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

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

    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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    Through Fractured Forms, Kat Kristof Renders the Architecture of the Mind

    “Echo” (2025), oil on canvas, 230 x 230 centimeters. All images courtesy of Beers London, shared with permission

    Through Fractured Forms, Kat Kristof Renders the Architecture of the Mind

    October 20, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    As we spend much of our lives online and find ourselves ensnared in an increasingly dystopian reality, glitches and fractures seem all the more apt in rendering the contemporary mind. Kat Kristof (previously) attends to this disjointed—and even duplicitous—feeling in her vivid portraiture. Visible brushstrokes invoke gestures past and the memories that scaffold our lives, while layered patches build upon one another, forming complex structures within each piece.

    “My work explores the architecture of the mind. These are scattered, fragmented, and riotous projections of self,” Kristof says, referring to her latest body of work, Exhale. Co-presented by BEERS London and Saatchi Gallery, the exhibition plumbs the artist’s formal training in architecture, which she undertook in her native Hungary before moving to Folkestone, Kent. Likening the abstract shapes that form a face or torso to a hallway or room, the artist invites viewers into the intimate interiors of her subjects.

    “Doubt I” (2025), oil on canvas, 180 x 180 centimeters

    While each portrait contains some level of psychological distortion, Kristof expands and contracts their surreal qualities. “Echo,” for example, features a mirrored subject looking directly at the viewer, although the figure on the right peers out from a face turned upside down. The gltich in “Alone” is much more jarring, as two faces stare at each other through a central stripe bisecting the work.

    For Kristof, there’s endless space for our minds to break into new territories, although like the walls that protect our homes, there are barriers we have to cross to step outside ourselves. “What we long for remains elusive, not because it doesn’t exist, but because we carry our mindset with us,” she adds.

    Exhale runs from October 23 to November 16 at Saatchi Gallery in London. Find more from Kristof on her website and Instagram.

    “Alone” (2025), oil on canvas, 125 x 145 centimeters

    “Drift” (2025), oil on canvas, 220 x 175 centimeters

    “Blur” (2025), oil on board, 80 x 60 centimeters

    “Breathe” (2025), oil on canvas, 220 x 115 centimeters

    “Crave” (2025), oil on canvas, 150 x 100 centimeters

    “Exhale” (2025), oil on canvas, 170 x 145 centimeters

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    Alison Friend Packs a Lot of Personality into Witty Dog Portraits

    All images courtesy of Artisan, shared with permission

    Alison Friend Packs a Lot of Personality into Witty Dog Portraits

    October 17, 2025

    ArtBooks

    Grace Ebert

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    Dogs, they’re just like us! Perpetually anxious pizza lovers.

    The pups taking center stage in Alison Friend’s beloved paintings sport a range of personalities that feel all too familiar: several hungrily snack on pastries, sip cocktails, and even present their self-portraits on everyone’s favorite toy, the Etch A Sketch.

    Friend is known for her witty pieces that portray our domestic pals in the style of the Old Masters, lending a sense of reverence to her furry subjects. The artist’s first monograph, Dog Only Knows, is available this month from Artisan and collects 125 of her canine works, a small fraction of which are shown here.

    Pre-order your copy in the Colossal Shop, and find more from Friend on Instagram.

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    Stan Squirewell’s Mixed-Media Collages Imbue Anonymous Historical Photos with Panache

    “She Saw Far and Wide” (2023), mixed media, photo collage, acrylic paint, and glitter mounted on canvas in a hand-carved frame, 90 x 76 inches. All images courtesy of the artist, Claire Oliver Gallery, and Plattsburgh State Art Museum, shared with permission

    Stan Squirewell’s Mixed-Media Collages Imbue Anonymous Historical Photos with Panache

    October 16, 2025

    ArtPhotography

    Kate Mothes

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    Nothing sparks the imagination quite like coming across a trove of old photographs. We look for writing on the reverse and scan the anonymous faces to read a range of expressions. Where exactly they were at that moment, what brought them together that day, and who took the picture? For Stan Squirewell, the allure of historical portraits is a central tenet of his multimedia practice.

    In large-scale, mixed-media collages, the artist begins with black-and-white photographs, typically taken a century ago or longer. He especially emphasizes portraits of Black individuals, whether gathered together as a group or posing independently. Some of these compositions start with a formal portrait in a studio, while others have more of a snapshot quality. On their clothing, Squirewell collages fabric patterns, paint, and glitter, inviting the past into the present.

    “Awinita” (2022), mixed-media collage, paint, and hand-carved shou sugi ban frame, 59 x 45 inches

    Squirewell’s current solo exhibition, Robitussin, Hotcombs & Grease at Plattsburgh State Art Museum, delves into Black identity and daily experience. The title nods to ubiquitous items as “hallmarks of domesticity and comfort in Black homes,” the museum says, focusing on “the reclamation of identity from historical anonymity.”

    Squirewell sources photographs from the Smithsonian Institution’s anonymous photo collections and from family and friends. Through the intimate medium of the portrait, anonymous individuals emerge from the archives and are imbued with vivacious textile patterns, and recognizable luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci suggest elevated style and status. Scale also plays a role, too, as Squirewell prints the photos quite large, blurring features in the process yet representing the figures closer to life-size so that their presence is palpable.

    Robitussin, Hotcombs & Grease continues through December 5. Plan your visit on the museum’s website, and find more of the artist’s work on Instagram.

    “Uncle O,” cut photograph collage mounted on canvas, oil, and glitter in hand-carved shou sugi ban frame, 62.5 x 32.5 inches

    “Colorful Joseph II” (2024), cut and collaged archival photography, glitter, and paint, 15.5 x 12.5 inches

    “Chico & Charles 3” (2025), manipulated photo-collage, 42 x 26 inches

    “Almaz & Lil Symphony”, mixed media collage, paint, and hand-carved shou sugi ban frame, 57 x 40 inches

    “Dai Dai” (2022), mixed-media collage, paint, and hand-carved shou sugi van frame, 47 x 39 inches

    “Benny & Al,” mixed media, photo collage, acrylic paint, and glitter in a hand-carved frame, 88 x 58 inches

    “He’s Home” (2024), artist-printed photos collaged with paint and glitter in a hand-carved shou sugi ban frame, 20 x 12 inches

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    The First Monograph to Survey Derrick Adams’ Career Comes Ahead of a Major Exhibition

    “Floater 93” (2020), acrylic and fabric collage on paper, overall 100 x 50 inches. Photos by John Bergens. All images courtesy of Derrick Adams and Monacelli, shared with permission

    The First Monograph to Survey Derrick Adams’ Career Comes Ahead of a Major Exhibition

    October 15, 2025

    ArtBooks

    Kate Mothes

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    Whether portraying families at play, people walking along urban streets, or portraits of individuals, Derrick Adams celebrates Black identity and experience. His collage-like compositions evoke West African masks, reliquary figures, and other carved sculptures, highlighting contemporary, everyday scenes and leisure activities of Black Americans.

    A new monograph from Monacelli surveys more than two decades of Adams’ geometric paintings, made in his signature multihued, faceted style. Derrick Adams is the first monograph to survey the artist’s entire career, tracing his stylistic evolution and the themes that recur throughout his paintings. His paintings capture “moments of joy, resilience, and celebration,” says a statement from the publisher.

    “Figure in the Urban Landscape 15” (2018), acrylic, graphite, ink, fabric collage, grip tape,
    and model cars on wood panel, 48 x 48 x 3 inches

    Organized into three sections—Channeling, Signaling, and Mirroring—the book highlights the artist’s explorations of representation, identity, and the media. We also trace the evolution of his visual language, which he describes as “seriocomic imagery,” along with his “desire to see Black American experiences mirrored in art, in part rectifying the dearth of such imagery in art history,” the publisher says. “At its core, Adams’s project is a reinvigoration of the Black figure in art, an intention seen throughout the works in the book.”

    The release of Derrick Adams sets the stage for a mid-career survey of the artist’s work at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Titled View Finder, the show opens on April 16 and will present 150 works.

    Derrick Adams is slated for release on October 22. Pre-order your copy from the Colossal Shop, and explore more on Adams’ website and Instagram.

    “Black Mirror” (2023), acrylic and fabric collage on wood panel, 30 x 30 inches

    “Only Happy Thoughts” (2024), acrylic and fabric collage on wood panel, 60 x 60 inches

    “Onward and Upward” (2021), acrylic on wood panel, 72 x 192 ⅛ inches

    “Pot Head 3” (2025), acrylic on wood panel, 28 x 14 inches

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    Tiny Art Show Repurposes a Disused Stairwell into a 1:6-Scale Gallery

    All images courtesy of Tiny Art Show, shared with permission

    Tiny Art Show Repurposes a Disused Stairwell into a 1:6-Scale Gallery

    October 14, 2025

    ArtDesign

    Kate Mothes

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    In 2016, while artist McKay Lenker Bayer was still an undergraduate, her professor assigned the class the task of exhibiting their work. Unsure about presenting her work to the public, she downsized, quite literally, showing miniature paintings with teensy-tiny labels. And the idea for a minuscule exhibition space was born.

    In 2018, Lenker Bayer established Tiny Art Show, a community art project that utilizes unique and unexpected spaces around Provo, Utah, to show original work by numerous artists. Until this year, the project was largely nomadic, but Tiny Art Show now has its own dedicated space.

    Installed at 1:6 scale, the storefront-style gallery sits inside what was originally a stairwell, accessible from street level. Its blue facade is reminiscent of retail spaces in New York City or London, and inside, it’s what Leker Bayer describes as “a fully functional, commercial art gallery… that just happens to be tiny.” Original work is for sale, opening events draw gatherings of people who enjoy tiny snacks, and you can even grab a tiny newspaper from the vending machine near the door.

    In addition to its miniature brick-and-mortar presentations, Tiny Art Show also facilitates a series of art projects like the Monthly Mini Mail Club, a subscription that dispatches an itty-bitty periodical called The Tiny Times, plus a booklet from that month’s gallery show. You can also purchase tiny art kits in the shop, along with prints and merchandise.

    Explore more on the project’s website, and keep an eye on Instagram for updates about forthcoming shows.

    Work by Brian Kershisnik

    Work by Merrilee Liddiard

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    Sinister Skies Set the Scene for Derelict Buildings in Lee Madgwick’s Surreal Paintings

    “Fracture.” All images courtesy of Lee Madgwick, shared with permission

    Sinister Skies Set the Scene for Derelict Buildings in Lee Madgwick’s Surreal Paintings

    October 14, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Beneath ominous skies and set within flat, green parkland, Lee Madgwick’s folly-like buildings strike an unsettling note. His surreal paintings feature dilapidated facades and uncanny shrubbery against cloudy, deep gray skies—usually with something just a little strange going on.

    In “Drift,” for example, bricks dislodge from the top of a boxy structure and float into the sky one by one, and “Fracture” defies gravity altogether with a hovering apartment tower that crumbles from below. Madgwick’s rural scenes nod to landscapes and developments that are often overlooked, imbuing them with what he describes as “an undercurrent of mischievous menace.”

    “Echoes”

    Madgwick’s paintings aren’t without hints of dark humor, like in “Echoes,” in which half a building appears to be missing, as if washed away in a now-calm stream. Inside the ragged remains, a waterslide makes use of the height.

    People are nowhere to be seen in Madgwick’s compositions, although their presence is felt in the graffiti left on walls or curtains drawn in various windows. His latest body of work continues “to portray that mysterious and melancholic otherworldliness of seemingly long abandoned and isolated buildings under heavy skies,” he tells Colossal.

    The artist’s work will be on view at Brian Sinfield Gallery in Burford, Oxfordshire, from October 18 to November 4. Find more on Madgwick’s website and Instagram.

    “Badlands”

    “Drift”

    “Boom!”

    “Empire”

    “Evanescence”

    “Hope”

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