More stories

  • in

    Daniel Martin Diaz Encodes Cosmic Questions into Geometric Paintings and Prints

    “Celestial Harmonics.” All images courtesy of Daniel Martin Diaz, shared with permission

    Daniel Martin Diaz Encodes Cosmic Questions into Geometric Paintings and Prints

    April 2, 2025

    ArtIllustration

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    In his ongoing “quest to articulate the ineffable,” Arizona-based artist Daniel Martin Diaz (previously) creates large-scale works that merge metaphysical, scientific, and technological phenomena into vibrant geometric compositions.

    Diaz’s current solo exhibition, UNIVERSAL CODES at the Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science, and Art, presents recent work drawing on a wide range of influences, from Mexican religious iconography and arcane religious sigils to Early Netherlandish painters and Gothic decorative motifs.

    “Cross Species Interface”

    Diaz’s work often investigates concepts of death and religion “as he seeks to pose questions but not answer them,” says an exhibition statement. Juxtaposing esoteric symbols and messages with scientific diagrams and spiritual iconography, the artist explores the surreality of cosmic forces.

    UNIVERSAL CODES continues through April 27 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Find more on Diaz’s Instagram, and peruse a range of prints, apparel, and home accessories in his shop.

    “Temporal Soul”

    “Chrono”

    “Beyond the Self”

    “Astral Projection”

    “Conscious Universe”

    “Codex”

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

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Previous articleNext article More

  • in

    Flowers Entwine Porcelain Animals and Objects in Lizzie Gill’s Surreal Tablescapes

    “Pair of Covered Vases” (2024), acrylic, image transfer and marble dust emulsion on canvas, 56 x 62 inches. All photos by Jenny Gorman, courtesy of Hesse Flatow, shared with permission

    Flowers Entwine Porcelain Animals and Objects in Lizzie Gill’s Surreal Tablescapes

    March 31, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    “To have something be uncanny, you must first introduce the familiar,” says Lizzie Gill. Likening her compositions to a dining table’s place settings, the artist paints elaborate still lifes that explore the matriarchal lineages and how objects passed down shift in meaning over time.

    The vivid works feature flat backdrops met by boldly striped or floral linens and a menagerie of animals seized by fresh blooms. A marble and dust emulsion, which Gill layers on the acrylic-painted panel with a baker’s piping tool, adds a life-like texture to the petals. She also utilizes an image-transfer process to translate various pieces from her mother’s porcelain collection, further enmeshing her works in domestic traditions.

    “Wedgwood (Nightlines) II” (2025), acrylic, image transfer and marble dust emulsion on panel, 30 x 24 inches

    The still life, Gill says, is her preferred platform for exploring the tenets of Surrealism and what it means to be a steward. In “Lunar Still Life (Avec L’hippopotame),” for example, long stems coil around an animated porcelain seal and hippo rendered in delicate blue and white. “Still Life With Four Cerulean Vessels” is similarly lively as a miniature fox with a vine wrapped around its torso wanders across the tablescape.

    Decorating the vases are unlikely scenes depicting volcanic eruptions, rocket launches, and even a menacing twister ripping across the terrain. Embellishing antique forms with contemporary imagery, the works juxtapose the calm propriety associated with domestic spaces and world-changing, explosive actions generated by both humans and nature.

    Based in Sharon, Connecticut, Gill is currently researching historic textiles for upcoming works, and those shown here are on view in her solo exhibition Paraphernalia through April 26 at Hesse Flatow. Follow the latest on Instagram.

    “Lunar Still Life (Avec L’hippopotame)” (2025), acrylic, image transfer and marble dust emulsion on panel, 30 x 40 inches

    Detail of “Wedgwood (Nightlines) II” (2025), acrylic, image transfer and marble dust emulsion on panel, 30 x 24 inches

    “Still Life With Four Cerulean Vessels” (2025), acrylic, image transfer and marble dust emulsion on canvas, 48 x 40 inches

    “Tea For Two (Avec Le Caniche)” (2025), acrylic, image transfer and marble dust emulsion on canvas, 40 x 48 inches

    “Wedgwood (Nightlines) III” (2025), acrylic, image transfer and marble dust emulsion on panel, 30 x 24 inches

    “Lunar Still Life (Avec le Elephant)” (2025), acrylic, image transfer and marble dust emulsion on canvas, 60 x 80 inches

    “Wedgwood (Nightlines)” (2025), acrylic, image transfer and marble dust emulsion on panel, 30 x 24 inches

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

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Next article More

  • in

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

    “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

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    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”

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

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Next article More

  • in

    Krzysztof Grzybacz’s ‘Floral Compositions’ Are Tender Portrayals of Togetherness

    “Yellow, White, Orange, Pink, Blue, Yellow, White” (2025), diptych, oil on canvas, 200 × 320 centimeters. Photos by Bartosz Zalewski. All images courtesy of Krzysztof Grzybacz and Galeria Dawid Radziszewski, Vienna, shared with permission

    Krzysztof Grzybacz’s ‘Floral Compositions’ Are Tender Portrayals of Togetherness

    March 27, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    Arranged by size and hue, the blooms in Krzysztof Grzybacz’s large-scale oil paintings appear in comfortable togetherness, each individual’s features amplified by its placement next to those that differ. His Floral Compositions series organizes the flowers against swaths of green fabric, exploring their potent symbolism.

    Grzybacz taps into the age-old tradition of flowers in oil, rendering their petals and stems in vibrant hues that capture their unique outlines and textures. Rooted in still life, his compositions are underpinned by abstraction and the artist’s fascination with layering and perspective.

    “Yellow” (2025), oil on canvas, 200 × 160 centimeters

    The works in Grzybacz’s current solo exhibition at Galeria Dawid Radziszewski also reference the queer community. “Flowers are like people: they pose, search for their own space, and mark out boundaries,” says a statement from the gallery. The artist nods to the role of order and systems, while also emphasizing the importance of celebrating diversity.

    Grouped together in front of textile folds, oblique grids, or distorted human features, the artist invokes the power of alliances through a sense of tenderness, curiosity, and pliability.

    Floral Compositions continues through March 29 in Vienna. Find more on Grzybacz’s website and Instagram.

    “Blue, yellow, orange, white, pink” (2025), oil on canvas, 100 × 80 centimeters

    “Orange, blue, pink, yellow, white, maroon, purple” (2025), oil on canvas, 200 × 160 centimeters

    “White, Yellow, Orange, Blue, Purple” (2025), oil on canvas, 200 × 160 centimeters

    “Blue, White, Yellow, Orange, Pink” (2025), oil on canvas, 100 × 80 centimeters

    “White, maroon, orange, yellow, blue” (2025), oil on canvas, 70 × 60 centimeters

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

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Next article More

  • in

    Traverse Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ with Smarthistory

    Hieronymus Bosch, “The Garden of Earthly Delights” (1490-1510), oil on oak panels, 81 x 152 inches. Image courtesy of the Museo del Prado, Madrid

    Traverse Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ with Smarthistory

    March 24, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    Have you ever wondered why two large owls sit on either side of the central panel in “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymus Bosch? Or perhaps you’ve noticed the strangely fleshy, sculptural fountains rising from the bodies of water—or are they stone? Why is the right side so dark, and who are all these people anyway?

    Narrated by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, Smarthistory’s latest video tours the uncanny landscapes of Bosch’s famous triptych, which continues to “confound our expectations of Christian art of the Renaissance.”

    Smarthistory is a small nonprofit that collaborates with hundreds of art historians, curators, archaeologists, and more, who are committed to making art history as accessible as possible. Through essays, conversations, and videos, the organization presents scholarly information in engaging, digestible, yet analytically rigorous lessons.

    For Smarthistory’s video examining some of the motifs in “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” Harris and Zucker dive into some of the most alluring details of Bosch’s historic painting, parsing mysteries that have persisted since its creation at the turn of the 16th century.

    The overarching narrative of Bosch’s masterpiece remains largely an enigma. “Although it is wonderfully playful and wonderfully inventive and just an incredible thing to look at, it would have been deeply troubling to Bosch’s generation,” Zucker says. “His society would have looked at this as sinful, even though the people that are being represented here didn’t understand sin.” (More on that in a minute.)

    An anomaly of its genre, the painting was commissioned by Engelbert II, a wealthy member of the court of the Duke of Burgundy, probably intending it for his palace. The work consists of three panels in the style of an altarpiece, with two half-size panels on either side of a central composition, which fold inward like two doors to reveal another painting on the exterior.

    Detail of the left panel portraying God introducing Eve to Adam

    In Bosch’s case, he depicted a crystalline sphere in grisaille, or all-gray, which portrays an overview of the earth with God perched in the upper left-hand corner, readying to make something of the lackluster orb. Two biblical phrases, “for he spake and it was done,” from Psalm 33, and “for he commanded and they were created,” from Psalm 148, reference Creation.

    Turning over the panels, as if opening the cover of a book, we enter an otherworldly realm where humans and beasts mingle with oversized animals, fruit, and surreal structures. On the left, Adam and Eve are introduced by a young God, before Eve was tempted to eat the forbidden fruit hanging in the Garden of Eden. In the center, dozens of nude figures frolic, eat, engage in sexual activities, forage, swim, and fly. On the right is hell.

    “One of the most compelling theories is that the central panel is an alternate story,” Zucker says. “What if the Temptation had not taken place? What if Adam and Eve had remained innocent and had populated the world? And so is it possible that what we’re seeing is that reality played out in Bosch’s imagination?”

    Exterior of “The Garden of Earthly Delights” shown with panels closed

    Two oversized owls, symbolic of the presence of evil, flank the central panel. While people appear unashamed of their selves or actions, a sense of uneasiness pervades the scene, balancing the dichotomies of paradise and hell; holiness and sin.

    “The largest figure is a figure which art historians call the ‘tree man,’” Dr. Harris says. “His legs look like the branches of trees with more branches growing from them. But where we might see his feet, we see two unsteady boats in the water with figures in them, suggesting that there’s an inherent instability to this figure who can barely balance in this way.”

    Smarthistory’s video illustrates compositional tools that provide clues to underlying narrative and metaphor, like the way the “tree man” appears to look back across space at Adam and Eve—specifically Adam’s lustful gaze as the representation of humankind’s origin. “In this representation, we don’t need the apple. We don’t need the serpent. All we need is Adam’s lustful gaze as he is introduced to Eve,” Dr. Zucker says. And the rest, so to speak, is history.

    Explore more from the world of art on Smarthistory’s website. You might also enjoy this fantastical parade in The Netherlands devoted entirely to Bosch and Roberto Benavidez’s Bosch-inspired piñatas.

    Detail of the central panel

    Detail from the right-hand panel depicting Hell

    Detail of the central panel

    Detail of the central panel

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

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Next article More

  • in

    ‘Little Beasts’ Is a First-of-Its-Kind Museum Collaboration Reveling in Art and the Natural World

    Jacopo Ligozzi, “A Groundhog or Marmot with a Branch of Plums”. (1605), brush with brown and black wash, point of the brush with black and brown ink and white gouache, and watercolor, over traces of graphite on burnished paper, sheet: 13 x 16 5/8 inches. All images courtesy of The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., shared with permission

    ‘Little Beasts’ Is a First-of-Its-Kind Museum Collaboration Reveling in Art and the Natural World

    March 21, 2025

    ArtHistoryNatureScience

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    During the 16th and 17th centuries, major developments in colonial expansion, trade, and scientific technology spurred a fervor for studying the natural world. Previously unknown or overlooked species were documented with unprecedented precision, and artists captured countless varieties of flora and fauna in paintings, prints, and encyclopedic volumes.

    Marking a first-of-its-kind collaboration between the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World pairs nearly 75 prints, drawings, and paintings with around 60 objects from the NMNH collection.

    Jan van Kessel the Elder, “Insects and a Sprig of Rosemary” (1653), oil on panel, 4 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches

    “In major cities like Antwerp, artists such as Joris and Jacob Hoefnagel and Jan van Kessel created highly detailed drawings, prints, and paintings of these insects, animals, and other beestjes, or ‘little beasts’ in Dutch,” says the National Gallery of Art. “Their works inspired generations of artists and naturalists, fueling the burgeoning science of natural history.”

    Natural history has been a focus for scholars since ancient times, albeit early commentary was a bit more wide-ranging than its definition today. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire is Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, which consists of 37 books divided into 10 volumes and covers everything from astronomy to zoology and mineralogy to art.

    Studying the natural world in ancient and early modern times was predominantly a philosophical pursuit until a discernible change during the Renaissance. By the 16th century, attitudes had shifted. The humanist learning tradition, centered on literature and the arts, began to give way to more advanced explanations for natural objects, describing their types and transformations and grouping them into classes.

    Private collections played a fundamental role in founding many natural history archives. The popularity of Wunderkammers, or “rooms of wonder,” transformed a pastime of the wealthy into exercises in scholarly prestige. By the late 17th century, more rigorous and formalized classification systems emerged as the philosophical component waned.

    Wenceslaus Hollar, “Shell (Murex brandaris)” (c. 1645), etching on laid paper, plate: 3 3/4 x 5 3/8 inches

    Throughout this time, artists like Albrecht Dürer, Clara Peeters, and Wenceslaus Hollar created works that responded to new discoveries. From biologically accurate renderings of shells and insects to playful compositions that employ animals and plants as decorative motifs, paintings and prints were often the only means by which the public could see newly discovered species.

    “Art and science have been closely aligned throughout the 175-year history of the Smithsonian,” says Kirk Johnson, director of the NMNH. “Even today, researchers at the National Museum of Natural History depend on scientific illustrators to bring clarity and understanding to the specimens they study.”

    Little Beasts opens on May 18 and continues through November 2 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Find more on the museum’s website.

    Clara Peeters, “Still Life with Flowers Surrounded by Insects and a Snail” (c. 1610), oil on copper,
    overall: 6 9/16 x 5 5/16 inches; framed: 10 x 9 x 1 1/2 inches

    Robert Hooke, “Micrographia: or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses. / With observations and inquiries thereupon” (1665), bound volume with etched illustrations height (foldout illustrations significantly larger): 12 3/16 inches

    Jan van Kessel the Elder, “Artist’s Name in Insects and Reptiles [bottom center]” (1658), oil on copper, overall: 5 5/8 x 7 1/2 inches; framed: 9 7/8 x 12 1/8 inches

    Jan van Kessel the Elder, “Noah’s Family Assembling Animals Before the Ark” (c. 1660), oil on panel, overall: 25 3/4 x 37 3/16 inches; framed: 32 3/4 x 44 1/4 inches

    An Elephant Beetle (Megasoma e. elephas) from the Department of Entomology collections at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History

    Wenceslaus Hollar, “Two Butterflies, a Wasp, and a Moth” (1646), etching on laid paper, plate: 3 3/16 x 4 3/4 inches; sheet: 3 1/4 x 4 13/16 inches

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

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Next article More

  • in

    Robert Peterson Summons Black Resilience and Tenderness in Vibrant Portraits

    “The Prophet” (2025), oil on canvas, 48 x 30 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and albertz benda, New York and Los Angeles, shared with permission

    Robert Peterson Summons Black Resilience and Tenderness in Vibrant Portraits

    March 20, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    In characteristically glistening blue hues, Robert Peterson’s striking portraits invite us into emotionally complex inner worlds.

    Peterson centers the Black body in paintings that challenge dominant narratives surrounding Black lives, celebrating beauty, compassion, and resilience. Tender portraits reveal the essential humanity of vulnerability and individuality with an emphasis on themes of empathy and togetherness.

    “Protect Those Tears” (2025), oil on canvas, 14 x 11 inches

    Peterson’s choice of oils, a traditional portrait medium, embeds his work in the continuum of Western painting. However, instead of highly stylized scenes or elaborate ornamentation, his figures are often set against bold, flat backgrounds and they appear half-dressed or in casual clothes, unguarded and relaxed.

    In his forthcoming solo exhibition, We Are Forever at albertz benda, Peterson examines familial connections, paying homage to the strength and dedication inherent in the relationships between siblings and parents and their children.

    “At the core of this new body of work is a profound sense of intimacy, offering a thoughtful reflection on presence and the enduring significance of his subjects’ stories,” the gallery says.

    We Are Forever runs from March 27 to May 3 in New York. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    “Untitled (Purple)” (2025), oil on canvas, 18 x 14 inches

    “Water Me” (2025), oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches

    “Hamsa Tattoo” (2025, oil on canvas, 28 x 22 inches

    “Untitled (Black)” (2025), oil on canvas, 18 x 14 inches

    Installation view of works at the Dallas Art Fair

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

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Next article More

  • in

    A Visit to Amy Sherald’s Studio Revels in Her Commitment to Beauty

    All images courtesy of Art21

    A Visit to Amy Sherald’s Studio Revels in Her Commitment to Beauty

    March 19, 2025

    ArtFilm

    Grace Ebert

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    From the studio to her childhood bedroom in Columbus, Georgia, to the museum, a new film from Art21 presents a broad portrait of Amy Sherald. The artist is perhaps best known for her depiction of former First Lady Michelle Obama and her signature images of Black Americans rendered in grayscale.

    In “Singular Moments,” the Art21 team peers into Sherald’s process and captures the intricacies of creating a work. Reference photos taped to a wall and paint squirted onto white paper plates accompany the artist as she works on her increasingly large-scale canvases.

    Sherald frequently paints people she knows, beginning with their faces and eyes before moving on to the rest of their figures. As the title of the film suggests, her focus is on a single moment of beauty. “I think beautiful paintings are important,” she says in the film. “I say figuration is like the soul food of art making. It’s what takes you back home and what you eat when you need comfort, and we all need that at some point.”

    The film comes ahead of Sherald’s first solo exhibition at a New York museum, American Sublime, which will present about 50 works from 2007 to today next month at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In addition to a visit to the artist’s parents’ home, filled with grade-school pictures and teenage art projects, viewers also witness the creation of some of her more recent works, particularly those exploring what it means to be an American.

    Watch “Singular Moments” above, and be sure to read our conversation with the artist in which she discusses anxiety and finding respite in her work.

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

    Hide advertising

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop

    Receive members-only newsletter

    Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/month

    $75/year

    Explore membership options

    Next article More