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    In a Retrofitted School Bus at the U.S.-Mexico Border, Guadalupe Maravilla Heals Through Vibrations

    All images from the Art21 “New York Close Up” film, “Guadalupe Maravilla’s ‘Mariposa Relámpago,’” © Art21, shared with permission

    In a Retrofitted School Bus at the U.S.-Mexico Border, Guadalupe Maravilla Heals Through Vibrations

    February 26, 2025

    ArtFilm

    Grace Ebert

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    Guadalupe Maravilla’s multi-disciplinary practice is rooted in a simple premise: sound is medicine.

    The artist is known for works that merge sculpture, performance, instruments, and healing, one such project being the elaborately retrofitted school bus titled “Mariposa Relámpago.” Part of Maravilla’s Disease Throwers series, the large-scale coach is devoid of bench seats and ubiquitous yellow paint and instead features an open cab lined with chrome panels. More than 700 found objects adorn its body, from cutlery and a worn pair of sandals to large gongs. More

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    A Monumental Immersive Installation by ENESS Prompts Joy and Togetherness

    “Forest Dancer.” All images courtesy of ENESS, shared with permission

    A Monumental Immersive Installation by ENESS Prompts Joy and Togetherness

    February 24, 2025

    ArtDesign

    Kate Mothes

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    A nine-meter-tall passageway made of eight individual arches enticed visitors into ENESS’s latest installation (previously). Last month at Quoz Arts Fest 2025 in Dubai, Forest Dancer comprised a monumental entry and an immersive exhibition of illuminated inflatable forms inside a contemporary building.

    With mushroom-like proportions, pixellated patterns, and a slew of changing hues, ENESS’s work encompasses a central character surrounded by psychedelic trees, mountains, insects, and boulder-like bean bags.

    “As artists, we work in many contexts—inside galleries and museums, in (the) public realm and even creating small art pieces for the home,” said ENESS founder Nimrod Weis. “This approach of ‘art is everywhere’ means that we responded to the inspiring architecture by creating an artwork that is at once a conversation with the built form and an installation in its own right.”

    This year’s festival was curated around the theme of an Arabic proverb meaning “a hut holds a thousand friends,” inspiring creative responses that center bringing people of all ages together and promoting interactivity.

    A statement says, “The entire exhibition, spanning over 600 square meters, is an ode to the power and importance of creativity in the face of online obsession, geopolitical upheaval, and the rise of dark forces taking us far from the soulfulness of art, human connection, and gentle contemplation,” says a statement.

    Find more on ENESS’s website.

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    Vibrant Brushstrokes Float in Resin Cubes in Fabian Oefner’s Sculptural Ode to Painting

    All images courtesy of Fabian Oefner, shared with permission

    Vibrant Brushstrokes Float in Resin Cubes in Fabian Oefner’s Sculptural Ode to Painting

    February 24, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Frozen inside blocks of clear resin, a series of swirling, gestural brushstrokes appear to float midair. Fabian Oefner is no stranger to the polymer substance, which can be poured into a mold in a liquid form and cured into a solid. In his latest series, Volumen, the artist transforms paint strokes into physical objects with dynamic dimensionality.

    Oefner’s practice has often focused on the nature of gravity and motion, suspending objects in physical sculptures or photographing vehicles and machines in the style of exploded diagrams. He sometimes deconstructs items like cameras or sneakers, reassembling them in puzzle-like compositions (previously).

    The artist has always been fascinated by the textural quality of paint, especially in the work of Abstract Expressionists who emphasized gestural motions, mark-making, and spontaneity—or at least the appearance of it. Oefner says:

    For me, experiencing works like de Kooning’s “Door to the River” or Pollock’s “Lavender Mist” has always been as much a tactile experience as a visual one. These paintings are almost like sculptures to me. What I am doing is removing the canvas entirely and lifting the paint into space, making its physicality completely tangible.

    Find more on the artist’s website.

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    A Miniature Musical Curio Shop by Chris Millar Spins Like Clockwork

    Detail of “Mirthful Miscellanea” (2024), resin, acrylic paint, brass, steel, aluminum, electronics, and wood, 22 x 60 x 16 inches. Photos by Jacques Bellavance. All images © Chris Millar, shared with permission

    A Miniature Musical Curio Shop by Chris Millar Spins Like Clockwork

    February 21, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    After he graduated from art school, Chris Millar (previously) worked in a toy store for seven years. “The shop, now defunct, was called Livingstone and Cavell Extraordinary Toys in Calgary, Alberta, Canada,” he tells Colossal. The store carried classics like tin wind-ups, electric trains, dolls, miniature soldiers, and teddy bears.

    Millar’s latest extravagantly detailed work was one-and-a-half years in the making and takes inspiration from the joys of toy shops and flea markets. He incorporates resin, acrylic paint, brass, steel, aluminum, electronics, and wood into elaborate kinetic spectacles. Every part of is made from scratch with the exception of a few gears.

    “Mirthful Miscellanea” channels an imaginary, fantastical curio shop run by two brothers named Wade and Snyder. “Their portraits can be seen in a few areas of the sculpture,” Millar says. “Wade is an expert in medieval musical instruments and roast chicken, and Snyder in antiquarian circus paraphernalia.”

    The piece follows in the footsteps of a work titled “Eclipse at Arc Valley” that incorporates a clockwork mechanism, but this new sculpture further elaborates on the design with a more complex mechanism and a base that emits sound from a music box, two gongs, and six bells.

    Millar expresses a fondness for mom-and-pop shops and quirky destinations that have found it increasingly difficult to continue operating in our era of online global commerce. The inspiration for the sculpture “is a counter to the homogeneity that our internet-based culture bestows on us,” he says.

    The artist is represented by TrepanierBaer, and you can wander more miniature imaginary worlds on the artist’s website.

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    From Tiny Strips of Cardboard, Greg Olijnyk Fashions Fantastical Monuments

    All images courtesy of Greg Olijnyk, shared with permission

    From Tiny Strips of Cardboard, Greg Olijnyk Fashions Fantastical Monuments

    February 21, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Greg Olijnyk is no stranger to the possibilities of a single, seemingly simple material. In his ever-evolving world of robots, machines, insects, and buildings, cardboard proves endlessly versatile. He meticulously cuts, folds, and glues tiny pieces to resemble everything from rivets and windows to columns and balustrades.

    The Melbourne-based artist’s most recent works play with unexpected juxtapositions, like a classical cathedral dome with the base of a missile, a gothic tower fitted with jet propulsion boosters, and a lighthouse on a ship being guided through a craggy canal. Find more on his website and Instagram.

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    Splashes of Stainless Steel by Zheng Lu Embrace Philosophy, History, and Technology

    “Undercurrent” (2023), stainless steel, 340 x 410 x 630 centimeters. All images courtesy of Zheng Lu and Galerie Sept, shared with permission

    Splashes of Stainless Steel by Zheng Lu Embrace Philosophy, History, and Technology

    February 20, 2025

    ArtNature

    Kate Mothes

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    Composed of highly polished stainless steel, the sculptures of Zheng Lu (previously) appear suspended in space and time. Whether secured atop a pedestal, installed in a public park, or hanging in midair, each piece strikes a fine balance between motion and stillness and fluidity and fixedness.

    The Beijing-based artist is deeply influenced by traditional Chinese philosophy and calligraphy. The energy, or qi, that courses through the universe shapes his work and is known to facilitate health, stability, and harmony in all aspects of life. Thousands of Chinese characters borrowed from historic texts additionally coat many of his sculptures, calling upon the past as a way to interface with the present.

    “Undercurrent,” stainless steel

    Lu is also increasingly interested in the burgeoning relationship between human artistry and artificial intelligence. “The advancement of technology will inevitably blur the boundaries between tools and creators, but the essence of creation remains rooted in human nature,” the artist tells Colossal. Viewed as a tool rather than a stand-in for human creativity, he is interested in how machine learning prompts us to more carefully consider authorship.

    Through a creative approach that alternates between human and machine, Lu likens his process to “a relay race, with the artwork itself as the baton.” He continues:

    I pass the baton to the computer, and it passes it back to me, each of us shaping the piece in turn. The final outcome is not entirely predictable. The existence of the world is defined by balance, and none of us can escape this principle. Hence, I embrace this method both in my life and work, where the process of creation is akin to the growth of life.

    Lu is represented by Galerie Sept, and you can find more on the artist’s website.

    Installation view of “Undercurrent”

    “Water in Dripping Vortex,” stainless steel

    “Whatever Journey it Takes” (2024), stainless steel, 560 x 540 x 240 centimeters

    “Water in Dripping Circulation,” stainless steel

    “Colosseum Fantasy” (2024), stainless steel, 120 x 100 x 242 centimeters

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    Rooms and Buildings Have a Life of Their Own in Eamon Monaghan’s Uncanny Dioramas

    “Road Refrigerator” (2025), cardboard, tin foil, aluminum wire, epoxy clay, and watercolor, 33 x 63 x 15 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Moskowitz Bayse, Los Angeles, shared with permission

    Rooms and Buildings Have a Life of Their Own in Eamon Monaghan’s Uncanny Dioramas

    February 19, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Framed by steel I-beams, aluminum cladding, or floor boards, Eamon Monaghan’s chaotic dioramas appear ready to burst from their own confines. Made from everyday materials like cardboard, tinfoil, wire, and epoxy clay, his sculptures capture harried moments of disarray seemingly frozen in time.

    In the artist’s current solo exhibition, Under the Floorboards at Moskowitz Bayse, the sculptures jump off the wall, angles jutting this way and that. Beams intersect with appliances; floor boards bend; stairways emerge from nowhere and terminate in open space; and radiator steam infiltrates everything in its path.

    “Foggy Pipes” (2025), cardboard, tin foil, aluminum wire, epoxy clay, and watercolor, 34 x 70 x 18 inches

    Monaghan draws on the work of 20th-century underground legends like cartoonist R. Crumb or clay animator Bruce Bickford. In the artist’s three-dimensional scenes, tiny figures sometimes emerge comically half-concealed, sometimes grappling with the situation at hand and sometimes simply swept up in the action.

    He embraces unpredictability and farce, playfully examining the relationships between stability, movement, time, and a sense of control. In “Stages,” for example, a series of platforms and rooms shift around in a puzzle-like arrangement, with one figure apparently taken by surprise by a steel beam, another crawling behind a curtain, and yet another passed out on a sofa while helping to “pull the strings” of the entire uncanny production.

    Under the Floorboards continues through March 29 in Los Angeles. Find more on the artist’s Instagram.

    “Stages” (2025), cardboard, tin foil, aluminum wire, epoxy clay, and watercolor, 44 x 67 x 15 inches

    Detail of “Foggy Pipes”

    “Trap Door” (2025), cardboard, tin foil, aluminum wire, epoxy clay, and watercolor, 25 x 30 x 10 inches

    Side view of “Road Refrigerator”

    “Secure The Spaghetti” (2025), cardboard, tin foil, aluminum wire, epoxy clay, and watercolor, 16 x 35 x 10 inches

    “A Nice Night In” (2025), cardboard, tin foil, aluminum wire, epoxy clay, and watercolor, 28 x 45 x 14 1/2 inches

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    Beep Boop! Computers and Game Consoles Blink to Life in Love Hultén’s Retrofuturist Tech

    “R-KAID-R”

    Beep Boop! Computers and Game Consoles Blink to Life in Love Hultén’s Retrofuturist Tech

    February 14, 2025

    ArtDesignMusic

    Kate Mothes

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    From throwback pixelated video games to science fiction-inspired computer consoles, Love Hultén’s playful sculptures (previously) harken back to the birth of digital.

    Based in Gothenburg, Sweden, the artist’s explorations of video games, electronic music, and retrofuturist aesthetics continue to shape playful pieces like “R-KAID-R,” a mobile video game complete with a toggle, all of which can be carried like a briefcase.

    “The Singer”

    One recent work, “The Future Fan Stage” takes a humorous approach to a fantastical fusion of live performance, science, and computers. Commissioned for Gothenburg’s Way Out West, the screen doubles as a fully functional stage that played live recordings of the headliners “for what might be the largest yet smallest crowd in history: sperm and eggs getting ‘ready to rumble’ in a laboratory,” Hultén says.

    The artist draws on controversies surrounding in vitro fertilization (IVF) that have reached a fever pitch during the past few years. Taking an optimistic approach to science and modern medicine, Hultén references studies demonstrating that music may improve fertilization during the IVF process.

    Hultén’s work will be on view in Liljevalchs’ spring salon Vårsalong 2025, which opens on February 14 in Stockholm. Find more on the artist’s website.

    “Leto”

    “The Future Fan Stage”

    Detail of “The Future Fan Stage”

    “Y-17”

    Detail of “Y-17”

    “R-KAID-R”

    Detail of “Leto”

    “The Singer”

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