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    Ruby Sky Stiler Reassesses Women’s Role in Art History in Geometric Portraits

    “Artist with Green Palette” (2024), canvas, acrylic, pencil, and jade adhesive on panel, 44 x 34 inches. All images © Ruby Sky Stiler, courtesy of the artist and alexander Gray Associates, New York, shared with permission

    Ruby Sky Stiler Reassesses Women’s Role in Art History in Geometric Portraits

    February 27, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Up close, the irregularly gridded, geometric backgrounds of Ruby Sky Stiler’s paintings evoke patchwork or the patterns of agricultural landscapes seen aerially. Intricate patterns intersect in each rectangle, hinting at floral or decorative motifs that, when viewed from further away, appear almost topographical. Merging with this groundwork are boldly delineated women who often directly return the viewer’s gaze.

    Reassessing the history of Western art, Stiler positions women in what she has previously described as “the empowered role as The Artist.” Rather than muses or objectified subjects, she imbues her figures with qualities of control, liberty, and leisure.

    “Woman with Children in Blue” (2024), canvas, acrylic, pencil, and jade adhesive on panel, 44 x 50 inches

    Recently on view at Frieze LA with Alexander Gray Associates, Stiler’s paintings continue to reenvision 20th-century abstraction, especially the predominantly male Cubist movement that burgeoned around 1907 and 1908. She turns the tables on the historically gendered dichotomy in fine art, transferring the role of women as subjects of paintings to that of creator.

    In works like “Women with Children in Blue,” Stiler portrays nude figures in repose or with children, emphasizing another potent definition of women as creators and caregivers. Through mosaic-like compositions, she challenges art historical tropes and reasserts more inclusive, contemporary definitions of gender roles in art.

    Stiler employs a meticulous graphite transfer process to apply patterned outlines to her pieces, nodding to textile design—a craft tradition also historically trivialized in the art world as “women’s work.” Pastel acrylic hues fill out bodies and backgrounds, while bold outlines evocative of minimalist Bauhaus design clarify bodies and objects.

    Stiler is currently preparing a solo exhibition with Alexander Gray Associates scheduled for November. Explore more on her website and Instagram.

    “Two Women in Sienna and Umber, with Red Outline” (2024), canvas, acrylic, pencil, and jade adhesive on panel, 44 x 50 inches

    “Blue Woman” (2024), canvas, acrylic, pencil, and jade adhesive on wood panel, 18 x 15 1/2 inches

    “Seated Blue Figure (with turquoise and red outline)” (2024), canvas, acrylic, graphite, and jade adhesive on panel, 44 x 34 inches

    The artist transfers graphite patterns onto canvas

    Stiler displays preparatory sketches in her studio

    Swatches are labeled for use in a painting

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    In ‘Chimera,’ Erin Milez Lovingly Chronicles the Everyday Chaos of Parenthood

    “The Years Are Short” (2024), oil, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 24 x 30 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, shared with permission

    In ‘Chimera,’ Erin Milez Lovingly Chronicles the Everyday Chaos of Parenthood

    February 27, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Mundane tasks like washing the dishes, eating dinner, or getting some shuteye take on wild and chaotic proportions in Erin Milez’s uncanny paintings. She portrays characters and a home that reflects her own experiences of starting a young family.

    Repetitive motifs and overactive hands—their connection to a body often unclear—cultivate a sense of routine, perform chores, and provide affection. “They go about their daily routines like the seasons, repeating on an accelerated 24-hour cycle,” Milez says.

    “Hot & Cold” (2024), oil on panel, 24 x 18 inches

    The artist draws on the physically and emotionally transformative experience of parenthood in her solo exhibition Chimera at Monya Rowe Gallery. The title reflects the name of a fire-breathing monster in Greek mythology that was part-lion, part-goat, and part-dragon. The term “chimera” is also sometimes used to describe a grotesque beast or a figment of the imagination. Milez says:

    I see my feeling of metamorphosis reflected in various places: in Lucy Jones’ explanation of matrescence and becoming chimeras, “never being singular again,” even on a genetic level; in Tetsuya Ishida’s work, though his embodies a more hopeless and dehumanized transformation in laboring tasks; in Nightbitch where Amy Adams is transformed into a dog because of the primal and physical demands of creation and mothering.

    Tetsuya Ishida, for example, is known for portraying humans merged with machines and banal objects in surreal, alienating scenes. Milez also references the physicality and strength depicted WPA-era works, like the laborers’ bodies in murals by Diego Rivera or Stanley Spencer. The latter was known for large-scale depictions of everyday workers like Port Glasgow shipbuilders on the River Clyde, who people rhythmic, heaving scenes of the round-the-clock toil.

    In Milez’s paintings, quotidian scenes are reframed into elaborate juggling acts. In many cases, the scenes themselves literally frame the activity, like the green tiled sink in “Hot & Cold” that mirrors a material form with clasped hands. In “Receptacle,” numerous hands, handles, and objects swirl around an unwieldy trash bag, and stuffed wooden compartments overflow with nostalgia in “The Years Are Short.”

    “Life & Death II” (2024), oil, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 40 x 30 inches

    Milez illuminates the emotional rollercoaster of parenthood, invoking its discomforts, uncertainties, disorganization, and above all, devotion. In “Goodnight, Lion,” a sleepless mother squishes into a crib to help her chld sleep, evoking wildlife in a zoo.

    “Occupying a space somewhere between chaos and nurture, Milez observes the complicated and continually changing dynamics between family members and self,” says a statement for Chimera. “Milez is not afraid to portray the seemingly monstrous, but it is never gratuitous and always mitigated by beauty and reality.”

    Chimera continues through March 29 in New York City. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    “Goodnight, Lion” (2024), oil, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 24 x 30 inches

    “Receptacle” (2024), oil, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 30 x 24 inches

    “Life & Death I” (2024), oil, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 40 x 30 inches

    “Not Lazy Susan” (2024), oil, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 30 x 24 inches

    “Heavy Mama” (2024), oil, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

    “Variables” (2025), oil, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 16 x 12 inches

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    Loosely Woven Burlap Mimics Digital Pixels in Jennifer J. Lee’s Photorealistic Paintings

    Detail of “Lee Jeans.” All images courtesy of the artist and Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York, shared with permission

    Loosely Woven Burlap Mimics Digital Pixels in Jennifer J. Lee’s Photorealistic Paintings

    February 26, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    On the loosely woven surface of jute burlap, Brooklyn-based artist Jennifer J. Lee paints photorealistic scenes that explore the saturation of images in contemporary experience. The fabric’s gridded structure conjures associations with pixellated screens, playing with the relationship between digital and analog representations of everyday objects.

    Recent paintings, nearly a dozen of which were on view in the artist’s solo exhibition at Klaus Von Nichtssagend Gallery, highlight a personal glimpse of nostalgia, a fascination with the act of looking, and seemingly banal imagery transfigured into symbolic references and objects.

    “Acid Jeans” (2024), oil on jute, 16 × 12 inches

    Lee’s paintings starkly contrast the instant gratification of scrolling through endless images, challenging the speed at which we consume information. She describes her process as a form of “waking meditation and sustained observation,” translating digital pixels into hand-painted brushstrokes and stretching fabric to simulate screens.

    The artist’s technical ability to translate finite details onto a relatively rugged surface speaks to the time and attention required to produce a single painting. Small in scale, her pieces reveal surprising interactions between the objects’ surfaces and the woven jute.

    Denim, for example, sports its own signature weave, which in works like “Acid Jeans” seems to somehow exist in both harmony and opposition with the burlap. Portraying a smooth object in “Security Mirror” presents the challenge of making glass appear polished while nodding to the graininess we associate with CCTV footage. And a bunch of footprints in sand suggest another kind of graininess altogether, the shadows and subtle colors of which seem to vibrate or flicker thanks to the low-thread-count jute weave.

    Lee’s recent paintings harken back to Y2K, an era on the cusp of immense technological and social change as personal computers, mobile phones, and the internet became more widely available, spawning the social media platforms we still use today—albeit profoundly changed since they first emerged.

    Find more on Instagram.

    “Security Mirror” (2024), oil on jute, 13 × 13 inches

    “Pizza” (2024), oil on jute, 12 × 20 inches

    “Beach” (2024), oil on jute, 12 × 21 inches

    “Tennis” (2024), oil on jute, 22 × 15 inches

    Detail of “Pizza”

    “Lee Jeans” (2024), oil on jute, 15 × 13 inches

    Detail of “Tennis”

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

    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

    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

    “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’

    “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

    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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