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    Roméo Mivekannin’s Cage-Like Sculptures of Museums Reframe the Colonial Past

    Photos by Gerret Schultz. All images courtesy of the artist and Galerie Barbara Thumm, shared with permission

    Roméo Mivekannin’s Cage-Like Sculptures of Museums Reframe the Colonial Past

    June 24, 2025

    ArtHistorySocial Issues

    Kate Mothes

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    Known for bold, chiaroscuro paintings that reimagine European art historical masterworks in his own likeness, Roméo Mivekannin is interested in the Western, colonial gaze on Africa and the power of archives to reveal underrepresented or untold stories. Born on the Ivory Coast, Mivekannin splits his time between Toulouse, France, and Cotonou, Benin. His practice interrogates visibility, appropriation, and power dynamics through direct and unflinching pieces spanning acrylic painting, installation, and sculpture.

    At Art Basel last weekend, in collaboration with Galerie Barbara Thumm and Cécile Fakhoury, Mivekannin presented a large-scale installation titled Atlas, comprising a series of metal buildings suspended from the ceiling. Modeled after institutional buildings—in this case, museums that house enthographic collections—the artist draws attention to the colonialist practices and ethical gray areas that permeate these spaces and their histories.

    Often founded upon controversial or dubiously-acquired personal collections of European urban elites, larger museums historically emphasized what was seen as “primitive” or “exotic,” exhibiting a skewed view of world cultures framed by a colonialist mindset. The British Museum, for example, was established in 1753 upon the death of Sir Hans Sloane, whose collection of more than 80,000 “natural and artificial rarities” provided the institution’s foundation. His wealth—and his collection—was amassed in part through enslaved labor on his sugar plantations in Jamaica.

    Another well-known example of problematic collections include thousands of Benin Bronzes, housed in European institutions like the British Museum and others. British forces acquired many of these elaborately decorated plaques through pillage and looting in the late 19th century. Today, some museums have agreed to repatriate the bronzes to redress this historical indignity (the British Museum is still in discussions).

    As a student of both art and architecture, Mivekannin taps into the way certain structures and built environments are designed to convey prestige and dominance. He is also currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the National Superior School of Architecture of Montpellier (ENSAM).

    In Atlas, the structures take on the form of bird cages suspended from chains. Both elements symbolize captivity, likening ethnographic collections that often include human remains to what the Atlas exhibition statement describes as “human zoos.” In this context, the cages “serve as a reminder of the historical practices that sought to control and exploit ‘the Other.’”

    Mivekannin bridges past and present in this installation, inviting viewers to walk around the museums within a space that shifts the power dynamic. The work encourages viewers “to confront uncomfortable truths about colonial legacies and their ongoing impact on our contemporary society.”

    The artist scales down the museums’ palatial details to a diminutive size, displayed low, taking into consideration a kind of meta experience of the exhibition itself. In Mivekannin’s portrayal, the structures are both the cages and the caged.

    A show of the artist’s paintings, Black Mirror, is currently on view at Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, Italy, through July 27. See more on the artist’s Instagram.

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    In ‘Big Bad Wolf,’ Sculptor Kendra Haste Contends with Conservation and Rewilding

    All images courtesy of Iron Art Casting Museum Büdelsdorf, shared with permission

    In ‘Big Bad Wolf,’ Sculptor Kendra Haste Contends with Conservation and Rewilding

    June 23, 2025

    ArtNature

    Kate Mothes

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    From a simple material, Kendra Haste brings us face-to-face with striking sculptures of wild animals. Known for her use of galvanized wire to create life-size portraits of everything from calm elephants to alert deer to a family of boars, the British artist is fascinated by what she describes as the “essence and character” of each creature.

    The artist’s solo exhibition, Big Bad Wolf at the Iron Art Casting Museum Büdelsdorf, is Haste’s first in Germany and continues her exploration of wildlife through eleven recent works that bridge the animals’ world and ours. Haste says, “I try to capture the living, breathing model in a static 3D form and convey its emotional essence without slipping into sentimentality or anthropomorphism.”

    If you’ve visited the Tower of London in the past fifteen years, you also may have seen Haste’s permanent display of sculptures inspired by the Royal Menagerie, technically the city’s first zoo. The building housed a collection of animals between the 1200s and 1835, many of which were gifted to kings and queens.

    Haste’s life-size animals are installed near where they were kept and nod to real denizens, like an elephant sent by the King of France in 1255 and what was presumably a polar bear shipped from Norway around the same time. The works were initially slated for a 10-year exhibition but now permanently on view in the much-loved historic attraction.

    In Big Bad Wolf, Haste’s first solo museum exhibition, she delves into conservation, sustainability, and the controversial concept of rewilding. That animals that wander through the museum, including wolves, a stag, a hind, a white-tailed eagle, lynx, and wild boars, are all native to Northern Germany. While some are endangered, others are bouncing back, and Haste taps into a regional yet universal comprehension of our delicate relationship with nature and how our actions affect it.

    “This is about how we see the natural world—how we’ve tried to shape it, and what it might mean to let it return,” Haste says. “Wire, like cast iron, holds a tension between strength and fragility. That balance runs through every piece in this exhibition.”

    Big Bad Wolf continues through November 2 in Büdelsdorf. See more of Haste’s work on Instagram.

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    Greg Corbino’s Fish Puppets Made from Reclaimed Trash Migrate Along the Hudson River

    2022 performance of “Murmurations”
    at the River to River Festival. Photo
    by Robin Michals. All images shared with permission

    Greg Corbino’s Fish Puppets Made from Reclaimed Trash Migrate Along the Hudson River

    June 21, 2025

    ArtClimateNature

    Kate Mothes

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    Beginning in the Adirondack Mountains and flowing south into New York Harbor, the iconic Hudson River stretches 315 miles through scenic valleys and creative towns. It’s also a migration route for numerous species of fish, from sturgeon and bass to herring and eels, which head upstream every year to spawn. Contending with habitat destruction due to pollution and the effects of the climate crisis, the survival of these fish is increasingly imperiled. Fortunately, art and activism have a way of bringing these urgent issues to light while also bridging local communities.

    Last weekend marked the inaugural Fish Migration Celebration organized by Riverkeeper, an outfit devoted to protecting and advocating for the health of the Hudson River watershed. Unmissable amid the festivities were a series of large-scale puppets by artist Greg Corbino, part of his ongoing sculpture-meets-performance series, Murmurations.

    2022 performance of “Murmurations” at the River to River Festival. Photo by Robin Michals

    Corbino designed a larger-than-life gold sturgeon to adorn a sailing ship that led a flotilla from Chelsea Pier in New York City up to Croton-on-Hudson, home of Hudson River Music Festival. Corbino’s papier-mâché marine creatures, ranging from oysters and sturgeon to a seahorse and a whale, performed their own migration, parading along the riverbank in both locations.

    The artist describes the collective performance as a “puppet poem of city and sea” and creates each work from plastic trash he removes from New York City waterways and beaches. Through partnerships with events like the Fish Migration Celebration and New York City’s River to River Festival, he aims to highlight the impacts of climate change and raise awareness of increasing plastic pollution in our oceans.

    See more of Corbino’s work on his site.

    Riverkeeper’s Fish Migration Celebration. Photo by Priya Shah

    Riverkeeper’s Fish Migration Celebration. Photo by Rhiannon Catalyst

    Riverkeeper’s Fish Migration Celebration. Photo by Priya Shah

    2022 performance of “Murmurations” at the River to River Festival. Photo by Robin Michals

    Riverkeeper’s Fish Migration Celebration. Photo courtesy of Riverkeeper

    2022 performance of “Murmurations” at the River to River Festival. Photo by Robin Michals

    Riverkeeper’s Fish Migration Celebration. Photo courtesy of Riverkeeper

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    African Mythology and Ancestry Merge in Zak Ové’s Exuberant Sculptures

    “The Mothership Connection” (2022), stainless steel, bronze, resin, and mixed media, 9 x 1.8 meters. Images courtesy of Zak Ové and Library Street Collective shared with permission

    African Mythology and Ancestry Merge in Zak Ové’s Exuberant Sculptures

    June 20, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Merging themes of interstellar travel and cultural convergences, Zak Ové creates large-scale sculptures and multimedia installations that explore African ancestry, traditions, and history. The British-Trinidadian artist’s practice is deeply rooted in the narratives of the African diaspora, focusing on traditions of masquerade. He delves into its role in performance and ceremony, as well as masks as potent instruments for self-emancipation and cultural resistance.

    Ové’s interdisciplinary work spans sculpture, painting, film, and photography, exploring links between mythology, oral histories, and speculative futures. “His sculptures often incorporate symbols, iconography, and materials drawn from African, Caribbean, and diasporic traditions, merging them with modern aesthetics to celebrate the continuity and adaptability of culture,” his studio says.

    Detail of “Black Starliner” (2025), stainless steel, aluminium, fiberglass, and resin, 40 x 22.6 x 27.4 feet

    Ové often delves into the relationship between contemporary lived experiences and the spirit world, like in “Moko Jumbie” or a glass mosaic installation in London titled “Jumbie Jubilation.” In these works, the artist brings an ancestral spirit rooted in African and Caribbean folklore known as a Jumbie to life as a spectral dancer, cloaked in banana leaves with a torso of a golden, radiant face.

    The motif of rockets has emerged in Ove’s recent installations, like “The Mothership Connection” and “Black Starliner,” which feature totem-like stacks of African tribal masks and lattice-like Veve symbols—intricate designs employed in the Vodou religion to represent spiritual deities known as Lwa.

    “The Mothership Connection” combines architectural elements referencing the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., and a ring of Cadillac lights nodding to Detroit, “Motor City.” The crowning element is a giant Mende tribal mask that glows when the 26-foot-tall sculpture is illuminated at night, with a pulsing rhythm suggestive of a heartbeat.

    The title is also a reference to the iconic 1975 album by Parliament-Funkadelic, Mothership Connection, in with outer space is a through-line in the group’s celebration of what BBC journalist Frasier McAlpine described as a response to the waning optimism of the post-civil rights era. Mothership Connection soared at a time when “flamboyant imagination (and let’s be frank, exceptional funkiness) was both righteous and joyful,” he wrote.

    “The Mothership Connection” (2022), stainless steel, bronze, resin, and mixed media, 9 x 1.8 meters. Installed at Frieze London 2023

    Ové echoes this exuberance through vibrant colors, repetition, and monumental scale. Library Street Collective, which exhibited “The Mothership Connection” on the grounds of The Shepherd in Detroit late last year, describes the work as a nod “to a future where Black people are included in all possible frames of reference.”

    In a monumental assembly of African masked figures titled “The Invisible Man and the Masque of Blackness,” Ové conceived of 40 graphite sculptures organized in a militaristic grid, each six-and-a-half feet tall, that have marched across the grounds of Somerset House, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, San Francisco City Hall, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

    The title of this piece references two groundbreaking works in Black history—Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel Invisible Man, which was the first novel by a Black author to with the National Book Award, and Ben Jonson’s 1605 play The Masque of Blackness, noteworthy for being the first time blackface makeup was used in a stage production.

    “Invisible Man and the Masque of Blackness” (2016), graphite. Installed at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

    Ové reclaims and reframes dominant narratives about African history, culture, and the diaspora, interrogating the past to posit what he calls “potential futures,” where possibilities transform into realities. “By fusing ancestral wisdom with Afrofuturist ideals, Ové ensures that the voices of the past remain integral to shaping the futures we envision,” his studio says.

    “The Mothership Connection” will be exhibited later this summer and fall at 14th Street Square in New York City’s Meatpacking District, accompanied by a gallery show at Chelsea Market. Dates are currently being confirmed, and you can follow updates on Ové’s Instagram.

    “Moko Jumbie” (2021), mixed media, overall 560 centimeters

    Detail of “Moko Jumbie” (2021), mixed media, overall 560 centimeters, installed at Art Gallery of Ontario, commissioned with funds from David W. Binet and Ray & Georgina Williams, 2021. Photo courtesy of AGO

    “Jumbie Jubilation” (2024), glass mosaic panels, dimensions vary around 11.5 x 1.2 meters per panel

    Detail of “Jumbie Jubilation” (2024)

    “Virulent Strain” (2022), graphite, 22-carat gold leaf, and bronze, 120 centimeters in diameter

    “Invisible Man and the Masque of Blackness” (2016), graphite. Installed at Somerset House, London

    “Black Starliner” (2025), stainless steel, aluminium, fiberglass, and resin, 40 x 22.6 x 27.4 feet. Installed at Louvre Abu Dhabi

    “The Mothership Connection” (2022), stainless steel, bronze, resin, and mixed media, 9 x 1.8 meters. Photo courtesy of Library Street Collective

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    Sculptural Embroideries on Wood by Nosheen Iqbal Translate Architectural Motifs into Thread

    “Botanical Allegory 11.” All images courtesy of Nosheen Iqbal, shared with permission

    Sculptural Embroideries on Wood by Nosheen Iqbal Translate Architectural Motifs into Thread

    June 18, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Grace Ebert

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    Semicircles notched into smooth wooden panel structure Nosheen Iqbal’s floral embroideries. Laying colorful lines with impeccable precision, the Dallas-based artist (previously) creates vivid arabesques and geometric motifs that resemble those of her Pakistani and Islamic heritage.

    Iqbal is interested in the interplay of light and shadow, which tends to be most prominent in the sunless sides of the three-dimensional forms. Delineating petals and leaves with small beads bolsters, their surfaces glimmering when illuminated. “As light moves across my pieces, it enhances the saturation of colors and emphasizes the intricate threadwork, shifting and revealing new dimensions,” she says.

    “Botanical Allegory”

    Evoking architecture, her series Botanical Allegory features several works with rounded edges and arch-like shapes. Blending ancient design and craft traditions mirrors the artist’s desire to bring seemingly disparate mediums, techniques, and ideas together. “Living in the West while holding Eastern heritage has driven me to innovate—merging elements from different art movements to create a blend that honors my roots while embracing new influences,” she adds.

    Galleri Urbane in Dallas will show a collection of Iqbal’s works in the group exhibition roll the windows down from June 21 to August 8. Find more from the artist on Instagram.

    Detail of “Botanical Allegory 5”

    “Botanical Allegory 15”

    Detail of “Botanical Allegory 14”

    “Botanical Allegory 1”

    Detail of “Botanical Allegory 1”

    “Botanical Allegory 5” in progress

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    In Immersive Mixed-Media Tapestries, Lillian Blades Reflects on Pattern and Presence

    Detail of “Perennial” (2024). Photo by Cydney Maria Rhines. All images courtesy of the artist and SAM, shared with permission

    In Immersive Mixed-Media Tapestries, Lillian Blades Reflects on Pattern and Presence

    June 18, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Reveling in the interplay of light, material, and space, Lillian Blades creates expansive and immersive installations that reflect on how we experience pattern and texture. Through the Veil, now on view at Sarasota Art Museum, marks the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition, bringing together a sweeping array of the Atlanta-based artist’s large-scale works.

    Blades takes a multimedia approach to tapestry, combining fabric, stained glass, wood, acrylic, and found materials to create glimmering surfaces. She suspends some pieces from the ceiling, meandering through the gallery space like mixed-media curtains, while other assemblages hang on the wall. Colored light bounces onto the floor, and the loose latticework casts dramatic shadows onto the surrounding walls.

    “Perennial” (2024)

    “My patchwork veils are wired tapestries of images and texture…I want it to feel complex but simple at the same time,” Blades says. “I want the details and the objects to carry memory and trigger viewers into thinking about their associations with certain patterns and textures.”

    Through the Veil continues in Sarasota through October 26. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    Installation view of ‘Through the Veil’ at Sarasota Art Museum

    The artist working in her studio. Photo by Marie Thomas

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    Candy-Colored Sculptures by Poh Sin Studio Ornament Aquatic Life

    Detail of “Lacebud.” All images courtesy of Poh Sin Studio, shared with permission

    Candy-Colored Sculptures by Poh Sin Studio Ornament Aquatic Life

    June 17, 2025

    ArtDesignNature

    Grace Ebert

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    In Specimen Garden, Pamela Poh Sin Tan translates the ambiguous ecologies of her large-scale public works into freestanding sculptures. Tan, who works under Poh Sin Studio, frequently fuses principles of art and design, and for this series of coral-inspired forms, she embellishes sand-coated laser-cut steel with small chalcedony stone beads.

    “Inspired by the ethereal elegance of natural systems—coral, roots, jellyfish, diatoms—these works reflect my fascination with the subtle, intelligent structures of the natural world,” she says.

    “Fanora”

    Drawing on the ornamentation traditions of her Chinese-Malaysian heritage, the artist fuses contemporary techniques with timeless themes of fragility, strength, and beauty. “Each piece feels like a living fragment of a surreal coral garden—plant-like in posture, reef-like in texture, and jewel-like in detail,” she says. “Together, they form a quiet ecosystem of imagined species suspended between nature and artifice.”

    Keep up with Poh Sin Studio on its website and Instagram.

    “Melona”

    “Lacebud”

    Detail of “Melona”

    Detail of “Fanora”

    “Aurelia”

    Detail of “Aurelia”

    Detail of “Fanora”

    “Ploomp”

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    Josh Dihle Toys with Reality in His Topographic Paintings Akin to Fever Dreams

    “Moreau/Detrick Reliquary” (2024),
    walnut, paper pulp, plaster, foam, faux fur, found objects, acrylic, and oil on panel, 40.25 x 31 x 13 inches. All images courtesy of Andrew Rafacz, shared with permission

    Josh Dihle Toys with Reality in His Topographic Paintings Akin to Fever Dreams

    June 16, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    “The model railroader is the truest creator: engineer, architect, and master of his own timetable,” reads a statement about Josh Dihle’s feverish exhibition, Basement Arrangement.

    Armed with hundreds of minuscule objects from coral to LEGO, Dihle concocts dreamlike worlds in which figures become topographies and every cavity houses a surprising detail. Peek inside the cheek of “Moreau/Detrick Reliquary,” and find a wooly mammoth with lustrous stones embedded in its wooden tusks. “Confluence” is similar as carved fish jut out of the foam-and-plaster ground alongside trees and palms with widespread fingers.

    Detail of “Confluence” (2025), oil, acrylic, colored pencil, resin, fossils, rocks, LEGO, marbles, beach glass, plastic toys, coral, paper pulp, plaster gauze, foam, cherry, and carved walnut on panel, 57 x 45 x 19 inches

    Evoking model railroads and dollhouses, Dihle’s sculptural paintings incorporate recognizable objects but with an uncanny, if not skewed, perspective. Stretching nearly five feet tall, the large-scale works hang on the wall and draw a contrast between the overall composition, viewed straight on, and the miniature vignettes best taken in at a 90-degree angle. Step back and see an aerial landscape with hills shaped like lips or a sunken nose, while close-up inspection becomes a dizzying hunt for unlikely items tucked into every crevice.

    The exhibition title originates with hermit hobbyists, who seem to come alive when cloistered in worlds of their own making. What appears to outsiders as an escape from reality is, for them, an attempt to organize the chaos and take control, even if in the form of toys and make-believe.

    If you’re in Chicago, see Basement Arrangement at Andrew Rafacz through July 18. Find more from Dihle on his website.

    Detail of “Confluence” (2025), oil, acrylic, colored pencil, resin, fossils, rocks, LEGO, marbles, beach glass, plastic toys, coral, paper pulp, plaster gauze, foam, cherry, and carved walnut on panel, 57 x 45 x 19 inches

    “Moreau/Detrick Reliquary” (2024), walnut, paper pulp, plaster, foam, faux fur, found objects, acrylic, and oil on panel, 40.25 x 31 x 13 inches

    Detail of “Moreau/Detrick Reliquary” (2024), walnut, paper pulp, plaster, foam, faux fur, found objects, acrylic, and oil on panel, 40.25 x 31 x 13 inches

    “Brittle Star” (2025), oil, acrylic, casein, colored pencil, Legos, fossils, rocks, plastic toys, marbles, mosaic tile, buttons, carved walnut, paper pulp, plaster gauze, foam, and plywood on panel, 47 x 21 inches

    “Confluence” (2025), oil, acrylic, colored pencil, resin, fossils, rocks, LEGO, marbles, beach glass, plastic toys, coral, paper pulp, plaster gauze, foam, cherry, and carved walnut on panel, 57 x 45 x 19 inches

    “Sighting” (2025), casein, colored pencil, rocks, fossils, eyeball agate, agate, amber, found objects, plastic toys, mosaic tile, marbles, LEGO, beads, thumb tacks, and beach glass on carved basswood, 18 x 14 x 1.5 inches

    “Falls” (2025), acrylic, turquoise, meteorite, fossil, marble, rocks, plastic toy, paper pulp, plaster gauze, twine, maple, and foam on panel, 42 x 32.5 x 11 inches

    “Radon” (2025), casein, acrylic, resin, turquoise, rocks, LEGO, found jewelry, plastic Micro Machine, fossil, beach glass, and walnut on panel, 13.25 x 10.25 x 1.25 inches

    Detail of “Radon” (2025), casein, acrylic, resin, turquoise, rocks, LEGO, found jewelry, plastic Micro Machine, fossil, beach glass, and walnut on panel, 13.25 x 10.25 x 1.25 inches

    Installation view of ‘Basement Arrangement’

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