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    Layers Upon Layers Root in History in Li Songsong’s Impasto Paintings

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    “Boundless Longevity” (2025), oil on canvas, 210 x 270 centimeters. All images courtesy of Pace Gallery, shared with permission

    Layers Upon Layers Root in History in Li Songsong’s Impasto Paintings

    November 14, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    Li Songsong (previously) has long centered his practice around translating archival imagery, whether it be a portrait printed in a newspaper or still from a film. The Chinese artist is broadly interested in the ways that memories morph over time and how, when we’re reflecting on a moment well in the past, our clarity over the particulars can be hazy.

    His new body of work, History Painting, takes a similar technical approach, although rather than interpret a specific scene, Li ventures into the abstract. Wide, impasto layers of oil paint cloak the large-scale canvas, creating a cacophony of color and texture that seems to swell upward while simultaneously pulling downward. As a filmed studio visit shows, the artist works from top down, adding one thick mark atop another in a sort of grid.

    “History VII: Snake Year” (2025), oil on canvas, 120 x 120 centimeters

    Pace Gallery, which represents Li, shares that History Painting reflects more on his relationship to the medium than any specific visual source, although, given his past work, it’s difficult not to try to find definition within the composition. The clustered ridges of paint, for example, might evoke bodies huddled together in mass, their backs to the viewer as they move toward an unknown destination. For Li, these brushstrokes, while abstract, do retain a sense of action and autonomy, and he describes them as “agentive and idiosyncratic” even as they’re covered again and again.

    History Painting is on view through December 20 in New York.

    “Revolution” (2025), oil on canvas, 210 x 210 centimeters

    Installation view of ‘Li Songson: History Painting’ (2025)

    “History IX: Mercy” (2025), oil on canvas, 120 x 120 centimeters

    “History IV: Sacrifice” (2025), oil on canvas, 120 x 120 centimeters

    Installation view of ‘Li Songson: History Painting’ (2025)

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      Radiant Sculptures by Arghavan Khosravi Meditate on Subconscious Terrain

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      All images courtesy of Arghavan Khosravi, shared with permission

      Radiant Sculptures by Arghavan Khosravi Meditate on Subconscious Terrain

      November 14, 2025

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      Known for addressing issues of censorship and inequality, Iranian artist Arghavan Khosravi (previously) has long utilized her bold, fragmented works to confront large-scale problems relevant around the world. Her alluring color palettes and delicate motifs catch the eye and are paired with distinct symbols of tension: a chain lock, cords binding body parts, and roiling flames.

      While her concerns are global, Khosravi has always considered her practice somewhat of a balm that helps her cope with trying times. And so the inward turn of her latest body of work perhaps ventures farther into this territory as she allows herself to delve deep into a personal and collective subconscious.

      The past year has engendered a period of introspection, which the artist translates into a collection of smaller, altar-esque pieces. She refers to them as “intimate constructions where interior space carries its own symbolism. It’s been a way to move inward for a moment, allowing ideas to surface without a predetermined destination.”

      Both the subconscious and symbolic have long figured prominently in her work, and recent pieces are similar. Many layer seemingly disparate components into surreal scenes, with recurring imagery of long, flowing hair, bright orbs of light, birds, and patterns from historic Persian architecture and design. Whereas earlier works frequently incorporated windows, doorways, and other portal-like structures, Khosravi’s newer pieces peer outward from inside, inviting the viewer into a new realm.

      The artist is in the early stages of preparing for an upcoming solo show at Uffner & Liu in New York next year. Until then, follow her practice on Instagram.

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      Glass Flora and Fauna Flutter in the Delicate Work of Kate Clements

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      Detail of “Solarium.” All images courtesy of the artist, shared with permission

      Glass Flora and Fauna Flutter in the Delicate Work of Kate Clements

      November 13, 2025

      ArtNature

      Kate Mothes

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      Combining painted panels with delicate planes of kiln-fired glass, Kate Clements explores the nature of fragility. Glass is “a material defined by its capacity to hold tension,” she tells Colossal. “It can break, shatter, or shift at any moment. That awareness of impermanence has long been an undertone throughout my work: a nervous hum beneath the surface.”

      Clements works with a granular substance called frit, which she composes into forms like leaves, insects, and birds directly onto a kiln shelf. When fired, these colorful drawings fuse into wafer-thin panels, which she then applies to painted panels or suspends in installations. Often incorporating patterns evocative of wallpaper and motifs that suggest architectural structures or niches, she plays with relationships between rigidity and fluidity and the artificial and the organic.

      “Solarium” (2022), kiln-fired glass, hardware, and paint on panel, 63 x 83 inches. Photo by Will Preman

      “The material has become almost an extension of my hand and my body through mark-making and scale,” Clements says, sharing that the process is quite meditative. “It’s about precision and intuition coexisting—knowing how to shape the material and when to let the glass move on its own terms in the kiln.”

      The versatility of the medium, balanced with its inherent changeability, continues to fascinate Clements—especially the tension between control and risk. Like any material fired in a kiln, it has the potential to react in surprising ways or transform differently than expected. And once assembled into large-scale works through a process the artist likens to collage, the thin panels appear very delicate, like sugar sculptures, as if they could crumble or break with the slightest touch.

      “Earlier pieces leaned into that unease,” Clements says. “I was drawn to the way glass can induce anxiety—the uneasy power of beauty that could, at any instant, turn on its head. That instability felt like a mirror of the world around us: alluring, dangerous, and unpredictable all at once.” More recent works build upon this sensitivity while emphasizing the ethereal qualities of the translucent medium, suspending delicate panels from the ceiling to create more solid, architectural forms.

      Clements’ sculpture titled “Acanthus,” reminiscent of a gleaming triumphal arch, is on view at the Nelson Atkins Museum in the group exhibition Personal Best through August 9, 2026. New work is also in NOCTURNES, a solo show in the art gallery of Kansas City Community College, which continues through November 14. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

      “Siren” (2025), kiln-fired glass, paint, and hardware, 54 x 33 inches

      Detail of “Siren”

      “False Principles” (2022), kiln-fired glass, paint, and pins, 101.5 x 83 inches. Photo by Will Preman

      Detail of “False Principles”

      “Verdant” (2022), kiln-fired glass, hardware, and paint on panel, 100 x 84 inches. Photo by Will Preman

      Detail of “Verdant”

      “Orpiment I” (2025), kiln-fired glass, paint, and hardware, 48 x 30 inches

      Detail of “Orpiment I”

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      Gilberto Rivera’s ‘Jailbirds’ Imagine Freedom Within Confinement

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      Left: “Jailbird #15” (2024), acrylic, mixed media, and collage on wood, 28 x 21 5/8 x 2 inches. Right: “Jailbird #16” (2024), acrylic, mixed media, and collage on wood, 28 x 20 5/8 x 2 inches

      Gilberto Rivera’s ‘Jailbirds’ Imagine Freedom Within Confinement

      November 10, 2025

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      At the Center for Art & Advocacy, a solo exhibition by Gilberto Rivera meditates on the material conditions of both confinement and liberation. Jailbirds presents a series of mixed-media collages that map the prison cell onto wood panel, with a variety of avian species as their protagonists.

      Incarcerated for two decades himself, Rivera draws on the concept of recidivism and the derogatory term for someone who’s habitually imprisoned. He invokes a sort of cyclical migration pattern that entraps people and returns them to carceral facilities again and again. The titles of the works—”Jailbird #12″ and “Jailbird #13,” for example—similarly nod to the dehumanization of the penal system, which refers to people as numbers rather than their names.

      “Jailbird #12” (2022), acrylic, mixed media, and collage on wood, 38 1/2 x 39 5/8 x 2 inches

      Given their ability to fly, birds are often symbols of freedom, with a special status reserved for the eagle as the national emblem of strength and pride in the U.S. On the other hand, fowl are also kept in cages when domesticated or bred for consumption or commercial use, making the creatures an apt representation of incarceration.

      In Jailbirds, Rivera presents parrots, herons, pelicans, pigeons, and others in architectural environments teeming with activist imagery. Snippets of magazines, newspapers, protest signs, archival footage, and even text clipped from an Instagram story cover the walls of each cell, transforming the otherwise austere concrete-and-steel setting into a space of possibility.

      For many people inside, world-building of the kind the artist visualizes is a necessary act of survival. Books, magazines, and other materials are often passed from one person to another with imagery displayed within the cells as a stark contrast to the drab interiors. Liberation, for Rivera, is rooted in both this act of creation and the material conditions that make up our lives, whether inside or out. Through his layered, typographic paintings, he envisions the possibilities of imagination within confinement and the fundamental need to create the world we want to live in.

      Jailbirds, Rivera’s first solo exhibition, is on view in Brooklyn through February 15. Find more from the artist on Instagram.

      “Jailbird #13” (2022), acrylic, mixed media, and collage on wood, 38 1/2 x 39 5/8 x 2 inches

      “Jailbird #2” (2022), acrylic, mixed media, and collage on wood, 48 x 38 1/2 x 2 inches

      “Jailbird #8” (2022), acrylic, mixed media, and collage on wood, 36 1/4 x 48 1/8 x 2 inches

      “Jailbird #4” (2022), acrylic, mixed media, and collage on wood, 48 x 26 1/2 x 2 inches

      “Jailbird #19” (2025), acrylic, mixed media, and collage on wood, 76 x 76 1/2 x 3 inches

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    • 138 Shares45 Views

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      In ‘Inward,’ Cinta Vidal Folds Time and Space in Perspective-Bending Paintings

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      “Den” (2025), oil on wood, 31.5 × 31.5 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Thinkspace Projects, shared with permission

      In ‘Inward,’ Cinta Vidal Folds Time and Space in Perspective-Bending Paintings

      November 10, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      Known for her perplexing compositions of domestic interiors, Cinta Vidal continues to mesmerize with a new body of paintings at Thinkspace Projects. The artist’s solo show, Inward, continues her exploration of what she describes as “un-gravity constructions,” in which space and time appear folded or warped.

      In Vidal’s dizzying compositions, people occupy different areas of invented apartments and homes. Perhaps each tableau represents a different period of time; perhaps they are parallel universes. “For Vidal, depicting macro and micro levels of inverted apartment buildings and city structures illustrates the various ways the world is experienced by a mass population,” the gallery says.

      “Flat” (2025), acrylic on wood, 31.5 x 31.5 inches

      “The word ‘inward’ speaks to both layers of interiority: the shared indoor spaces we inhabit and the private, inward-facing state we enter when we disconnect from what surrounds us,” Vidal says. A sofa, for example, can be a place of togetherness or quiet retreat. “These scenes reflect that subtle coexistence: being together, yet each within their own space,” she adds.

      Inward continues through November 29 in Los Angeles. And as a complement to the exhibition, Vidal painted a new mural on the side of a local frame shop called Sherman Gallery in Marina del Rey. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

      “Side by Side” (2025), acrylic on wood, 23.6 x 23.6 inches

      “Meet Up” (2025), oil on wood, 31.5 x 31.5 inches

      “Condominium” (2025), acrylic on wood, 31.5 x 31.5 inches

      “Bond” (2025), oil on wood, 27.5 x 27.5 inches

      “Brerhen” (2025), oil on wood, 27.5 x 27.5 inches

      “Sofascape 1” (2025), acrylic on wood, 35.4 x 35.4 inches

      “Attic” (2025), acrylic on wood, 31.5 x 31.5 inches

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      A Retrospective of Trailblazing Artist Faith Ringgold Centers Narratives of Black Americans

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      “Jazz Stories: Mama Can Sing, Papa Can Blow #2: Come On Dance With Me” (2004), acrylic on canvas with pieced fabric border, 81 x 64 inches. Photos by Dan Bradica Studio. All images © Faith Ringgold, courtesy of the Anyone Can Fly Foundation and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, shared with permission

      A Retrospective of Trailblazing Artist Faith Ringgold Centers Narratives of Black Americans

      November 6, 2025

      ArtSocial Issues

      Kate Mothes

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      Across a wide range of media, from painting to textiles to works on paper, Faith Ringgold (1930-2024) developed a practice that merged history, activism, formal inquiry, and global influences. Born and raised in Harlem, New York, her work evolved from her awareness of politics and social issues in the 1960s and 1970s, which she channeled into “an incisive narrative about the historical sacrifices and achievements of Black Americans,” says Jack Shainman Gallery.

      Opening this month at the gallery, a retrospective spans Ringgold’s explorations of textiles, sculpture, and works on canvas. She is renowned for her story quilts, which combine fabric and embroidery with painted tableaux of Harlem, jazz clubs, portraits—especially of women—and historical references to slavery and the oppression of Black people in America.

      “American People Series #19: US Postage Commemorating the
      Advent of Black Power” (1967), oil on canvas, 72 x 96 inches

      Earlier this year, a documentary called “Paint Me a Road Out of Here” was released that chronicles the artist’s first public art piece, a feminist mural at the Women’s House of Detention on Rikers Island. The mural, “For the Women’s House” contains eight segments—patchwork-like—that contain images of women in predominantly male career roles. Works like “American People Series #19: US Postage Commemorating the Advent of Black Power” and “Black Light #11: US America Black” mirror this motif, redolent of a quilt, which presages her later work.

      At Jack Shainman Gallery, Faith Ringgold highlights the artist’s extraordinary and innovative approach to figuration, perspective, and material. She was acutely aware of the art historical canon as a predominantly white space, so she “sought out forms more suitable to the exploration of gender and racial identity that she so urgently pursued,” the gallery says. In the 1970s, she traveled to Europe and onward to Africa, gathering ideas.

      When she first began working with textiles, Ringgold made what she called “tankas,” which were inspired by sacred Tibetan thangkas—textile images intended for meditation—that she saw on view at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Ringgold’s iterations incorporated sewn fabric borders around paintings made on unstretched canvas.

      “Jazz Stories: Mama Can Sing, Papa Can Blow #8: Don’t Wanna Love You Like I Do” (2007), acrylic on canvas with pieced fabric border, 82 x 67 inches

      Eventually, these works became more abstract, then morphed into soft sculptures and performance pieces inspired by African masking traditions. As her work evolved into the 1980s, the story quilt emerged as a way to render imagery on a larger scale and connect with time-honored textile craft traditions often associated with women. Jack Shainman says:

      The significance of Faith Ringgold’s life continues to be felt and understood in new, urgent and relevant ways…Just as she fought tirelessly against the prevailing sentiments of racial and gendered exclusion of both her time and our own, so too did her inimitable work in textiles provide an example of how life and art—so often presumed to be separate—are in fact deeply and fundamentally intertwined.

      Faith Ringgold opens on November 14 and continues through January 24 in New York City. Explore more of the artist’s work on her estate’s website and Instagram.

      “Love Letter: No Kiss” (1987), intaglio on canvas, pieced canvas, and beads, 65 x 52 inches

      “Feminist Series #4: I Have to Answer For…” (1972), acrylic on canvas with cloth quilted border, 47 x 34 1/2 inches

      “Black Light #11: US America Black” (1969), oil on canvas, 60 x 84 inches

      “Slave Rape #4 of 16, Run” (1973, 1993), acrylic on canvas with cloth quilted border, 52 1/2 x 34 1/2 inches

      “Jazz Stories: Mama Can Sing, Papa Can Blow #5: You Put the Devil in Me” (2004), acrylic on canvas with pieced fabric border, 81 1/2 x 67 1/2 inches

      “Slave Rape #1 of 16, Run” (1973, 1993), acrylic on canvas with cloth quilted border, 49 x 34 inches

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      Moments of Riotous Unrest Converge in Elmer Guevara’s Dramatic Paintings

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      “Couple Hours after 3:15pm” (2025), oil and gel transfer on linen, 84 x 72 x 1.25 inches. All photos by Yubo Don, courtesy of the artist and Charlie James Gallery, shared with permission

      Moments of Riotous Unrest Converge in Elmer Guevara’s Dramatic Paintings

      October 27, 2025

      ArtSocial Issues

      Grace Ebert

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      How do we live when crises compound? Yesterday like today / Ayer cómo hoy is a poignant solo exhibition by Elmer Guevara that collapses time and space into dramatic paintings of unrest and upheaval. Layered with raging fires and warm California light, each work captures a tension between danger and mundanity, peering into the ways people cope amid chaos.

      Guevara was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, the neighborhood where his parents settled after fleeing civil war in El Salvador in the 1980s. When the police officers who beat Rodney King were acquitted in 1992, people took to the streets, and riots spurred looting and arson. These tumultuous and violent events backdropped much of Guevara’s childhood, and in this body of work, they converge into scenes of destruction and quietude.

      “Ghetto Bird View” (2025), oil on linen, 32 x 60 x 1.25 inches

      “Couple Hours after 3:15pm” references the time the officers’ acquittal was announced and depicts a man seated in front of a vintage, white Volkswagen Beetle while a fire rips through the neighborhood. With a pointed finger and relaxed pose, the figure mimics the theatrical subject of Domenico Fetti’s “Portrait of a Man with a Sheet of Music” (1620), a vanitas piece that speaks to the vacuousness of material possessions. Guevara’s re-interpretation includes his signature newsprint, this issue featuring King’s harrowing experience front and center.

      As the artist reflects on the relationship between personal story and collective trauma, he incorporates many of his family members in the series. His mother, for example, appears at her kitchen table with a bottle of Coca-Cola and a newspaper spread out in front of her as she points to the main story of rioters taking over the city. Like others in his paintings, she is both deeply aware of the turmoil that surrounds her and calm in disposition, exemplifying the all-too-relatable need to soldier on amid anxiety and heartbreak.

      Yesterday like today / Ayer cómo hoy is on view through December 6 at Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles. Find more from Guevara on his website and Instagram.

      “Updates and Relief” (2025), oil and gel transfer on linen, 42 x 36 x 1.25 inches

      “Clapper 2” (2025), oil on linen, 10 x 8 x 1.5 inches

      Detail of “Couple Hours after 3:15pm” (2025), oil and gel transfer on linen, 84 x 72 x 1.25 inches

      “Playing With Fire” (2025), oil on linen, 72 x 60 x 1.25 inches

      “Clapper 3” (2025), oil on linen, 11 x 8 x 1.5 inches

      “Casualty” (2025), oil on linen, 24 x 19 x 1.25 inches

      “Clapper 1” (2025), oil on linen, 11 x 9 x 1.5 inches

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    • 113 Shares107 Views

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      Dream Worlds Emerge in Yuichi Hirako’s Larger-than-Life Domestic Spaces

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      All images courtesy of Yuichi Hirako and the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, shared with permission

      Dream Worlds Emerge in Yuichi Hirako’s Larger-than-Life Domestic Spaces

      October 27, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      In the uncanny world of Yuichi Hirako, the relationship between humans, nature, and the built environment plays out in vibrant color and unique proportions. The Tokyo-based artist creates large-scale sculptures, paintings, and installations that explore coexistence, often through compositions that appear crowded with domestic objects, food, cats, and figures whose faces are obscured by cartoonish head coverings shaped like trees or antlers.

      ORIGIN, Hirako’s expansive solo exhibition at the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, invites us to enter a surreal, almost Alice in Wonderland-like realm. From salon-style hangings of numerous paintings and sculptures along an undulating plywood surface to a giant quadriptych—a four-part canvas—the artist’s pieces play with perception and urge us toward curiosity.

      Recurring, anonymous characters populate Hirako’s otherworldly settings. In one work, a huge table is laden with a feast, featuring bowls of fruit, bakery items, and possibly still-living sea creatures, along with a number of relaxed cats, stacks of books, and floral arrangements. And a giant bookcase is arranged with potted plants, books, figurines, flowers, and more—objects that in some cases defy the structure of the unit, like a potted tree or shrub that grows up behind the shelves.

      ORIGIN spans the indoor galleries, courtyard, and plaza of the museum and is presented as part of the Setouchi Triennale. The show continues through November 9 in Okayama City. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

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    • 163 Shares181 Views

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      Through Lush Embellisment, Anne von Freyburg Depicts Monstrous Women Who Revel in Excess

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      Detail of “Soft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 220 x 200 centimeters. All images courtesy of Anne von Freyburg, shared with permission

      Through Lush Embellisment, Anne von Freyburg Depicts Monstrous Women Who Revel in Excess

      October 21, 2025

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      In monumental installations teeming with sequins, brocades, fringe, and shiny vinyl, Anne von Freyburg stakes a bold claim about excess and freedom.

      The artist (previously) is known for her “textile paintings,” large-scale tapestries that appear to drip, bleed, and cascade down the wall. Gaudy and yet rooted in elegance, the works draw on Dutch Golden Age and Rococo painting traditions, incoporating lush flowers and dramatic ornamentation.

      “Soft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 220 x 200 centimeters

      Von Freyburg continues to explore extravagance as it relates to traditional gender roles, romance, and saccharine expressions of love. She draws on Lauren Elkin’s recent book, Art Monsters, which posits that women who reject the role of wife and mother—and the societal expectations of beauty and kindness—are often seen as villains.

      The tension between the feminine and the monstrous is evident in several of the artist’s works, including “Soft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie),” as pop culture symbols and text bubbles mar a central figure trapped in a chaotic blur of material. Distorted by the mass of embellishments, the woman appears grotesque and uncontainable as her form bulges and falls in a deluge of pink string. Von Freyburg adds:

      I approached this body of work as a declaration of the love and care necessary for all of us to thrive. It gives us permission to do the things we love doing. It’s about being free and choosing your own path to happiness in relationships. No more fairy tales about men saving women; instead, it’s about women being the heroines in their own life stories.

      The vibrant pieces shown here will be on view in Amour Toujours, which runs from November 8 to December 27 at K Contemporary in Denver. Find more from the artist on Instagram.

      “Something in the Air has Changed (After Fragonard, the Progress of Love: the Meeting)” (2025),textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 350 x 250 centimeters

      Detail of “Soft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 220 x 200 centimeters

      Detail of “Something in the Air has Changed (After Fragonard, the Progress of Love: the Meeting)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 350 x 250 centimeters

      Detail of “Soft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 220 x 200 centimeters

      “Spellbound (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: Love letters)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 285 x 150 centimeters

      “Spellbound (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: Love letters)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 285 x 150 centimeters

      Detail of “Spellbound (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: Love letters)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 285 x 150 centimeters

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