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Landscape painting is “re-envisioned through a hallucinatory, technicolor lens.”
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“And nature smiled” (2025), oil on herringbone linen, 66 7/8 x 55 1/8 inches. All photos by Ben Deakin. Images courtesy of the artist and Ross + Kramer Gallery, shared with permission
Pastoral Landscapes Brim with Patterns in Luminous Paintings by David Brian Smith
November 19, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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Easter egg-like clouds, glowing sunrise gradients, and myriad vibrant patterns are just a few of the elements comprising David Brian Smith’s otherworldly landscapes.
Smith grew up in rural Shropshire, England, and his ancestral ties to the region’s agricultural traditions became a major influence on his work after he relocated to London. His works evoke British landscape painting of the likes of the Norwich School of painters, a group of self-taught, working-class artists who self-organized an art society in the early 19th century.
“All around the Wrekin” (2025), oil on linen, 78 3/4 x 70 7/8 inches
Smith departs from historically more academic styles of oil painting to create works “re-envisioned through a hallucinatory, technicolor lens,” says Ross + Kramer Gallery, which presents the artist’s solo exhibition, All around the Wrekin. In his starkly contrasted rolling hills, farm buildings, and bulbous trees, Smith also evokes the bucolic yet faintly uncanny paintings of American Regionalist artist Grant Wood (1891-1942).
“Rooted in the English pastoral tradition yet boldly contemporary in vision, Smith’s paintings explore ideas of place, belonging, and time through radiant color, intricate brushwork, and layered symbolism,” the gallery says. The title of the show references the name of a hill in Shropshire called the Wrekin, distinctive for its conical shape and a popular place to take walks.
Within the sky, fields, rivers, and forests, hundreds of little hatch marks, flowers, starbursts, and other thematic motifs dance across the surface. He also often incorporates gold and silver leaf to add an even further ethereality to the large-scale, luminous canvases, tapping into the power of color and light to evoke nostalgia and a kind of psychedelic utopianism.
All around the Wrekin continues through November 22 in San Francisco. Smith’s work is also on view as part of Inner and Outer Worlds, an exhibition of international contemporary painting that runs through April 12 at the Ju Ming Museum in Taiwan. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
Detail of “All around the Wrekin”
“Jackfield” (2025), oil and gold leaf on herringbone linen, 66 7/8 x 55 1/8 inches
Detail of “Jackfield”
“A Dragons Eye” (2025), oil and gold leaf on herringbone linen, 82 5/8 x 70 7/8 inches
Detail of “A Dragons Eye”
“A place of my heart” (2025), oil on linen, 78 3/4 x 70 7/8 inches
Detail of “All around the Wrekin”
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“Wail on Whalers (portrait of Amos Haskin)” (2024), beads on coated wire and aluminum rod, 95 x 72 x 4 inches. Photos by Chris Gardner. All images courtesy of the artist, shared with permission
Vibrant, Beaded Portraits by Felandus Thames Honor Memories and the Black Diaspora
November 18, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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From thousands of colorful hair beads, Felandus Thames conjures vibrant patterns and portraits. He takes historical photographs as a starting point, focusing especially on Black and Indigenous figures whose stories have largely been underrepresented in American historical narrative. These include dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey and Amos Haskins, a 19th-century Wampanoag man who became a master mariner—one of the few Indigenous people to do so.
Based in West Haven, Connecticut, Thames emphasizes powerful associations with materials. In the case of these portraits, he employs beads frequently used to style braids. Recent projects also include installations incorporating multiple hairbrushes. “Lately, I’ve been thinking about the affordances of material and their ability to necessitate an idea,” Thames tells Colossal. “I’ve been mining materials from my childhood,” he adds, delving into memories that connect him and others within the Black diaspora.
“Untitled (portrait of Alvin Ailey)” (2025) hair beads on coated wire and aluminum rod, 60 x 41 x 4 inches
These materials reference both historical and contemporary functions, from the use of beads and shells as currency in early societies to the way a beaded curtain was separated different areas within Thames’ childhood home. “In these works, I offer the everyday as cultural currency,” he says.
Thames describes the mass-produced plastic components as “Black pixels,” akin to pieces of fabric patchworked together to form a quilt. A creative practice his maternal ancestors also pursued, quilting provides another “way of speaking to how carry memory with us,” he says. The neatly beaded strands, suspended from aluminum rods, also become almost fabric-like.
In his recent work, Thames has been interested in the Black radical tradition, a philosophy that rejects colonial attitudes, such as slavery, racial segregation, and other forms of oppression. The Black Panthers and the civil rights movement evolved around this philosophy, with more recent examples including the Black Lives Matter movement.
For Thames, Black radical tradition is “a form of resistance and insurgency” by people who took great leaps and made lasting change. “My focus gets beyond the outlier or exceptional individual, but thinking about people who have fostered sustainable change to the apparatus,” he says.
“African King of Dubious Origins” (2022), hair beads on coated wire and aluminum rod, 48 x 78 1/4 x 4 inches
Thames’ portraits exemplify changes or behavior that created something akin to what he calls a “scaffolding for substantive change.” Surrounded by vibrant patterns, their likenesses, often drawn from black-and-white archival photos, become timeless.
“Wail on Whalers (portrait of Amos Haskin)” is currently part of Entwined: Freedom, Sovereignty, and the Sea, which continues through January 19 at the Mystic Seaport Museum. Thames’ work is also currently on view in the group exhibition EXODUS at the Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, which continues through April 18, 2026. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Jubilee” (2025), hair beads on coated wire with aluminum rod, 84.x 48 x 4 inches
“Believed to be Jenny Freeman in her Sunday’s best” (2024-2025), plastic beads, coated wire, and aluminum, 92 1/2 x 60 x 4 inches
“King David of Harlem” (2024), beads on coated wire with aluminum rod, 85 3/4 x 48 x 4 inches. Photo by John Bentham
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“It was all possible until it wasn’t” (2025), acrylic, paper, bamboo, wood, and Dacron, 32 x 26 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Miles McEnery Gallery, shared with permission
Paper Discs Stand In for Brushstrokes in Jacob Hashimoto’s Structural, Layered Works
October 28, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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Jacob Hashimoto’s pieces aren’t easily classified as either two- or three-dimensional. Instead, his mixed-media works play with the boundary between the two, merging traditional craft practices with painting, printmaking, sculpture, and installation.
Hashimoto’s pieces range from multilayered wall works to large-scale, site-specific installations made with hundreds—sometimes thousands—of paper-and-bamboo discs inspired by kites. Screen-printed with acrylic, they’re coated in vibrant colors and patterns that almost vibrate when layered with lengths of string, pulled taut between a system of pegs or suspended from the ceiling.
Detail of “Even if it was all a lie” (2025), acrylic, paper, bamboo, wood, and Dacron, 32 x 26 inches
The artist’s eponymous solo exhibition, opening this week at Miles McEnery Gallery, highlights his continued interest in “reframing the brushstroke as a modular unit,” says a statement. “Hashimoto splinters painting’s most fundamental conventions (stroke, mark, surface) into discrete, discernibleforms.”
Each translucent disc is meticulously arranged in a multifaceted composition in which various motifs billow, branch, and blend through several layers. Uniting the individual components into an overall structure, we get the sense that intuition guides the arrangement, yet set parameters—not unlike the edges of a canvas—ultimately determine the placement.
On the same token, the continuity and pixel-like quality of the discs suggest they are planned well in advance. Hashimoto often uses 3D computer modeling software to lay out the overall works, especially large-scale installations, to achieve a high level of precision.
The exhibition opens in New York City on October 30 and continues through December 20. Dive into the archive to read some of Hashimoto’s insights in his Colossal interview, and visit the artist’s website and Instagram for more work and updates.
“I think I’m already forgetting” (2025), acrylic, paper, bamboo, wood, and Dacron, 32 x 26 inches
“Would it work? Not likely.” (2025), acrylic, paper, bamboo, wood, and Dacron, 32 x 26 inches
“This exact language” (2025), acrylic, paper, bamboo, wood, and Dacron, 32 x 26 inches
Detail of “This exact language”
“Even if it was all a lie” (2025), acrylic, paper, bamboo, wood, and Dacron, 32 x 26 inches
“The bittersweet fall into actuality” (2025), acrylic, paper, bamboo, wood, and Dacron, 60 x 48 inches
“There are other places” (2025), acrylic, paper, bamboo, wood, and Dacron, 32 x 26 inches
Detail of “It was all possible until it wasn’t”
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“Wopila | Lineage II” (2023), acrylic, glass beads, synthetic sinew, and thread on aluminum panel, 96 x 120 inches. Gochman Family Collection. Photo by Rik Sferra. All images courtesy of Alexander Gray Associates, New York, and Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, shared with permission
Lakota and Western Art History Converge in Dyani White Hawk’s Vibrant Works
October 1, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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Throughout history, those who wield the most power or resources are typically the ones whose stories are represented in textbooks, passed down through generations, and etched into our collective consciousness. Without intentional effort, it can be difficult to hear more than a single narrative.
In art history, the reality is much the same. The canon has always privileged white male artists, from titans of the Renaissance like Michelangelo to bad-boy American Modernists like Jackson Pollock. The foundations of 19th-century American landscape painting, for example, are inextricable from the belief in Manifest Destiny, as the American government violently expanded westward. And Western painting and sculpture have historically reigned supreme in the market-driven hallows of galleries and auction houses. But what of the incredible breadth of—namely Indigenous—art forms that have long been overlooked?
“Visiting” (2024), acrylic, glass beads, thread, and synthetic sinew on aluminum panel with a quartz base, 120 x 15.5 x 15.5 inches (base 5 x 24 x 24 inches). Collection of the Denver Art Museum. Photo by Rik Sferra
For Sičáŋǧu Lakota artist Dyani White Hawk, the construction of American art history lies at the core of her multidisciplinary practice. “She lays bare the exclusionary hierarchies that have long governed cultural legitimacy, authority, value, and visibility,” says a joint statement from Alexander Gray Associates and Bockley Gallery. “In this light, White Hawk reframes Indigenous art and Western abstraction as inseparable practices—linked by a shared history that dominant narratives have labored to separate and obscure.”
Pablo Picasso is credited with the saying, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” Seminal paintings like “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” and others created in the early 1900s would not exist if it were not for his fascination with African masks. White Hawk draws a similar parallel between the 20th-century Color Field and Minimalism movements to highlight the influence of Native American art forms in the evolution of these styles. She prompts viewers to consider how these notions shape our aesthetic perceptions and judgment while also considering the role of cultural memory and community.
White Hawk’s work spans painting, sculpture, photography, performance, and installations. Alongside oil and acrylic paint, she incorporates materials commonly used in Lakota art forms, like beads, porcupine quills, and buckskin.
“I strive to create honest, inclusive works that draw from the breadth of my life experiences,” White Hawk says in a statement, merging influences from Native and non-Native, urban, academic, and cultural education systems. She continues: “This allows me to start from center, deepening my own understanding of the intricacies of self and culture, correlations between personal and national history, and Indigenous and mainstream art histories.”
“Nourish” (2024), ceramic tile installation of handmade tiles by Mercury Mosaics, 174 x 369 1/2 inches. Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Whitney Acquisition Fund 2024.13
Mirroring the meditative labor and incredible attention to detail required to create traditional Lakota artworks—from elaborately beaded garments to abstract buckskin paintings—White Hawk creates energetic installations that are bold and confrontational. Vibrant geometric patterns are direct and visceral in a way that “unsettles the categories of Eurocentric art history,” the galleries say.
White Hawk notes that her mixed-media canvases honor “the importance of the contributions of Lakota women and Indigenous artists to our national artistic history…as well as the ways in which Indigenous artists helped shape the evolution of the practices of Western artists who were inspired by their work.”
“Nourish,” an installation that spans nearly 31 feet wide and 14.5 feet tall, comprises thousands of handmade ceramic tiles that visually reference Lakota beadwork and quillwork. Permanently installed at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the piece enters into a dialogue with the history of American Modernism through painters such as Marsden Hartley and Pollock, who are credited as trailblazers of American abstraction and yet were indelibly influenced by Native American art.
Detail of “Visiting.” Collection of the Denver Art Museum. Photo by Rik Sferra
“At its core, White Hawk’s practice is sustained by ancestral respect and guided by value systems that center relationality and care for all life,” the galleries say. “By addressing inequities affecting Native communities, she creates opportunities for cross-cultural connection and prompts a critical examination of how artistic and national histories have been constructed. Her work invites viewers to evaluate current societal value systems and their capacity to support equitable futures.”
Minneapolis-based Bockley Gallery, which has represented White Hawk for more than a decade, has recently announced co-representation of the artist with New York City-based Alexander Gray Associates, where she’ll present a solo exhibition in fall 2026. If you’re in Minneapolis, Love Language opens on October 18 at the Walker Art Center and continues through February 15. The show then travels to Remai Modern in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where it will be on view from April 25 to September 27, 2026. See more on White Hawk’s website.
Installation view of ‘Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 6 to September 5, 2022). “Wopila | Lineage” (2022), acrylic, glass beads, and synthetic sinew on aluminum panel, 96 9/16 x 168 3/8 inches. Photo by Ron Amstutz
“Carry IV” (2024), buckskin, synthetic sinew and thread, glass beads, brass sequins, copper vessel, copper ladle, and acrylic paint, 123 x 12 x 10 inches. Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Photo by Rik Sferra
Detail of “Carry IV.” Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Photo by Rik Sferra
Installation view of “I Am Your Relative” (2020) in ‘Sharing the Same Breath,’ John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI, 2023. Courtesy of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Detail of “Visiting.” Collection of the Denver Art Museum. Photo by Rik Sferra
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“A Beautiful Despair (Blue)” (2021), lacquered steel and halogen bulb, 60 x 60 x 60 inches. Image courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NYC, © the artist. Photo by Steve Watson / Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth. All images courtesy of Seattle Asian Art Museum, shared with permission
Laser-Cut Steel Forms Radiate Ornate Patterns in Anila Quayyum Agha’s Immersive Installations
August 6, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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Influenced by the ornate decor of Islamic mosaics and architecture, Anila Quayyum Agha creates large-scale installations that utilize the power of light and shadow to transform a room. Laser-cut steel structures, like her seminal work “Intersections,” take a simple cube as a starting point. The artist incises elaborate patterns from the surface, then situates a light inside, which casts shadows onto the surrounding walls.
Anila Quayyum Agha: Geometry of Light, which opens later this month at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, marks the first time the Pakistani-American artist’s work has been exhibited in the Pacific Northwest. Based in Indianapolis, she is known for exploring the ever-evolving relationships between cultural identity, gender, art, and spirituality.
“A Beautiful Despair (Blue)” (2021), lacquered steel and halogen bulb, 60 x 60 x 60 inches. Image courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NYC, © the artist. Photo courtesy of Masterpiece Art Fair, London
“Through the use of light and color, the artist’s ornate designs have the ability to turn spaces into ethereal environments reminiscent of traditional sacred spaces through the use of lanterns or mashrabiya, wooden lattice screens that diffuse light, casting intricate shadows while allowing for the flow of air and creating intimacy,” the museum says.
Geometry of Light will include three of Agha’s space-transforming installations, plus a number of framed, mixed-media paper works. The exhibition runs from August 27 to April 19, 2026, and you can find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“This is Not a refuge! (2)” (2019), laser-cut, resin-coated aluminum and light bulb, 93 x 58 x 72 inches. Courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NYC, © the artist. Photo courtesy of Columbia Museum, Columbia, North Carolina
“A Beautiful Despair (Blue)” (2021), lacquered steel and halogen bulb, 60 x 60 x 60 inches. Image courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NYC, © the artist. Photo by Steve Watson / Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth
“Liminal Space” (2021), laser-cut and lacquered steel, 65 x 65 inches. Image courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NYC, © the artist. Photo by Steve Watson / Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth
Detail of “Liminal Space” (2021). Photo by Steve Watson / Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth
“This is Not a refuge! (2)” (2019), laser-cut, resin-coated aluminum and light bulb, 93 x 58 x 72 inches. Courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NYC, © the artist. Photo courtesy of Masterpiece Art Fair, London
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All images courtesy of Sofia Bonati, shared with permission
Hypnotic Patterns Envelop Sofia Bonati’s Nostalgic and Stylish Imagined Portraits
July 29, 2025
ArtIllustration
Kate Mothes
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In the bold, imagined portraits of Sofia Bonati (previously), women gaze confidently from swaths of fabric and symmetrical organic elements. Whether cloaking her figures in geometric patterns or natural details like insect wings, each individual gazes directly at the viewer amid vibrant backgrounds and elegant garments.
Bonati often derives her patterns and outfits from historical sources, especially hairstyles and gowns from the early 20th century. Surrounded by optical designs and repetitive motifs, her compositions are as nostalgic and surreal as they are contemporary. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
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“Byzantine.” Photos by Shannon Toft. All images courtesy of Frances Priest, shared with permission
Vibrant Patterns in Frances Priest’s Ceramics Emanate Historical and International Influences
July 3, 2025
ArtCraft
Kate Mothes
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In vibrant effusions of color, Frances Priest creates ceramic vessels, tiles, and sculptural forms that explore the possibilities of pattern. The Edinburgh-based artist’s interest in decorative motifs stems from a book she received as a child, The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones, originally published in 1856.
Jones compiled elaborate documentation of decorative motifs around Europe, the Middle East, and other regions represented in British museum collections of the time. An international focus has long inspired Priest, who incorporates a wide range of visual languages into her pieces.
Jar with a chevron pattern
Priest (previously) emphasizes geometry and color, merging ideas of precision with organic movement—some of the elements appear to be floating away or overlapping playfully with others rather than remaining in perfect alignment. She also continues the patterns across the bottoms of the pieces, emphasizing an all-around completeness.
Recent works include a series of cylindrical vessels with lids influenced by Chinese ginger jars. The artist recently completed a large-scale tile commission for Theatre Clwyd in North Wales titled “Stellar,” and a series of encaustic floral tiles dotted the floor of a garden at London’s 2025 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
If you’re in Edinburgh, see Priest’s work at &Gallery in the forthcoming group exhibition Fragments, which runs from July 5 to 30. Find more on the artist’s Instagram and website, where some of the pieces shown here are available for purchase in her shop.
Jars with (L-R) triangle, chevron, and bow patterns
Detail of the triangle-patterned jar
“Wait”
Installation view of “Byzantine”
Detail of “Byzantine”
“Pace”
Jar with a bow pattern
Detail of “Byzantine”
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“Magma & Reef” (2025). All images courtesy of Kelly Kozma and Paradigm Gallery + Studio, shared with permission
Discarded Packaging and Labels Find New Life in Kelly Kozma’s Vibrant Patchworks
May 2, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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From dozens of Chiquita banana labels to toothpaste packaging to color-coded quality control stickers, Kelly Kozma finds beauty in everyday ephemera. “Piece by piece, she saves any colorful or textured box that she encounters, even though most are expected to be discarded after their original use,” says Paradigm Gallery + Studio, which opens the artist’s solo exhibition Watch Me Backflip this weekend.
Kozma takes an archival and interdisciplinary approach to working with numerous found materials, combining a variety of media into two-dimensional wall works, expansive textile-inspired assemblages, and voluminous suspended installations. “Watch Me Backflip embraces ideas of reusing material, interconnectedness, and the significance of the smallest interaction on a much larger environment,” says an exhibition statement.
Installation view of ‘Watch Me Backflip’ at Paradigm Gallery + Studio
“Iguana & Myrrh” and “Magma & Reef” mark the largest compositions Kozma has created. The former spans 22 feet in circumference and comprises more than 30,000 hand-stitched circles cut from a wide variety of greeting cards, found packaging, and other colorful materials. Committed to a minimal-waste practice, the artist incorporates scraps and loose threads into a number of accompanying works in Watch Me Backflip.
“As she stitches these lovingly collected pieces, Kozma creates connections between the people in her life and the objects she interacts with, inspiring mindfulness against overconsumption and emotional apathy,” the gallery says.
Watch Me Backflip opens today and continues through June 1 in Philadelphia. See more on the artist’s Instagram.
“I See Your Beauty” (2025), process control patches and acrylic on panel
Installation view of ‘Watch Me Backflip’ at Paradigm Gallery + Studio
Detail of “Iguana & Myrrh”
Installation view of ‘Watch Me Backflip’ at Paradigm Gallery + Studio
“Peels So Good” (2025), banana stickers and acrylic on panel
Detail of “Iguana & Myrrh”
The artist working on the installation of “Magma & Reef”
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