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Through Landscapes Marred by Climate Disaster, Seonna Hong Mines ‘Past Lives’

by Aurelia Butler 25 February 2025, 14:51

Atacama I, 2024, acrylic and oil pastel on raw canvas, 60 x 75 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Hashimoto Contemporary, shared with permission

Through Landscapes Marred by Climate Disaster, Seonna Hong Mines ‘Past Lives’

February 25, 2025

Art

Grace Ebert

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In Past Lives, Seonna Hong excavates the way experiences seem to stack upon each other, sometimes slipping through or re-emerging when we don’t expect them. Through her signature abstract vistas, Hong creates what can be called “memory landscapes,” vast scenes that layer themes of environmental destruction, personal reflections, and the artist’s own Korean heritage.

On view at Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art, Past Lives comprises 32 works, many of which have been altered from their original form. For example, the Los Angeles-based artist revised “The Loved Ones” by softening the edges of bulky, striped blocks in the background and anonymizing a pair of young girls while giving their figures more clarity. “Selective Abstraction” is similar and features a bolder streak of bright pink across the canvas, a recurring mark in Hong’s latest works.

“The Loved Ones,” acrylic, oil pastel on raw canvas, framed, 10 x 10 inches

The exhibition title comes from Celine Song’s 2023 film structured around inyeon, an ancient concept of fated love that emerges in one life after another. Hong adds:

I have included pieces that show my past lives as well as older works that, in the spirit of re-use, repurpose, and upcycling, have been painted into and brought from the past into the present, being mindful to not just gesso over the canvas (a literal and metaphorical whitewash) but include some of its history, the layers.

With barren trees, colorful mounds, and diminutive figures ambling among the terrain, the paintings emphasize the ways the past emerges in the present. Despite their bright hues, Hong’s landscapes are deteriorating and experiencing the very real blight of climate disaster. Two new pieces depict figures in the parched Atacama desert, clambering atop enormous heaps of discarded clothing. Bringing the immense waste of fast fashion and consumerism to the fore, the compositions capture the ways our decisions are never relegated to the past and how our choices affect even the most sparsely populated regions on the planet.

As with previous bodies of work, Hong’s Korean ancestry appears, as well. A large, upright bear shifts its weight to one side in “More Bridges Less Walls.” The animal plays an important role in a Korean creation myth, which says that the powerful, devoted mammal was turned into a woman who went on to start the nation.

Past Lives is on view through June 22 in Moraga, California. Find more from Hong on Instagram.

“Atacama II” (2024), acrylic and oil pastel on raw canvas, 60 x 72 inches

“Selective Abstraction,” acrylic, paper, and vinyl on canvas, 12 x 12 inches

“Verisimilitude” (2018, 2025), acrylic, paper, and vinyl on canvas, 36 x 40 inches

“More Bridges Less Walls” (2025), acrylic, oil pastel on raw canvas, framed, 12 x 12 inches

“Deluge” (2025), acrylic, oil pastel on raw canvas, framed, 10 x 8 inches

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Reconnecting with the Earth, Cyrah Dardas Collages Paintings with Handmade Pigments
by Aurelia Butler 24 February 2025, 19:44
Images courtesy of Cyrah Dardas, Shana Merola, Na Forrest Lim, Library Street Collective, and CCS gallery, shared with permission
Reconnecting with the Earth, Cyrah Dardas Collages Paintings with Handmade Pigments
February 24, 2025
ArtNature
Kate Mothes
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From oxidized metals, foraged plants, and botanical inks and dyes, Cyrah Dardas derives colors and textures from materials found in the earth. Based in Detroit, the artist reflects the juxtapositions of her surrounding landscape in paintings on cotton paper, merging human-made and organic materials in works redolent of Persian tapestries.
In abstract compositions evocative of Georgia O’Keeffe’s sensual flower forms or the symbol-rich paintings of Hilma af Klint vis-à-vis the spiritualist movement, Dardas collages paper painted with handmade watercolors and quilts textiles with hand-dyed fabrics.
“For the last few years, I have been thinking a lot about belonging and seeking to understand it through a more loving relationship to place,” she tells Colossal. “All of my work as an artist flows from this seeking.”
Dardas employs the language of abstraction to explore the human psyche and the “patterns, behaviors, forms, colors, and movements I see in the living world,” she says. Recently, she’s been considering the impact of humans seeing ourselves as increasingly separate from both nature and one another, simultaneously fascinated and grieved by the fallacy of individualism—the confusion between the freedom to make good decisions and the perceived right to do whatever we want with no empathy or regard for how it will affect others.
“In my practice, I ask myself, could I possibly foster some level of reciprocity with any—or all—of the many elements and beings that have brought me here and taken care of me?” Dardas says. “In order to do that, I know I need to at least find a way to connect to them differently than the models that modernity offers us. Art is my portal for that, a different type of connection.”
Dardas invokes ancient, ancestral ways of being in the world by consciously connecting to her natural surroundings. She honors ecosystems and relationships that are naturally cooperative, nourishing, and sustaining, drawing contrasts between processes she views as extractive, like capitalism, patriarchal attitudes, or over-reliance on technology. She uses locally available materials and relies on analog techniques to prepare and process them.
Describing herself as a “queer, eco-romantic artist and care worker,” Dardas examines the nuances of interdependency, growth, and life cycles. Much of her recent work is a reflection of her own pregnancy as she is currently in the “fleeting baby phase” of new parenthood. She says:
I got curious about other beings that swell and gorge to create life—all the plant bodies of water holding seeds, feeding and nurturing them. I wanted to mirror them, thinking of myself as a gourd, a seed pod, a fruit. Like the many facets and expressions of queerness, I felt the experience of pregnancy was vast and delightfully undefinable, and I wanted to translate that feeling or mirroring into something visual.
Dardas’s work is on view in the group exhibition Warp and Weft: Technologies within Textiles, presented by Library Street Collective at The Shepherd in Detroit, which continues through May 3. Find more on her website and Instagram.
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In ‘Flying High,’ Tyler D. Ballon’s Portraits Parallel Sports, History, Identity, and Patriotism
by Aurelia Butler 21 February 2025, 15:22
“Fellow Countrymen” (2024-25), oil on canvas, 78 x 73 inches. Photos by Genevieve Hanson. All images courtesy of Tyler Ballon and Jeffrey Deitch, New York, shared with permission
In ‘Flying High,’ Tyler D. Ballon’s Portraits Parallel Sports, History, Identity, and Patriotism
February 21, 2025
ArtHistory
Kate Mothes
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In Édouard Manet’s painting “The Execution of Emperor Maximilian” — actually a series of works completed between 1867 and 1869 — a firing squad dramatically executes the Hapsburg royal and two generals. Maximilian became Emperor of Mexico at the urging of Napoleon III, following the second French intervention in the country between 1861 and 1867.
For his forthcoming solo exhibition, Flying High at Jeffrey Deitch, New Jersey-based artist Tyler D. Ballon recreates the 19th-century painter’s work in a 16-foot-wide diptych titled “Right to Bear Arms/Second Amendment” that portrays two young Black men protecting three young Black women, who look directly at the viewer with dignity, in defiance of objectification.
“Right to Bear Arms/Second Amendment” (2024-25), oil on canvas, diptych, overall 70 x 193.5 inches
“Seeing a gun pointed at a person of color is something that’s familiar to American history,” Ballon says in a statement. “But having an African American man holding a rifle is distinctively different. The work challenges perceptions of Black men bearing arms, reclaiming their image as patriots and protectors, and pays homage to the Civil War troops.”
Patriotism and narrative weave throughout Ballon’s architectonic works, drawing on the legacy of history painting, African Americans in the Civil War, and identity through the lens of contemporary sports. The artist says:
While creating these paintings, I realized there is an interesting dichotomy between sports being a tool for success and having Black bodies being used to advance America’s ambition. My paintings challenge stereotypes that confine people of color to achieving success solely through physical prowess or musical talent. These works celebrate the resilience of young African Americans who carve out better lives using the resources available to them.
Ballon excavates Black American history, paying homage to those who fought for citizenship and freedom. Through football, a quintessentially American sport, he evokes military ideologies that also offer young men “an avenue to channel their aggression, build camaraderie, and find fulfillment,” he says.” Games evoke battles; coaches are likened to generals or lieutenants; and key players are assigned to be offensive or defensive “captains,” leading their teammates and relaying calls from the sidelines.
“Sound of Victory” (2025), oil paint on canvas, 82 x 78 inches
Choosing his hometown of Jersey City’s Abraham Lincoln High School to represent a metaphorical and symbolic regiment, Ballon nods to Black Civil War veterans who fought for African Americans’ rights. Football is also channeled as a means for young people to advance to higher education and further their future prospects. “The children in these paintings are a testament to progress and a source of hope for the future,” the artist says.
In “Before the Battle,” players suit up and a coach stands off to the left, looking directly back at us, as do many of the determined players. In “Fellow Countrymen,” we see three distinguished players who also make eye contact, geared up and ready to take on whatever the opposing team throws their way. Our perspective is always just a little bit lower than eye level with the figures, encouraging us to view them in subtle reverence, as we would with many of art history’s grand portraits and battle scenes.
Ballon grasps the troubled legacy of some early 19th-century history painting, which prior to the widespread use of photography was one way that the European public could comprehend their nations’ overseas colonial empires, all of which deeply and violently impacted Black and Indigenous peoples.
History painting was seen as a form of documentation, sometimes criticized for its lack of accuracy with regard to depictions of battles, but it proved a powerful method for furthering white European imperial attitudes. For Ballon, appropriating the genre yields a powerful tool, turning the tables on both who makes and is portrayed in the monumental scenes.
Detail of “Right to Bear Arms/Second Amendment”
Ballon also celebrates marching bands, historically used to convey orders and signals to military troops, which over time assumed the role of morale- and unity-boosters. “I choose to portray the marching band of Malcom X Shabazz High School for their renowned excellence in performance, their New Jersey roots, and their namesake, Malcom X, a pivotal leader during the Civil Rights Movement whose ideology helped shape African American culture and history,” Ballon says.
The title of the exhibition, Flying High, reflects the aspiration to rise above the adversities of inner city life. “My work focuses on the lives and experiences of the people in my community,” Ballon says. “I believe in capturing moments that can inspire and validate their existence, extending their stories beyond geographic and temporal boundaries. I want young people to see themselves as worthy of being immortalized in art—a recognition that transcends time.”
Flying High runs from March 8 to April 19 in New York City. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Before the Battle” (2024-25), oil on canvas, diptych, overall 90 x 134 inches
Detail of “Before the Battle”
Detail of “Sound of Victory”
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Wayne Thiebaud’s Passion for Art History Shines in ‘Art Comes from Art’
by Aurelia Butler 20 February 2025, 10:00
“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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Matt Roussel’s Textured Woodcuts Metamorphose into Paintings
by Aurelia Butler 18 February 2025, 19:16
All images courtesy of Matt Roussel, shared with permission
Matt Roussel’s Textured Woodcuts Metamorphose into Paintings
February 18, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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From elaborate portraits to overflowing florals to playful animals, the woodcuts of Matt Roussel (previously) tell a wide range of enigmatic stories. For his large-scale works, Roussel begins by carving wooden panels, but rather than using the blocks to make prints, he applies acrylic paint to the surfaces to create bold, textured paintings. Portraits of women wearing unique garments are complemented by goldfish that metamorphose into birds and giant scarab beetles cloaked in giant flowers.
Roussel’s work will be on view in several forthcoming art3f fairs throughout Europe, with Strasbourg, Nantes, and Lyon coming up in late February and March. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Three Flowers Scarab,” acrylic on carved wood
Detail of “Three Flowers Scarab”
“Métamorphose,” acrylic on carved wood, 60 x 60 centimeters
“Fleur de Zhou,” acrylic on carved wood
“Poisson pipe,” acrylic on carved wood, 60 x 80 centimeters
“La grande fleur,” acrylic on carved wood, 120 x 80 centimeters
“Golden dance,” acrylic on carved wood, 60 x 80 centimeters
“3 cimes,” acrylic on carved wood, 120 x 80 centimeters
Detail of “3 cimes”
“La falaise,” acrylic on carved wood, 60 x 80 centimeters
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Charles Gaines Maps the Meanings of Ancient Baobab Trees in Meticulous Charts
by Aurelia Butler 17 February 2025, 13:48
“Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #4, Maasai”
(2024),
acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen. All images © Charles Gaines, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, shared with permission
Charles Gaines Maps the Meanings of Ancient Baobab Trees in Meticulous Charts
February 17, 2025
ArtNaturePhotography
Grace Ebert
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Since the 1970s, Charles Gaines (previously) has been charting the sprawling, unpredictable forms of trees onto numbered grids. He began with walnut trees in 1975, which he photographed while barren and then plotted onto hand-drawn graph paper.
A leader in the Conceptual Art movement, Gaines’ works ask viewers to explore the relationships between what something appears to be and what it means as it shifts from one context to the next. He also argues for a greater divide between subjectivity and aesthetics, instead emphasizing culture’s immense role in shaping our experiences.
Detail of “Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #4, Maasai” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen 
In his ongoing Numbers and Trees series, Gaines continues to chart differences. During a 2023 visit to Tanzania, the artist photographed majestic baobabs, which form the basis for a collection of triptychs that entwine the magnificent specimens with colorfully numbered grids. Gnarled trunks and spindly offshoots both layer atop and are masked by Gaines’ sequences, all viewed through sheets of plexiglass.
The baobab is known as “the tree of life” for its longevity, myriad roles in preserving the savanna ecosystem, and ability to host entire habitats within its canopies. The specimens are often associated with folklore and myth and in the era of climate disaster, are some of the casualties of unrelenting drought. Depending on location, epoch, and community, the trees can serve a wide array of purposes and hold a multitude of symbolism.
Icons of the African continent, baobabs also connect to histories of colonialism and slavery. In this context, they’re distorted and mediated by both Gaines’ organizing principles and the acrylic panes. “What you bring to the image, adds to the image,” the artist says.
Numbers and Trees, The Tanzania Baobabs is on view from February 19 to May 24 at Hauser & Wirth West Hollywood.
“Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #7, Makonde” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Keith Lubow
Detail of “Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #7, Makonde” (2024), 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Keith Lubow
“Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #3, Tongwe” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen
Detail of “Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #3, Tongwe” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen
“Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #2, Zanaki” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Keith Lubow
Detail of “Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #2, Zanaki” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Keith Lubow
“Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #5, Rangi” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen
Detail of “Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #5, Rangi” (2024), acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen
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Announcing Joy Machine, a New Art Gallery in Chicago
by Aurelia Butler 10 February 2025, 10:00
Abi Castillo, “Blooming” and “Blue Caterpillar” (2025), ceramic
Announcing Joy Machine, a New Art Gallery in Chicago
February 10, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert and Christopher Jobson
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As Colossal prepares to turn 15 this year, we’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be part of a creative community. During the last decade and a half, we’ve spoken with thousands of artists, designers, and makers and cultivated a vast network of friends and colleagues around the globe. Publishing has been one of the greatest joys of our lives and demonstrated again and again how art can connect us all.
We’re incredibly excited to share that we’re expanding our footprint right here in our home of Chicago. Our new art gallery, Joy Machine, opens on February 21.
Michael McGrath, “Night Ride, Spring Gods” (2025), colored pencil on wood panel, 10 x 8 inches
A year in the making, Joy Machine is built around the belief that amid deep uncertainty and upheaval, joy becomes an indispensable gateway to hope. As we navigate this incredibly difficult time, we’re interested in coming together to expand our power to feel and process experiences good and bad.
Our first exhibition, Light Preserver, features nine artists who cultivate and ritualize joy through humor, nostalgia, vibrancy, and excitement for new possibilities. Whether reflecting on childhood fun or invoking art’s ability to rescue us from depression, each artist taps into our shared humanity—not to evade difficult realities but to find meaning and purpose amid chaos. In this way, joy becomes an essential antidote to despair and a fundamental lifeline to keep us all afloat.
Light Preserver features work by many artists you’re probably familiar with, including Moises Salazar Tlatenchi, David Heo, Liz Flores, Peter Frederiksen, Danym Kwon, Lisa Congdon, Michael McGrath, Jeff Rubio, and Abi Castillo.
Colossal will continue publishing independently as it always has, and when Joy Machine’s projects fit Colossal’s mission, we’ll be sure to share them with you all here.
If you’re in Chicago, please join us to celebrate Joy Machine’s opening on February 21. You can follow the gallery on Instagram, and sign up for the newsletter on the website.
Danym Kwon, “When Small Happiness Found Us” (2025), acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas, 18 x 18 inches
David Heo, “Mamihlapinatapai” (2024), mixed media on paper mounted on panel, 11 x 28 inches
“Red Boots” (2025), acrylic on wood, framed in hemlock, 18 x 24 inches
Peter Frederiksen, “Sharing Secrets” (2022), freehand machine embroidery on linen, 6 x 8 inches
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Bees and Irridescent Bubbles Infiltrate Still-Life Traditions in Marc Dennis’ Paintings
by Aurelia Butler 7 February 2025, 19:11
Detail of “Happily Ever After” (2024), oil on linen, 70.5 x 57.25 inches. All images courtesy of Harper’s, New York, shared with permisison
Bees and Irridescent Bubbles Infiltrate Still-Life Traditions in Marc Dennis’ Paintings
February 7, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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During the Dutch Golden Age, vanitas grew in popularity as a genre of memento mori that emphasized life’s transience. The opulent paintings were steeped in symbolism and foregrounded the futility of ambition and worldly pleasures.
Marc Dennis draws on this 17th-century tradition as he refashions the still life for a contemporary audience. In a recent oil painting, “Happily Ever After,” hordes of honeybees and hornets descend on a lush bouquet. Kaleidoscopic bubbles float across the five-foot canvas, reflecting the surrounding colors and distorting clear viewers of nearby flowers and fruit.
“Happily Ever After” (2024), oil on linen, 70.5 x 57.25 inches
The insects and glossy orbs add another layer of impermanence to the already fleeting imagery, while also reflecting on the tenuous relationship between the organic and human-made. Similar tensions appear in “Allegory of the Readymade,” which suffocates and warps a seemingly vibrant painting with thick layers of plastic wrap. Each of the works clings to a brief moment in time, capturing both life at its prime and serving as a bold reminder of its inevitable end.
Dennis’ paintings are on view in I’m Happy You’re Here through March 1 at Harper’s Gallery in New York. Find more from the artist on Instagram.
“Based on a True Story” (2024), oil on linen, 70.75 x 55 inches
Detail of “Based on a True Story” (2024), oil on linen, 70.75 x 55 inches
“Superstar” (2024), oil on linen, 70.5 x 55 inches
“Portrait of the Artist as a Juvenile Delinquent” (2024), oil on linen, 72 x 58 inches
“Allegory of the Readymade” (2024), oil on linen, 48.75 x 37 inches
“Giotto’s Fly” (2024), oil on linen, 72.5 x 96 inches
“Dracula” (2024), oil on linen, 71.5 x 56 in
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Paradise and Precarity Merge in Jessica Taylor Bellamy’s Paintings of Los Angeles Life
by Aurelia Butler 7 February 2025, 14:57
“American Airlines Passenger Ticket 1 (after Warhol)” (2023), oil on canvas, 32 x 59 inches
Paradise and Precarity Merge in Jessica Taylor Bellamy’s Paintings of Los Angeles Life
February 7, 2025
ArtClimate
Kate Mothes
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For Jessica Taylor Bellamy, juxtapositions, transparency, and layers shape a way of working that evokes her family history and notions of home and landscape. Born to an Ashkenazi Jewish mother and an Afro-Cuban Jamaican father, Bellamy was raised in Whittier, just southeast of Los Angeles.
In glowing oil paintings, she draws from personal mementos like photographs, sales receipts, and newspaper clippings to explore the relationships between utopia and dystopia, humans and nature, image and text, and fantasy and reality.
“Did She Nail It?” (2025), oil on canvas, 26 x 20 inches
Bellamy portrays sunsets, landscapes, trees, urban streets, flora, animals, and cloud formations in a kind of dreamy washiness, adding patterns like chainlink fences, gates, and lace curtains suggestive of boundaries. Horizontal landscapes overlaid with American Airlines tickets echo Andy Warhol’s 1960s silkscreen prints of SAS airline tickets merged with floral motifs.
“Bellamy’s observations are rooted in her experiences of the sprawling urban landscape of Los Angeles—a meeting of nature and civilization at the edge of a precarious paradise, formed by fire, drought, flood, and wind,” says a statement from Anat Ebgi, which represents the artist and opens her new solo exhibition, Temperature Check.
A few works shown here, like “Did She Nail It?,” appear in the show, which merges landscapes and atmospheric lighting effects with references to DIY culture, what’s gendered as “men’s work,” and car and motorcycle culture. The Home Depot receipt, which typically uses the slogan “Did we nail it?,” is combined with an image of a rear-view mirror depicted so close that it initially appears abstract.
Bellamy examines the dualities and precarity of life in Southern California—a seeming paradise we’ve witnessed can be swiftly devastated by fire and drought. The title Temperature Change is also a double entendre, suggesting meteorological readings and a figurative expression used when measuring a group mood or opinion. Through surreal imagery and echoes of mass production and consumerism, the artist invokes a noir reverie.
Temperature Check runs from February 8 to March 22 in Los Angeles. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Box Fan (AM)” (2025), oil on canvas, 57 1/2 x 32 inches
“American Airlines Passenger Ticket 2 (after Warhol)” (2023), oil on canvas, 32 x 60 inches
“Playa Larga (Coquina Combination Pill Pack)” (2023), oil on canvas, 23 3/4 x 42 1/2 inches
“A Subspecies of Journalism” (2023), oil on canvas, 59 x 43 1/2 inches
“A Splendid Paradox” (2022), oil on canvas, 70 x 52 inches
“Curtain of Sky” (2024), oil on canvas, 57 1/2 x 48 inches
“Horizontal Thrust I (Blue graffiti highway)” (2025), oil on canvas, 26 x 70 inches
“Driveway Moment” (2025), oil on canvas, 57 1/2 x 47 inches
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