualizing a figure. Her large-scale tapestry is comprised of maps distributed by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, the defunct federal agency responsible for delineating which neighborhoods were too “hazardous” to receive mortgages in a racist process known as redlining. Stitched together with red thread, “American Quilt” makes explicit the ways that “whiteness is woven into our everyday lives,” Rice says.

      If you’re in Baltimore, see Emergence: Stories in the Making through July 12.

      Alanis Forde, “Garden Gloves” (2024), oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches

      Kim Rice, “American Quilt” (2025), HOLC “redlining” maps, acrylic gel, thread, 10 x 11 feet. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering

      Kim Rice, “American Quilt” (2025), HOLC “redlining” maps, acrylic gel, thread, 10 x 11 feet. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering

      Kim Rice, “American Quilt” (2025), HOLC “redlining” maps, acrylic gel, thread, 10 x 11 feet. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering

      Unyime Edet, “Spirit To Spirit: The Night Watchers” (2024), oil on canvas, 55 x 59 inches

      Damilare Jaimu, “All Things Bloom” (2025), oil and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

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    • 138 Shares159 Views

      in Art

      Esaí Alfredo’s Oil Paintings Merge Mysterious Narratives with ‘Miami Vice’ Noir

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      “Near the Military Base” (2025), oil on canvas, 72 x 96 feet. All images courtesy of the artist and Spinello Projects, shared with permission

      Esaí Alfredo’s Oil Paintings Merge Mysterious Narratives with ‘Miami Vice’ Noir

      May 15, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      In an iconic 1979 episode of Saturday Night Live, Steve Martin and Bill Murray shuffle onstage dressed like tourists. Peering out beyond the camera—and thus behind us—they repeatedly ask, “What the hell is that?” Stoking our curiosity and never divulging what “that” really is, yet preventing us from ever seeing it either, the answer is left entirely to our imaginations. Beyond the duo’s characteristic absurdity, we’re enticed to consider the endless possibilities of the unknown, just out of frame.

      For Miami-based artist Esaí Alfredo, the confines of the cinematic screen and a sense of wonder play central roles in large-scale, enigmatic oil paintings. Male figures stand facing the distant horizon, observing dark plumes of smoke or, in some cases, events only they can see.

      “The Wait” (2025), oil on canvas, 50 x 72 inches

      Alfredo draws inspiration for his palette from Miami Vice, specifically the rich pastels and glowing contrasts evocative of the show’s stylized, 1980s New Wave aesthetics. Bright pink and teal complement the deep blacks of nighttime.

      “I allow myself to play with colors and lighting situations that appear surreal or impossible,” he tells Colossal, sharing that the choice of hues serve as tools for telling stories. He adds, “My biggest influences in terms of color have been old movies, science fiction, theater, and the cinematography of films by Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock.”

      Alfredo also likens his paintings to screenshots or freeze frames, as if plucked from an enigmatic, longer narrative. His sketchbook contains countless renderings, including drawings of settings and characters akin to storyboards for a movie.

      Once he translates a basic sketch into a color study, Alfredo translates the idea to photographic compositions involving real people and various objects. “Once I have all my reference photos ready, I compose an image on my iPad to see how the painting will turn out. The rest is painting,” he says, leaving enough room for the inevitable improvisation.

      “La Playa Lucia” (2025), oil on canvas, 10 x 20 inches

      A suite of new paintings titled STARLESS that Alfredo recently exhibited with Spinello Projects at EXPO CHICAGO are “snapshots of a larger story I’m still uncovering,” he says. Otherworldly magentas and teals envelop figures in a variety of natural landscapes, beneath a sky devoid of celestial objects. Instead, mysterious objects fall from above, and the characters react to the phenomena with wonder, fear, and confusion. “I love capturing those moments when we feel powerless and can only observe for a moment before taking action,” he says.

      Find more on Alfredo’s website and Instagram.

      “The Theme Park” (2025), oil on canvas, 72 x 96 inches

      “Moon” (2025), oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches

      “The Everglades” (2025), oil on canvas, 72 x 96 inches

      “Antonio” (2025), oil on canvas, 40 x 60 inches

      Detail of “Near the Military Base”

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    • 163 Shares129 Views

      in Art

      Inhabitants of a Fictional World Search for Understanding in Damien Cifelli’s Vibrant Paintings

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      “A guide to the Unknown Other.” All images courtesy of Damien Cifelli, shared with permission

      Inhabitants of a Fictional World Search for Understanding in Damien Cifelli’s Vibrant Paintings

      March 28, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      In Tarogramma, the imaginary world conceived by Damien Cifelli (previously) as a setting for his vibrant paintings, plants are plentiful, but animals don’t exist. The landscapes are as diverse and enigmatic as its inhabitants, who commune with bodies of water, traverse the desert in a suit, and size up an enigmatic object on a dinner plate.

      Cifelli’s stylish figures investigate their environment to try to understand their place within it. Many of the paintings shown here were recently exhibited at Spinello Projects in Miami, emphasizing the artist’s recent focus on analyzing what life is like in this fictive world.

      “I make a map in my mind but each time I raise my head it disappears”

      “In Tarogramma, symbols are imbued with disassociated meanings unrelated to what we think they could be,” says a statement for his show. “Iconography, such as flags or emblems, represent regions that exist not as physical places but as ideas or states of mind.” This world is devoid of ethnic, cultural, or gender hierarchies, and identity is fluid and chosen, which encourages constant transformation.

      Occasionally, Cifelli’s paintings reference famous artworks like “Wanderer before the Sea of Ice,” which nods to German Romanticist artist Caspar David Friedrich’s 1818 painting, “Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog.” Capturing the solipsism of the 19th-century work, Cifelli translates the view into an arctic scene of jagged ice, with the central figure wearing a coat decorated in symbols evocative of biological forms.

      Explore more on Cifelli’s website and Instagram.

      “The trick is to know what you are looking for”

      “A new route to the interior”

      “Everything that happens will happen today”

      “Dream Animal”

      “Green Fingers, Unit 14”

      “Infinite Ground”

      “At the foot of the mountain, the land speaks”

      “Wanderer before the Sea of Ice”

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    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Art

      Elemental Shifts and Enigmatic Narratives Anchor Rupy C. Tut’s Mystical Paintings

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      “A River of Dreams” (2024), handmade pigments on linen, 62 x 42 1/4 x 2 inches framed. Photos by Phillip Maisel. All images courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco

      Elemental Shifts and Enigmatic Narratives Anchor Rupy C. Tut’s Mystical Paintings

      February 3, 2025

      ArtClimateSocial Issues

      Kate Mothes

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      Verdant scenery inhabited by vibrant wildlife and graceful feminine figures center in the work of Rupy C. Tut, whose paintings (previously) draw upon her Sikh ancestry and experiences emigrating from India as a young girl. “As an environmentalist and Indian-American woman, she never takes place for granted,” says a statement from Jessica Silverman Gallery, which represents the artist.

      Tut’s ethereal works tread the boundaries between abstraction, portraiture, pattern, and traditional Indian painting. Her compositions introduce narratives—often captivatingly mysterious—that highlight enigmatic mystical, elemental, and spiritual phenomena.

      “Bursting with Clouds” (2024) handmade pigments on linen, 41 1/2 x 61 1/2 x 2 1/4 inches framed

      The artist’s subjects typically exist front-and-center, like in “A River of Dreams,” in which a figure sits in a stream and observes a lily while dark clouds move in above. Motifs of darkening skies and dramatic change continue in recent works like “Bursting with Clouds” and “The First Rain.”

      Oscillating between idyllic paradises, anxieties around climate disasters, and gender constraints, Tut focuses on female figures, turning the tables on a genre that typically focuses on male achievements. “I question traditional roles and labels while preserving traditional practices,” she says.

      Tut was a 2024 recipient of the Joan Mitchel Foundation Fellowship, and her work is on view in the group exhibition About Place at San Francisco’s de Young through the end of November. You can explore more on her website and Instagram.

      “A Place Dear to Me” (2024), handmade pigments on linen, 61 1/2 x 41 1/2 x 2 1/4 inches framed

      “The First Rain” (2024), handmade pigments on linen, 61 1/2 x 41 1/2 x 2 1/4 inches framed

      “Riding my Thunder” (2024), handmade pigments on linen, 61 1/2 x 41 1/2 x 2 inches framed

      “Where Dreams Flow” (2024), handmade pigments on linen, 42 1/8 x 82 x 2 inches framed

      “Bowing to the Cosmos” (2024), handmade pigments on linen, 61 3/8 x 41 5/8 x 2 inches framed

      “Archipelago” (2024), handmade pigments on linen; diptych, 61 1/2 x 83 x 2 1/4 inches overall, framed

      “Escaping the Heat” (2024), handmade pigments on hemp paper, 13 3/4 x 18 3/8 x 1 1/2 inches framed

      “A Natural Thought” (2025), handmade pigments on linen, 81 1/2 x 41 1/2 x 2 inches framed

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

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