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    Giant Inflatable Sculptures by Steve Messam Reimagine Everyday Environments

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    “Accommodation:Occupation.” All images courtesy of Steve Messam, shared with permission

    Giant Inflatable Sculptures by Steve Messam Reimagine Everyday Environments

    September 11, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    From bubble-like bulges amid the arches of London’s iconic Old Billingsgate to a 15-meter-tall red droplet frozen in the center of a disused swimming pool in Aberdeen, Steve Messam explores scale, form, and our experiences of the built environment in large-scale installations.

    Messam is known for his large-scale inflatable works that reinterpret architecture and explore human influence over the landscape. Often, he fills apertures like arcades or underpasses with forms that balloon and billow, drawing attention to structural forms while considering their fundamental function as places to enter or move through.

    “Facade”

    In “Accommodation:Occupation,” Messam delves into the history of 19th-century infrastructure in the U.K. through an exploration of what are known as accommodation and occupation bridges—railroad crossings designed for rural areas that provided a tunnel beneath, so that farmers could still access their land on the other side of the tracks. Some of these historic bridges still exist, often on private land, such as two in County Durham along the former route of the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

    For “Below,” which Messam situated under a bridge in Tianfu Art Park in Chengdu, China, the site’s use as a thoroughfare is retained by creating two symmetric forms with a gap between them, which people can walk through while immersing themselves in the installation.

    Whether popcorn-like, spiked, bubbling, or cascading, Messam’s playful interventions prompt us to view our surroundings with renewed attention. Explore even more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    “Below”

    “Facade”

    “Packaged”

    “Cascade”

    “Accommodation:Occupation”

    “Accommodation:Occupation”

    “Below”

    “Below”

    “Packaged”

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    • 188 Shares56 Views

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      ‘No One Knows All It Takes’ Invites Community Healing at the Haggerty Museum of Art

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      All images courtesy of Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, shared with permission

      ‘No One Knows All It Takes’ Invites Community Healing at the Haggerty Museum of Art

      September 8, 2025

      ArtColossalPartnerSocial Issues

      Grace Ebert

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      A core component of the Colossal-curated exhibition, No One Knows All It Takes, is community participation. Each of the artists—Bryana Bibbs, Raoul Deal, Maria Gaspar, and Swoon (previously)—is deeply engaged with the people they portray and collaborate with, a commitment that inspires nuanced, insightful projects and a truly communal process.

      As part of the exhibition at the Haggerty Museum of Art, we’ve considered how to reflect this mode of working through programming and a participatory project. The final piece in the show is Bibbs’ “Weaving Stories,” which consists of a large loom mounted on the gallery wall, along with threads, a paper shredder, and other materials nearby. Once viewers have considered each of the artists’ works, they’re invited to contribute to a collective tapestry on the loom or create a smaller, individual piece to take home.

      Installation view of “Weaving Stories”

      Attuned to the sensitive subject matter of the exhibition, Bibbs asks participants to explore their own feelings and memories in response to the artworks. Viewers can even write down their thoughts and interlace their shredded notes into the final work.

      In addition to “Weaving Stories,” No One Knows All It Takes also offers an opportunity to engage with Gaspar’s “Disappearance Jail (Wisconsin)” in a public event on October 9. Following a discussion about the intersection of art and incarceration with Dr. Robert S. Smith, the artist will lead attendees in a “punch party,” a workshop in which participants use a hole punch to obscure images of jails, prisons, and detention facilities. The completed works will then be re-hung in the gallery.

      And lastly, Colossal will also be hosting a conversation with Deal and Dr. Sergio M. González about immigration, wellbeing, and making art in this increasingly precarious moment. We encourage attendees to spend time with Deal’s works in the exhibition prior to joining us for that discussion, which will be held on September 24.

      No One Knows All It Takes is on view through December 20 in Milwaukee, with an opening reception on September 11. Find all of the programming on the museum’s website.

      Installation view of two works by Raoul Deal

      Installation view of Bibbs’ works

      Detail view of Gaspar’s “Disappearance Jail (Wisconsin)”

      Installation view of Gaspar’s “Disappearance Jail (Wisconsin)”

      Installation view of works by Raoul Deal

      Installation view of works by Raoul Deal

      Installation view of Swoon’s “Medea”

      Installation view of Swoon’s “Medea” and Bibbs’ works

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    • 113 Shares84 Views

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      Song Dong’s Monumental Installations Mirror Memories, Globalization, and Impermanence

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      “A Quarter” (2021-2024), interactive installation of steel, mirrors, collected daily objects and furniture from different
      households, lighting fixtures, small stools, and carpets. All images © Song Dong, shared with permission

      Song Dong’s Monumental Installations Mirror Memories, Globalization, and Impermanence

      September 5, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      Mirrors, lights, and household furnishings converge on a grand scale in the luminous installations of Song Dong. The Chinese artist’s interdisciplinary practice often combines performance, sculpture, painting, video, and calligraphy to summon memories and create monumental immersive experiences.

      Themes of transition and ephemerality often appear in Song’s pieces, like a series of installations and performances in which tabletop constructions reminiscent of metropolitan skylines were constructed from edible treats, dismantled brick by brick—or biscuit by biscuit—as visitors passed by. Playful and saccharine on the surface, these works examine the artist’s own childhood experiences of food scarcity along with themes of ephemerality and globalization.

      “Waste Not” (2009), installation performance, Museum of Modern Art, New York

      “Waste Not” —which was shown initially at Beijing Tokyo Art Projects before being exhibited in major institutions in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Germany—explores related themes of consumption and impermanence. Incorporating more than 10,000 items his mother had accumulated over the course of five decades, the installation-performance became “an act of physical and psychological unpacking,” says Pace Gallery, which represents the artist. Viewers were presented with “a veritable landscape of commodities, ranging from bottle caps, shoes, blankets, toothpaste tubes, metal pots, and toys.”

      Through the use of old wooden windows, bed frames, doors, mirrors, lamps, color-coated glass, porcelain, and other found objects and “daily necessities,” Song composes elaborate, structural installations. These evoke dreamy notions of home, belonging, security, and migration while exploring the relationships between memory and fact, humor and trauma. He culls his materials from the streets of Beijing, sourcing discarded furniture, architectural elements, and quotidian objects.

      “These collaged remnants of people’s homes carry with them the history of a city and the lives of its people,” Pace says. “As viewers are invited to peek inside, they are transformed into voyeurs: imagining their homes, their stories, and perhaps identifying shared experiences, and primed to think of the future.”

      Now on view as part of the vibrant 36th São Paolo Biennial, Song’s work appears among ambitious installations by dozens of artists from around the world. His commissioned piece “Borrow Light” takes the form of a mirrored world brimming with lamps that reflect from every surface, not unlike one of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms.

      “Borrow Light” (2025). Installation view of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, ‘Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice’ © Levi Fanan / Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

      The artist considers the concept of “borrowing” in terms of its inherent temporality. He positions it as something of an ethos for understanding our short time on Earth, whether life’s cycles or even the presence of humans at all over the course of millions of evolutionary years.

      Song draws inspiration “from both a carnival’s house of mirrors and the traditional Chinese feng shui method of using mirrors and windows to expand interior space by ushering in the external world,” says an exhibition statement. “Borrow Light” becomes a participatory experience, where visitors’ movements are reflected and illuminated throughout the space. Chairs and lamps, all lent from private homes, provide places for rest and contemplation.

      “Playing with fluid elements such as light, reflection, and illusion, Song’s installation immerses the audience into an infinite universe, where our images and minds become entwined in a silvery, glowing light,” the biennial says.

      Explore more exhibitions and learn about the artist on Pace Gallery’s website.

      Detail of “Same Bed Different Dreams No. 3.” Photo by Damian Griffiths, courtesy of Pace Gallery

      Detail of “Same Bed Different Dreams No. 3.” Photo by Damian Griffiths, courtesy of Pace Gallery

      “Borrow Light” (2025). Installation view of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, ‘Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice’ © Levi Fanan / Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

      “Borrow Light” (2025). Installation view of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, ‘Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice’ © Levi Fanan / Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

      Detail of “Same Bed Different Dreams No. 3.” Photo by Damian Griffiths, courtesy of Pace Gallery

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    • 138 Shares85 Views

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      ‘Between the Lines’ Showcases the Subversive Traditions of Art-Making While Incarcerated

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      Djan Shun Lin, “Eagle” (ca. 1994, York County Prison, York County, Pennsylvania), paper and paint. All photos by Addison Doty, courtesy of the Museum of International Folk Art, shared with permission

      ‘Between the Lines’ Showcases the Subversive Traditions of Art-Making While Incarcerated

      September 3, 2025

      ArtSocial Issues

      Grace Ebert

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      Artists aren’t strangers to creative constraints. Perhaps they work full-time and have to sneak in just an hour of painting before bed. Or a grant requires that they follow a particular set of guidelines that push their practice in a new direction. Whatever the situation, artists are often uniquely positioned to find innovative, experimental approaches to making.

      For those included in Between the Lines: Prison Art and Advocacy, which was on view this past month at the Museum of International Folk Art, constraints are plentiful. Featuring an eclectic array of works by incarcerated artists, the group exhibition offers a survey of creativity in confinement.

      Artist name redacted, “Envelope (Austin, Texas)” (June 2002, Snyder, Texas), paper envelope, color pencil, pen

      A primary thread in the exhibition—which tends to connect most artworks made during a period of incarceration—is an innovative use of materials. John Paul Granillo, for example, renders blue pen portraits on a pair of canvas prison-issue shoes. Other drawings appear on envelopes sent to the Coalition For Prisoners’ Rights, a nonprofit project that mailed newsletters inside for several decades.

      There are also several paños, a genre utilizing commissary handkerchiefs, pillowcases, or bedsheets that originated with incarcerated Chicanos in the 20th century. The largely self-taught art form is perhaps one of the best-known traditions to emerge from inside carceral facilities and is a subversive mode of expression: often sent to family and loved ones on the outside, these fabric pieces offer both a way to communicate what might otherwise be censored in letters and a financial opportunity for particularly talented artists who might sell the paños for birthday, anniversary, and other gifts.

      While much of the work comes from facilities in the Southwest and Western states, Between the Lines extends its reach to connect carceral systems across the globe. A vibrantly beaded bird with bold text reading Masallah, or may Allah, comes from 1960s Anatolia. Purchased in 2005 in Istanbul, the piece is a “protective amulet and hung from car rearview mirrors or other places,” the museum says.

      As Brian Karl points out in Hyperallergic, the exhibition is less concerned with prison reform and larger questions of abolition than it is with showcasing the necessity of creating in such a dehumanizing environment. The eagle, a motif associated with freedom in the U.S., appears in several works and speaks to the lack of agency and autonomy in such a punishing system. When people are very literally confined with meager, if any, resources for self-expression, creating becomes both a mode of survival and a revolutionary act. As the exhibition’s title suggests, prison art is always bound up with advocacy and requires makers to find defiance in interstitial spaces.

      John Paul Granillo, “Shoes with ink drawing” (2011–2012, Federal Correctional Institution, Ray Brook, New York), blue pen ink, white fabric, rubber

      Michael Guzman, “PA. LA. Casa (To the House)” (1982–1984, New Mexico State Penitentiary, Santa Fe), paper, colored pencil, pen. Work courtesy of Stuart Ashman in honor of the talented inmates at the New Mexico State Penitentiary

      Artist name redacted, “Envelope (buffalo skull and stepped chevron design)” (October 2005,Salinas Valley State Prison, Soledad, California), paper envelope, color pencil, pen

      Artist unrecorded, “Picture Frame” (1980s, New Mexico State Penitentiary, Santa Fe), plastic-coated gum wrappers, photograph

      Artist unrecorded, “Amulet” (1960–1970, Anatolia, Republic of Türkiye), glass beads, cotton string, sequins, stuffing

      J.D., “Te Amo (I Love You)” (2018–2020, Cibola County Correctional Center, Milan, New Mexico), torn cotton bedsheets and ink

      Carlos Cervantes, “Hispanic History in the Southwest” (1996, New Mexico State Penitentiary, Santa Fe), cotton handkerchief, lead pencil, colored pencils, ink pens

      Ray Materson, “Where Are You Now” (1990, Somers, Connecticut), sock thread, silk, fiber

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    • 163 Shares82 Views

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      Yoshitoshi Kanemaki’s Sculptures Sport Kaleidoscopic Expressions in Their Search for a ‘True Self’

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      Detail of “Breathing Caprice A,” paint on Torreya, 135 x 75 x 55 centimeters. All images courtesy of the artist and FUMA Contemporary Tokyo, shared with permission

      Yoshitoshi Kanemaki’s Sculptures Sport Kaleidoscopic Expressions in Their Search for a ‘True Self’

      September 2, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      Yoshitoshi Kanemaki is no stranger to human emotions, imbuing his playful sculptures with not one but several expressions all at once. The Tokyo-based artist is known for his “glitched” sculptures carved from single pieces of timber, and in his ongoing current series Prism, he continues to explore the nature of distortion, reflection, and self-consciousness.

      Insight Prism, the artist’s solo exhibition opening at FUMA Contemporary this month, combines two concepts the artist dovetails in his chiseled-wood compositions.

      “Insight Prism,” paint on Japanese nutmeg and katsura, 170 x 72 x 67 centimeters

      “The word ‘insight’ carries the meaning of seeing into the essence of things with clarity, while ‘prism’ metaphorically refers to elucidating what is complex,” Kanemaki says. Through a fragmented triangular motif, he highlights warped features that refract, separate, and reassemble—much like the ever-evolving nature of human consciousness and social interactions.

      Insight Prism marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in two years, presenting the largest sculpture he’s yet created in the Prism series—the namesake of the show. Kanemaki delves into the multiple roles we all play in our daily lives, switching between different versions of ourselves to contend with different situations or environments. He says:

      While such shifts can be seen as a necessary social manner to keep life running smoothly, there are times when we lose the vision of our “true self.”… The idea for my new sculptures began with the question: What might the form of searching for one’s “true self” look like?

      Insight Prism opens on September 12 and continues through September 27 in Tokyo. Find more on the artist’s Instagram.

      “Breathing Caprice A,” paint on Torreya, 135 x 75 x 55 centimeters

      Detail of “Insight Prism”

      “Reflection Prism,” paint on Torreya, 170 x 53 x 51 centimeters

      Detail of “Reflection Prism”

      “Ulala Caprice 3rd,” paint on Japanese nutmeg and camphor wood, 100 x 34 x 34 centimeters

      Detail of “Ulala Caprice 3rd”

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    • 150 Shares76 Views

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      Glowing Plastic Spores Spring from Invasive Vines in Mika Rottenberg’s ‘Vibrant Matter’

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      Installation view of ‘Mika Rottenberg: Vibrant Matter’ at Hauser & Wirth Menorca (2025).
      Photo by Damian Griffiths. All images © Mika Rottenberg, courtesy of Hauser & Wirth, shared with permission

      Glowing Plastic Spores Spring from Invasive Vines in Mika Rottenberg’s ‘Vibrant Matter’

      September 2, 2025

      ArtNature

      Grace Ebert

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      When a virulent material enters an ecosystem, it can wreak havoc on existing life. Bittersweet vines in Upstate New York, for example, were brought to the region in the second half of the 19th century to combat erosion and for their sinuous, woody beauty. Native to eastern Asia, these largely poisonous plants quickly became invasive, smothering other specimens and even uprooting trees.

      For Mika Rottenberg, there’s another substance that would fall into this category: plastic. Like the bittersweet vines that have decimated forest populations near her studio, plastics have infiltrated innumerable systems, from the oceans to our homes to deep within our own bodies.

      “Lampshare (bx 1.4)” (2025), milled reclaimed household plastic, plant, resin, and electric hardware, 36 x 33 x 34 inches. Photo by Pete Mauney

      In a video from Hauser & Wirth, Rottenberg discusses how these two materials became the basis for a new body of work. On view at the gallery’s Menorca location, Vibrant Matter is the Argentinian artist’s first solo show in Spain and presents a series of glowing fungi sculptures that meld these two toxins.

      “I’ve always been interested in collaborating with the forces of nature, thinking about an artwork as something you grow and harvest,” Rottenberg says. As she began to think about the “footprint of the studio,” she turned her focus to the invasive vines in the nearby forest and laundry jugs and other disposables sourced from dumpsters and local recycling centers.

      Illuminated spores sprout from pedestals and dangle from the gallery ceiling, their vibrant, plastic tops adding a surreal veil to the largely organic forms. These Lampshares, as the artist calls them, question humanity’s enduring inclination toward toxicity, even when incorporating such pernicious materials into our lives ultimately puts us in danger.

      Rottenberg has long been interested in consumption and the rampant nature of capitalism. Along with several video installations, the sculptural works in Vibrant Matter prompt questions about agency and the necessity of regeneration.

      “I am interested in these human-made systems where the starting point is to have no clue what is really going on and to try to impose a certain logic on things, and the madness of that,” she adds.

      Vibrant Matter is on view through October 26. Find more from Rottenberg on Instagram.

      Installation view of ‘Mika Rottenberg: Vibrant Matter’ at Hauser & Wirth Menorca (2025). Photo by Damian Griffiths

      “Lampshare (with plant 2)” (2025), milled reclaimed household plastic, plant, resin, and electric hardware, 16 x 14 x 12 inches. Photo by Pete Mauney

      Installation view of ‘Mika Rottenberg: Vibrant Matter’ at Hauser & Wirth Menorca (2025). Photo by Damian Griffiths

      “Lampshare (chandelier #5)” (2024), milled reclaimed household plastic and bittersweet vines, resin and electric hardware, 45 x 12 x 12 inches. Photo by Sarah Muehlbauer

      Installation view of ‘Mika Rottenberg: Vibrant Matter’ at Hauser & Wirth Menorca (2025). Photo by Damian Griffiths

      “Lampshare” (2025), milled reclaimed household plastic and plant, batteries, resin, and electric hardware, 18 x 30 x 11 inches. Photo by Pete Mauney

      Installation view of ‘Mika Rottenberg: Vibrant Matter’ at Hauser & Wirth Menorca (2025). Photo by Damian Griffiths

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    • 113 Shares159 Views

      in Art

      Yuji Agematsu Arranges Street Debris into Tiny Daily Sculptures

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      Installation view of ‘Yuji Agematsu: 2023-2024’ (May 10 to August 30, 2025), 101 Spring Street,
      Judd Foundation, New York. Photo by Timothy Doyon, © Judd Foundation. Art © Yuji
      Agematsu. All images shared with permission

      Yuji Agematsu Arranges Street Debris into Tiny Daily Sculptures

      August 26, 2025

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      Each day, Yuji Agematsu takes a walk for the explicit purpose of scouring the streets. The dried leaf, lost toy, and even the wad of gum discarded on a park bench are his treasures, which he retrieves and places in the clear cellophane that wraps a pack of cigarettes. Although Agematsu no longer smokes, this habit of wandering and collecting has been harder to break: he’s been committed to it since 1996.

      Once tucked inside the thin envelope, the artist’s findings become an homage to the beauty of the mundane. He arranges trash and other findings almost like ikebana, using a glass shard or cracked stick to find balance and harmony. Objects others would barely notice are materials that represent the human condition and contemporary concerns. In Agematsu’s eyes, they reveal a whole host of insights about our individual and collective lives.

      “Zip: 11.22.24” (detail), mixed media in cigarette pack cellophane wrapper, approximately 2 1/4 x 2 1/8 x 3/4 inches. Photo by Reggie Shiobara, © Yuji Agematsu

      Judd Foundation presents two years’ worth of Agematsu’s sculptures in the aptly titled 2023–2024, an exhibition presented at 101 Spring Street in SoHo and Gavin Brown’s home on Lenox Avenue in Harlem. The Spring Street space is the former home and workspace of Donald Judd, a building Agematsu managed for two decades.

      Presented chronologically, each piece is cleverly positioned on a white, aluminum shelf to resemble a monthly calendar. Given the artist’s decades-long dedication, the ongoing project has offered several revelations. As Agematsu told The New York Times earlier this year:

      Found objects have more power. We can see so many varieties of how to change the shape and color. Weather makes change. Also human ego. Because of the chewing gum, I notice that laughing chewing gum, angry chewing gum, are all different. We make a different shape from a different mood.

      While the “zips,” as the artist refers to them, are small—about 3.5 x 2.5 x 2 inches—they have the ability to capture conditions so much bigger than any one person. For example, a rainy spring day might leave a layer of mud and condensation pooling at the bottom of the plastic, while wrappers for particular kinds of candy might indicate the cultural makeup of a neighborhood.

      “Zip: 3.14.24” (detail), mixed media in cigarette pack cellophane wrapper, approximately 2 1/4 x 2 1/8 x 3/4 inches. Photo by Reggie Shiobara, © Yuji Agematsu

      In this way, the pieces are also a visual diary of what humans control and don’t, and how the innumerable forces impacting our lives appear in even the tiniest remnants.

      2023-2024 is on view through August 30.

      “Zip: 10.25.24” (detail), mixed media in cigarette pack cellophane wrapper, approximately 2 1/4 x 2 1/8 x 3/4 inches. Photo by Reggie Shiobara, © Yuji Agematsu

      “Zip: 11.10.24” (detail), mixed media in cigarette pack cellophane wrapper, approximately 2 1/4 x 2 1/8 x 3/4 inches. Photo by Reggie Shiobara, © Yuji Agematsu

      “Zip: 4.19.24” (detail), mixed media in cigarette pack cellophane wrapper, approximately 2 1/4 x 2 1/8 x 3/4 inches. Photo by Reggie Shiobara, © Yuji Agematsu

      “Zip: 4.3.24” (detail), mixed media in cigarette pack cellophane wrapper, approximately 2 1/4 x 2 1/8 x 3/4 inches. Photo by Reggie Shiobara, © Yuji Agematsu

      “Zip: 12.7.24” (detail), mixed media in cigarette pack cellophane wrapper, approximately 2 1/4 x 2 1/8 x 3/4 inches. Photo by Reggie Shiobara, © Yuji Agematsu

      Installation view of ‘Yuji Agematsu: 2023-2024’ (May 10 to August 30, 2025), 101 Spring Street,Judd Foundation, New York. Photo by Timothy Doyon, © Judd Foundation. Art © YujiAgematsu

      “Zip: 11.16.24” (detail), mixed media in cigarette pack cellophane wrapper, approximately 2 1/4 x 2 1/8 x 3/4 inches. Photo by Reggie Shiobara, © Yuji Agematsu

      Installation view of ‘Yuji Agematsu: 2023-2024’ (May 10 to August 30, 2025), 101 Spring Street,Judd Foundation, New York. Photo by Timothy Doyon, © Judd Foundation. Art © YujiAgematsu

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    • 100 Shares116 Views

      in Art

      Maria Nepomuceno’s Mixed-Media Sculptures Writhe with Ancient Symbolism

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      “Untitled” (2025), ceramics, strings, necklace beads, and wood, 39 3/8 x 34 5/8 x 11 3/4 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Malloy Jenkins, New York, shared with permission

      Maria Nepomuceno’s Mixed-Media Sculptures Writhe with Ancient Symbolism

      August 22, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      Through millennia of artistic expression and within the natural world, the ubiquitous spiral continues to mesmerize. In ancient traditions, the form often represents cycles. The triskele, for example, consists of three interlocking spirals thought to symbolize death, life, and rebirth or the triad of mind, body, and spirit. Spirals also emerge naturally in seashells and plants, sometimes linked to the concept of the golden mean, also known as the “divine ratio.”

      For Maria Nepomuceno, the spiral’s occurrence in nature—along with its spiritual significance relating to time and energy in perpetual flow—underpins a vibrant multimedia practice. Her forthcoming exhibition, Cunhó, which opens next month at Sikkema Malloy Jenkins, emphasizes abundance. Iconographic references to female anatomy, jars, ceramic vessels, baskets, and seashells—the latter of which are emblematic of fertility and wealth—emphasize flourishing interactions and growth.

      “Abraçaço” (2025), strings, necklace beads, straw, ceramics, resin, and wood, 59 x 50 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches

      A made-up word, Cunhó takes its title from a nickname Nepomuceno’s mother gave to her. Employing traditional Brazilian craftsmanship, the artist creates undulating forms that hang on the wall or nestle into the juncture where perpendicular surfaces meet. Her sculptures are simultaneously soft and firm, meandering and structured. From a distance, they can be alternately read like magnified, amorphous, biological cells or what the gallery describes as vast “macrocosmic landscapes.”

      Whorling beaded and woven forms envelop pearlescent bottle gourds or evoke tropical flowers with prominent stamens. In “Abraçaço,” for example, which in Portuguese means “hug” or “embrace,” a faceless female figure with a serpentine tongue encircles a large white shell and other amorphous shapes with long, slender arms. Other pieces, like “Mar Amor,” evoke an ouroboros, an ancient symbol usually consisting of a snake or dragon eating its own tail, which represents self-creation, interconnection, and eternal cycles.

      Incorporating ceramics, wood, beads, straw, string, and other found materials, Nepomuceno merges the organic and inorganic in shapeshifting pieces that represent a continuous cycle of reproduction, nourishment, plenitude, and care.

      Cunhó runs from September 2 to October 11 in New York City. Explore more by the artist on Instagram.

      Detail of “Abraçaço”

      “Mar Amor” (2025), strings, necklace beads, resin, and wood, 42 1/2 x 41 3/8 x 9 7/8 inches

      “Planta desejo” (2025), wood, straw, necklace beads, resin, string, and ceramic, 74 3/4 x 68 7/8 x 65 inches

      Detail of “Planta desejo”

      “Lingua Espiral” (2025), string, beads, wood, glass, fabric, paint, and ceramics, 59 x 65 x 13 3/4 inches

      “Untitled” (2025), necklace beads, straw, ceramic, and resin, 35 3/8 x 27 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches

      “Untitled” (2025), strings, necklace beads, wood, paper, and resin, 51 1/8 x 35 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches

      “Untitled” (2025), braided straw, necklace beads, ceramics, and resin, 55 1/8 x 45 1/4 x 23 5/8 inches

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      Six Acclaimed Artists Interpret Ecology and the Landscape for ‘Ground/work 2025’

      by

      Hugh Hayden, “The End.” Photo by Thomas Clark. All images courtesy of the artists and The Clark Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, shared with permission

      Six Acclaimed Artists Interpret Ecology and the Landscape for ‘Ground/work 2025’

      August 21, 2025

      ArtNature

      Kate Mothes

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      Across the expansive 140-acre grounds of The Clark Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, six contemporary artists have been invited to create site-specific works engaging with the property’s meadows, trails, and woods, while highlighting their individual practices.

      Sculptures by Yō Akiyama, Laura Ellen Bacon, Aboubakar Fofana, Hugh Hayden, Milena Naef, and Javier Senosiain dot a variety of sites, from manicured parkland to open fields to groves of trees.

      Laura Ellen Bacon, “Gathering My Thoughts.” Photo by Joe Aidonidis

      Bacon, whose ethereal sculptures made of malleable twigs seem to move, has installed the nine-by-five-foot “Gathering My Thoughts” in a wooded area. Made from willow sourced from Ohio, the piece appears to writhe like a living, growing form.

      Hayden has constructed a larger-than-life ribcage—species unknown—made of locally sourced hemlock punctuated by dozens of branches that poke out in every direction. Partly camouflaged amid the trees, the work invites us to consider themes of ecological vulnerability, extinction, and the climate crisis. Following the exhibition, the piece will be allowed to decompose on-site, mirroring the way animal remains also eventually vanish back into the earth.

      Fofana’s installation of two botanical forms, titled “Bana Yiriw ni Shi Folow (Trees and Seeds of Life),” is the artist’s first public art piece. He draws upon his spiritual belief in the divinity of nature, incorporating rolls of African cotton dyed with indigo, representing seeds, into a curling metal frame.

      Other works include Senosiain’s vibrant sea creature, installed in a pond, along with Akiyama’s conical monolith evocative of scorched wood and Naef’s marble slabs that merge with the negative spaces of a fallen tree.

      Aboubakar Fofana, “Bana Yiriw ni Shi Folow (Trees and Seeds of Life).” Photo by Thomas Clark

      Curated by independent scholar Glenn Adamson, the exhibition provides the opportunity to experience contemporary art in a natural setting. Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark Art Institute, says:

      The Clark’s campus becomes an accomplice, of sorts, in helping us to see and appreciate each artist’s particular vision and the interconnection between art and nature. With this edition of Ground/work, our guest curator…has intentionally blurred the line that traditionally separates the consideration of art and craft, urging us to appreciate the art that is inherent in all forms of craft.

      Ground/work 2025 continues through October 2026, with free access day or night, 24/7, on The Clark’s campus. Plan your visit on the museum’s website.

      Hugh Hayden, “The End” (detail)

      Javier Senosiain, “Coata III.” Photo by Thomas Clark

      Yō Akiyama, “Oscillation: Vertical Garden.” Courtesy of the artist and Joan B Mirviss LTD. Photo by Thomas Clark

      Laura Ellen Bacon, “Gathering My Thoughts” (detail). Photo by Joe Aidonidis

      Aboubakar Fofana, “Bana Yiriw ni Shi Folow (Trees and Seeds of Life)” (detail). Photo by Thomas Clark

      Milena Naef, “Three Times Spannin.” Photo by Thomas Clark

      Yō Akiyama, “Oscillation: Vertical Garden” (detail). Courtesy of the artist and Joan B Mirviss LTD. Photo by Thomas Clark

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