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Paper Discs Stand In for Brushstrokes in Jacob Hashimoto’s Structural, Layered Works
by Aurelia Butler 28 October 2025, 09:02
“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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Dream Worlds Emerge in Yuichi Hirako’s Larger-than-Life Domestic Spaces
by Aurelia Butler 27 October 2025, 13:56
All images courtesy of Yuichi Hirako and the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, shared with permission
Dream Worlds Emerge in Yuichi Hirako’s Larger-than-Life Domestic Spaces
October 27, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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In the uncanny world of Yuichi Hirako, the relationship between humans, nature, and the built environment plays out in vibrant color and unique proportions. The Tokyo-based artist creates large-scale sculptures, paintings, and installations that explore coexistence, often through compositions that appear crowded with domestic objects, food, cats, and figures whose faces are obscured by cartoonish head coverings shaped like trees or antlers.
ORIGIN, Hirako’s expansive solo exhibition at the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, invites us to enter a surreal, almost Alice in Wonderland-like realm. From salon-style hangings of numerous paintings and sculptures along an undulating plywood surface to a giant quadriptych—a four-part canvas—the artist’s pieces play with perception and urge us toward curiosity.
Recurring, anonymous characters populate Hirako’s otherworldly settings. In one work, a huge table is laden with a feast, featuring bowls of fruit, bakery items, and possibly still-living sea creatures, along with a number of relaxed cats, stacks of books, and floral arrangements. And a giant bookcase is arranged with potted plants, books, figurines, flowers, and more—objects that in some cases defy the structure of the unit, like a potted tree or shrub that grows up behind the shelves.
ORIGIN spans the indoor galleries, courtyard, and plaza of the museum and is presented as part of the Setouchi Triennale. The show continues through November 9 in Okayama City. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
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Brandon Morris’ Ghostly Fiberglass Gowns Float Through a Paris Gallery
by Aurelia Butler 22 October 2025, 17:09
All photos by Zeshan Ahmed, courtesy of Europa, shared with permission
Brandon Morris’ Ghostly Fiberglass Gowns Float Through a Paris Gallery
October 22, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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During a month in which hauntings and ghastly cosutmes are a ubiquitous sight, Brandon Morris presents a new body of work that taps into a shared sense of unease. The New York-based artist makes his Paris debut with Tissu Expansé, a collection of five fiberglass and resin gowns that appear as though they’ve come to life.
Constructed in pale blue, the spectral works are part of Morris’ Ghost Dresses, a series that stitches together fashion and sculpture through garments that materialize without a body. Bodices are full, while skirts angle as if they’re moving with an invisible owner. One piece even lunges forward, the arms reaching out with what seems like a kick of the back leg that lifts the hem upward.
Tissu Expansé is more lively than the artist’s earlier collection, which saw hunched shoulders and bent postures suggestive of monstrous occupiers. While similarly haunting, these pieces appear less sinister, arising more as whimsical apparitions than supernatural villains.
Morris’ exhibition is on view through October 30 with Europa. Keep up with his practice on Instagram.
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A Japanese Exhibition Places Contemporary Woodcarving Within the Continuum of Art History
by Aurelia Butler 22 October 2025, 13:50
Ikuo Inada, “Some things aren’t ‘whatever’” (2025), camphor wood, 58 x 18.5 x 18 centimeters. All images courtesy of the artists and FUMA Contemporary Tokyo, shared with permission
A Japanese Exhibition Places Contemporary Woodcarving Within the Continuum of Art History
October 22, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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Japan is an island nation rich in timber, from cypress (Hinoki) to cedar (Sugi) to larch (Karamatsu). Its renowned woodworking heritage dates back centuries, taking the form of immaculately carved wooden beams in houses, ornate storage boxes, and revered religious statuary. For some artists working today, this timeless tradition translates perfectly into contemporary expressions.
Hand-hewn from timber, expressive faces and dynamic motifs emerge in the sculptures of Kigaku – Re(a)lize – at FUMA Contemporary Tokyo. Colossal readers may be familiar with the work of Ikuo Inada and Yoshitoshi Kanemaki, and the show also includes recent pieces by Kosuke Ikeshima, Ayako Kita, Yuta Nakazato, and Ryo Matsumoto.
Ayako Kita, “Let Go of Everything” (2024), Japanese cypress and acrylic resin, 33.5 x 20.5 x 14 centimeters
Inada’s recognizable figurative sculptures, for example, feature sleepy people, their faces often obscured by sweatshirts or blankets, as if they are wandering back to bed after a midnight snack. Kanemaki’s characteristically glitchy portraits reveal numerous faces belonging to one personality, and Kita’s bold pieces combine carved wood with clear resin, creating an optical element with dresses one can see right through.
The exhibition furthers a project initiated in 2018 called Kigaku – XYLOLOGY, which highlighted the technique of wood carving and aimed to shine a light on contemporary artists working with the medium. Kigaku – Re(a)lize – is a continuation of this mission, showcasing the work of six Japanese artists creating today.
Alongside pieces made within the past few years, Kigaku – Re(a)lize – includes examples of carved sacred sculptures from the Early Edo period (1603-1690) and the Heian period (794-1185). The exhibition continues through November 1. Find more on the gallery’s website.
Yoshitoshi Kanemaki, “Tiny Caprice” (2025), painted Japanese boxwood, 13.2 x 4.5 x 4.5 centimeters
Kosuke Ikeshima, “Vanitas” (2025), camphor wood, 29 x 27 x 11.5 centimeters
Ayako Kita, two views of “Public Self” (2023), Japanese cypress and acrylic resin, 33.5 x 20 x 16 centimeters
Yuta Nakazato, “Princess’s Whereabouts” (2025), Japanese cypress, 37 x 35 x 60 centimeters
Ryo Matsumoto, “kyojitsuhiniku, offering, broken skull-shinenshisou, kyojitsuhiniku, offering, mask” (2025), maple and camphor wood, 19 x 15 x 22 centimeters and 16 x 13 x 5 centimeters
Ikuo Inada, “Some things aren’t ‘whatever’” (2025), camphor wood, 58 x 18.5 x 18 centimeters
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Through Lush Embellisment, Anne von Freyburg Depicts Monstrous Women Who Revel in Excess
by Aurelia Butler 21 October 2025, 22:07
Detail of “Soft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 220 x 200 centimeters. All images courtesy of Anne von Freyburg, shared with permission
Through Lush Embellisment, Anne von Freyburg Depicts Monstrous Women Who Revel in Excess
October 21, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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In monumental installations teeming with sequins, brocades, fringe, and shiny vinyl, Anne von Freyburg stakes a bold claim about excess and freedom.
The artist (previously) is known for her “textile paintings,” large-scale tapestries that appear to drip, bleed, and cascade down the wall. Gaudy and yet rooted in elegance, the works draw on Dutch Golden Age and Rococo painting traditions, incoporating lush flowers and dramatic ornamentation.
“Soft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 220 x 200 centimeters
Von Freyburg continues to explore extravagance as it relates to traditional gender roles, romance, and saccharine expressions of love. She draws on Lauren Elkin’s recent book, Art Monsters, which posits that women who reject the role of wife and mother—and the societal expectations of beauty and kindness—are often seen as villains.
The tension between the feminine and the monstrous is evident in several of the artist’s works, including “Soft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie),” as pop culture symbols and text bubbles mar a central figure trapped in a chaotic blur of material. Distorted by the mass of embellishments, the woman appears grotesque and uncontainable as her form bulges and falls in a deluge of pink string. Von Freyburg adds:
I approached this body of work as a declaration of the love and care necessary for all of us to thrive. It gives us permission to do the things we love doing. It’s about being free and choosing your own path to happiness in relationships. No more fairy tales about men saving women; instead, it’s about women being the heroines in their own life stories.
The vibrant pieces shown here will be on view in Amour Toujours, which runs from November 8 to December 27 at K Contemporary in Denver. Find more from the artist on Instagram.
“Something in the Air has Changed (After Fragonard, the Progress of Love: the Meeting)” (2025),textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 350 x 250 centimeters
Detail of “Soft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 220 x 200 centimeters
Detail of “Something in the Air has Changed (After Fragonard, the Progress of Love: the Meeting)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 350 x 250 centimeters
Detail of “Soft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 220 x 200 centimeters
“Spellbound (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: Love letters)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 285 x 150 centimeters
“Spellbound (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: Love letters)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 285 x 150 centimeters
Detail of “Spellbound (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: Love letters)” (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 285 x 150 centimeters
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This October, a Global Public Art Project Turns 35 Cities into Playgrounds
by Aurelia Butler 17 October 2025, 20:12
Nomad Studio, “Socarrado (Scorched)” (2025), Parque Natural Sabinares del Arlanza – La Yecla, Castilla y Leon, Spain
This October, a Global Public Art Project Turns 35 Cities into Playgrounds
October 17, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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This month, urban centers around the world are hosting a massive public art project helmed by Nōvo Collective. uncommissioned has tapped 54 artists for a global initiative that sees the city as a playground, inviting participants “to slip playful, overlooked, or quietly defiant gestures into the cracks of everyday life.”
In Stellenbosch, South Africa, Strijdom van der Merwe installed sun-activated text works displaying heady phrases like “the visible is a shadow cast by the invisible.” Escif painted tiny fruits among the architecture near his home in Valencia, while Vhils painted a collection of fragmented portraits atop a Munich cultural center.
Vhils, “Antennas” (2025), KUNSTLABOR 2, Munich. Image courtesy of Jose Pando Lucas, MUCA
Perhaps most striking is Nomad Studio’s wooden structure erected in a park in Castilla y León, Spain. Appearing to fan outward in a circle, a collection of branches forms a meditative space with an opening to the sky that lets light stream inside.
uncommissioned continues throughout October with works by Cannupa Hanska Luger, Jason deCaires Taylor, Stephanie Brown, and many others slated for 35 cities total. See more on the project’s website.
Nomad Studio, “Socarrado (Scorched)” (2025), Parque Natural Sabinares del Arlanza – La Yecla, Castilla y Leon, Spain
Nomad Studio, “Socarrado (Scorched)” (2025), Parque Natural Sabinares del Arlanza – La Yecla, Castilla y Leon, Spain
Strijdom van der Merwe, “Shadow Words” (2025), Stellenbosch, South Africa
Strijdom van der Merwe, “Shadow Words” (2025), Stellenbosch, South Africa
Leon Reid IV, “Of a Free Will” (2025), Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Photo by Leon Reid IV
Escif, “Infinite Still Life” (2025), Valencia. Photo by Escif
Escif, “Infinite Still Life” (2025), Valencia. Photo by Escif
Vhils, “Antennas” (2025), KUNSTLABOR 2, Munich. Image courtesy of Jose Pando Lucas, MUCA
Vhils, “Antennas” (2025), KUNSTLABOR 2, Munich. Image courtesy of Jose Pando Lucas, MUCA
Emmanuel Aggrey Tieku, “HOW TO HEAL A B-R-O-K-E-N WORLD-Cemetery of Belongings” (2025), Osu Cemetery, Accra, Ghana
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Ruth Asawa Arrives in New York with a Monumental Retrospective
by Aurelia Butler 17 October 2025, 15:06
Installation view of ‘Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective.’ Photo by Jonathan Dorado, © 2025 The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Ruth Asawa Arrives in New York with a Monumental Retrospective
October 17, 2025
Art
Jackie Andres
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One of the most iconic figures of the mid-20th century, trailblazing Japanese-American artist Ruth Asawa led a prolific life of art-making, advocacy, and civic engagement. Over a decade after her passing, the last year has ushered in a momentous wave of exhibitions for Asawa—appearing at David Zwirner in her first solo exhibition in Greater China, followed by two major showings of Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective.
In a tale of two MoMAs, the enormous exhibition recently traveled from its point of origin in San Francisco, where the artist fostered a deep, lifelong connection to the city. Its arrival in New York City now marks the largest show dedicated to a woman artist in the museum’s history.
Photograph by Laurence Cuneo. © 2025 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc., courtesy of David Zwirner
Featuring more than 300 of Asawa’s artworks spread across a whopping 16,000 square feet, the expansive collection documents the artist’s six-decade-long career. You can expect to get a close look at her groundbreaking wire sculptures, intimate paintings, drawings, and prints, as well as bronze casts and monumental public works.
Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective opens at the Museum of Modern Art on October 19, where it will be on view until February 7, 2026. Explore more from Asawa on Colossal, and delve further into her practice through her estate’s website.
Installation view of ‘Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective.’ Photo by Jonathan Dorado, © 2025 The Museum of Modern Art, New York
“Poppy” (1965), lithograph, 30 1∕16 × 20 9∕16 inches, edition of 20. Image © 2025 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc., courtesy of David Zwirner
“Untitled (S.398, Hanging Eight-Lobed, Four-Part, Discontinuous Surface Form within a Form with Spheres in the Seventh and Eighth Lobes)” (1955), brass wire, iron wire, and galvanized iron wire, 8 feet 8 1/2 inches × 14 1/2 × 14 1/2 inches. Image © 2025 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc., courtesy of David Zwirner
“Untitled (BMC.145, BMC Laundry Stamp)” (1948–49), stamped ink on fabric sheeting, 36 3/4 × 45 1/2 inches. Image © 2025 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc., courtesy of David Zwirner
Installation view of ‘Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective.’ Photo by Jonathan Dorado, © 2025 The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Installation view of ‘Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective.’ Photo by Jonathan Dorado, © 2025 The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Installation view of ‘Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective.’ Photo by Jonathan Dorado, © 2025 The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Installation view of ‘Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective.’ Photo by Jonathan Dorado, © 2025 The Museum of Modern Art, New York
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Conrad Bakker Recreated All 1,100+ Books in Pioneering Land Artist Robert Smithson’s Personal Library
by Aurelia Butler 16 October 2025, 22:23
Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 2014. All images courtesy of Conrad Bakker, shared with permission
Conrad Bakker Recreated All 1,100+ Books in Pioneering Land Artist Robert Smithson’s Personal Library
October 16, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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An autodidact and polymath, Robert Smithson cemented himself as one of the pre-eminent land artists in his short lifetime. Along with his fellow artist and wife Nancy Holt, Smithson pioneered a new way of working that explored connections to the landscape and place and endlessly probed the formation of knowledge.
When he died in a plane crash in 1973 at just 35 years old, he left behind a vast personal library that represented his broad interests: there were books on crystals and rock minerals, dinosaurs and insects, myths and children’s rhymes, and classics like James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake and Jorge Luis Borges’ Ficciones. Holt donated the entirety of Smithson’s collection— approximately 1,120 books—to the Archives of American Art after his death, where it’s still housed today.
‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ member Pep Fernàndez, holding his book in Barcelona, Spain
There’s also, though, another way to peek into the narratives and materials that shaped Smithson’s thinking and practice. In 2019, Conrad Bakker completed a five-year-long project of recreating every title in that original collection on a 1:1 scale. Presented in museums and galleries from Utah to Arkansas to New York, “Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club” is both a painstaking ode to the pioneering artist and a bold consideration of how we access and consume information.
“I can’t really remember my first encounter with Robert Smithson, but I’ve always been a fan of his artwork and, in particular, the way he oriented his sculptures to coexist inside the physical space of a gallery and outside in the landscape,” Bakker says. He first encountered the artist’s library through Ann Reynolds’ Robert Smithson: Learning from New Jersey and Elsewhere, which provided a comprehensive catalog of each title and edition in the collection.
“I was captivated by this wonderful list of books and curious about the diversity of his research subjects, the intensity of his self-education through books,” Bakker says, adding that the library also serves as a “time capsule of artistic research of the 1960s. I imagined this collection of books as an extension of Robert Smithson’s mind, his curiosity, and thinking.”
This prompted one component of Bakker’s ongoing Untitled Projects, a practice of recreating everyday objects like chocolate bars or VHS tapes to explore facets of economic systems, production, and consumption. Using images from online booksellers, he carved and painted wooden replicas of each edition.
Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed in the exhibition ‘Extra Taste at International Objects,’ NYC, 2024
Displayed in cardboard-like boxes and stacked on the floor, Bakker’s collection has taken many forms, from room-sized installations to a full-scale bookstore in the storefront of the Famous Hardware building in Springdale, Arkansas. While the library remains intact in his studio, the “Book Club” also allowed collectors to purchase a second sculpture for a time. He created about 350 additional works for this element of the project.
The library is just one part of Bakker’s interest in books as objects, which includes a used paperback sale and an archive of self-help titles from the 1970s. For the artist, these objects offer numerous lines of inquiry from “books as historical records of culture and personal memories, books ascommodities, bookstores as public spaces, books as (outdated) technology, and books as portable containers of information, instructions, and ideas,” he writes.
Bakker is currently working on several projects, including a full-scale copy shop (think 1980s-era Kinko’s) for The Weather Station in Lafayette, Indiana. In early 2026, he’ll also show a piece connecting capitalism and climate change at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. The library is likely headed to Stockholm in the coming months, but keep an eye on the project’s Instagram for more.
You might also enjoy Bernie Kaminski’s papier-mâché objects and Matt Stevens’ Good Movies as Old Books.
Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed in the exhibition ‘Extra Taste at International Objects,’ NYC, 2024
Installation view of ‘Untitled Project: Smithson’s Books’ installed in the storefront windows of the Famous Hardware building in Springdale, Arkansas, 2021
‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ member Ruth Lopez holding her book
Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 2014
Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed in the exhibition ‘Extra Taste at International Objects,’ NYC, 2024
Installation view of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed in the exhibition ‘Extra Taste at International Objects,’ NYC, 2024
Conrad Bakker inside ‘R. Smithson Books.’ Photo by Meredith Mashburn Photography
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More stories

Paper Discs Stand In for Brushstrokes in Jacob Hashimoto’s Structural, Layered Works

Dream Worlds Emerge in Yuichi Hirako’s Larger-than-Life Domestic Spaces

Brandon Morris’ Ghostly Fiberglass Gowns Float Through a Paris Gallery

A Japanese Exhibition Places Contemporary Woodcarving Within the Continuum of Art History

Through Lush Embellisment, Anne von Freyburg Depicts Monstrous Women Who Revel in Excess

This October, a Global Public Art Project Turns 35 Cities into Playgrounds

Ruth Asawa Arrives in New York with a Monumental Retrospective

Conrad Bakker Recreated All 1,100+ Books in Pioneering Land Artist Robert Smithson’s Personal Library

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