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    Kirsty Elson’s Spirited Creatures Breathe New Life into Weathered Driftwood

    All images courtesy of Kirsty Elson, shared with permission

    Kirsty Elson’s Spirited Creatures Breathe New Life into Weathered Driftwood

    August 1, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Grace Ebert

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    Wander into Kirsty Elson’s Cornwall studio, and you’ll likely greet a menagerie of creatures alongside scraps of driftwood and rusted bits of metal. Scouring local beaches and embankments, the artist (previously) has an impeccable ability to envision a piglet’s ear or a dog’s snout from a weathered hunk of timber. Once in her studio, quirky characters emerge from scratched and worn materials, their lively personalities shining through the signs of age.

    Elson sells some of her sculptures on her website, and you can follow her work on Instagram.

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    In Miniature Models, Thomas Doyle Envisions an Unsettling Future of Technological Takeover

    “Clickthrough rate” (2024), mixed media, 24 x 15 x 15 centimeters. All images courtesy of Thomas Doyle, shared with permission

    In Miniature Models, Thomas Doyle Envisions an Unsettling Future of Technological Takeover

    July 29, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    If we were to travel 500 years into the future, what would the monuments decorating public parks and town squares commemorate? Thomas Doyle takes us on an unnerving journey to imagine the culture we might encounter should our endless fascination with technology continue.

    The New York-based artist (previously) toys with perception as he sculpts miniature works at 1:43 scale and smaller. His new dystopian series, Clear History, invokes classical Greek and Roman sculpture, although the venerated figures appear more as a warning than an ideal. Sharp rays pierce through a woman’s head in “Clickthrough rate,” for example, while the hunched protagonist of “Opt in” demonstrates the neck-cranking posture many of us know all too well.

    “Infinite scroll” (2024), mixed media, 22 x 13.8 x 13.8 centimeters

    Interested in the long tail of culture, Doyle frequently looks to the past to better understand the consequences of our present. “I’m fascinated by the way we are hurtling toward what seems to be a new way of being human, leaping without looking, hoping for the best,” he says.

    In each of the mixed-media scenes, tiny figures peer up at or sit near the weathered statues as they consider a world that’s come and gone. “The trappings of past cultures are all around us, morphed and made nearly unrecognizable over centuries,” the artist adds. “I’ve tried to trace the ways in which today’s technologies will reverberate over time. What will grow from the seeds we plant today? What becomes a venerated symbol? What serves as a cautionary myth?”

    Doyle currently has a few models on view at the Ukrainian National Museum in Chicago, and he very generously shares glimpses behind the scenes on Instagram.

    “Acceptance criteria” (2024), mixed media, 21 x 15 x 15 centimeters

    “Opt in” (2024), mixed media, 20 x 20 x 20 centimeters

    “Switch profile” (2024), mixed media, 20 x 12.5 x 12.5 centimeters

    “Show hidden” (2024), mixed media, 28 x 30 x 30 centimeters

    “Session timeout” (2024), mixed media, 25 x 14.5 x 14.5 centimeters

    “Bad gateway” (2024), mixed media, 20 x 17.5 x 17.5 centimeters

    “Use case” (2024), mixed media, 20 x 14 x 14 centimeters

    “Temporary redirect” (2024), mixed media, 21 x 26 x 26 centimeters

    “We value your privacy” (2024), mixed media, 28 x 17.5 x 17.5 centimeters

    “Rollback” (2024), mixed media / 20 x 16 x 16 centimeters

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    An Expansive Survey in Scotland Celebrates Five Decades of Land Art by Andy Goldsworthy

    “Oak Passage” (2025) and “Ferns” (2025), installation view at the National Galleries of Scotland. All images courtesy of the artist and National Galleries of Scotland, shared with permission

    An Expansive Survey in Scotland Celebrates Five Decades of Land Art by Andy Goldsworthy

    July 29, 2025

    ArtNature

    Kate Mothes

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    Andy Goldsworthy grew up on the edge of Leeds, with Yorkshire’s rural fields in one direction and the city’s urban center in the other. As a teenager, he worked on local farms, which instilled an early respect for the land—and a fascination that would blossom into an interdisciplinary art practice throughout the next several decades. Based for the last forty years in Dumfriesshire in southern Scotland, the artist continues to draw inspiration from the forests, hills, and fields of this picturesque part of Britain.

    Employing a wide range of materials and settings from stones and leaves to streams and trees, the artist creates encounters that explore human interactions with the land. “The intention is…not to mimic nature but to understand it,” he told NPR in 2015. Temporary installations, typically documented after completion and then left to elements, mirror the way nature is always changing, whether going through cycles, evolving over time, or being actively transformed by human forces.

    “Edges made by finding leaves the same size. Tearing one in two. Spitting underneath and pressing flat on to another. Brough, Cumbria. Cherry patch. 4 November 1984” (1984), Cibachrome photograph

    The National Galleries of Scotland presents a new retrospective, Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years, in the Royal Scottish Academy building. Celebrating the trailblazing artist’s career, the survey features more than 200 photographs, sketchbooks, sculptures, installations, and archival items dating from some of his earliest experiments in the mid-1970s to pieces conceived for the show this year.

    Goldsworthy draws our attention to nature and the way it behaves—or doesn’t—by conjuring uncanny occurrences. A crack in fallen leaves resembles a fissure in the earth, or he highlights a hole in an elm tree by literally outlining the jagged opening in bright yellow. The artist also interacts with nature through physical participation, like climbing through a wintry hedgerow as if challenging its function as a boundary and demonstrating its possibilities as a conduit instead.

    Goldsworthy learned many of the techniques he employs in his practice through his early experiences working on farms in Yorkshire. He baled hay, prepared fields for planting through a method called harrowing, fed livestock, and piled stones. In art school, he began experimenting with photography and film to document ephemeral works he created in the landscape.

    Throughout the past five decades, Goldsworthy has established himself as a leading contemporary land artist, influenced by the work of seminal figures like Robert Smithson and Joseph Beuys and in turn influencing the work of younger artists like Jon Foreman or Laura Ellen Bacon. Goldsworthy emphasizes the beauty and nobility of working the land, not by trying to control it but by working in tandem with his surroundings and to illuminate details and patterns we might not otherwise see.

    “Elm leaves held with water to fractured bough of fallen elm. Dumfriesshire, Scotland. 29 October 2010” (2010), from ‘Fallen Elm’ (2009–ongoing), a suite of ninety archival inkjet prints

    The human relationship with the natural environment continues to be a central focus of Goldsworthy’s interventions, from a piece for which he carved up chunks of snow and hauled them across the countryside to the way he interprets the interior space of the Royal Scottish Academy building for the current exhibition. A large-scale installation called “Oak Passage,” for example, transforms a gallery into a tidy thicket with a lane through the center, presenting both a barrier and a channel, depending on how it’s approached.

    While he doesn’t generally view himself as a performer, he often portrays himself in the midst of interventions, capturing the activities in photos and film. A public context for his pieces, whether installed inside or outdoors, invites people to move around and activate the work. For this exhibition, his interactions with the historic Royal Scottish Academy building are conceived as a single work, considering the continuum of history, people, art, and the elements that have had an impact on the site over time.

    Find more on the artist’s website. Plan your visit to Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years, which continues through November 25 in Edinburgh, on the museum’s website. Head down the road to the National Museum of Scotland and keep an eye out for a small sculpture by Goldsworthy permanently marking the entrance to the atmospheric Early People display. And if you’re headed to Yorkshire, discover four permanent installations by the artist along the Andy Goldsworthy Trail.

    “Wool Runner” (2025) at the Royal Scottish Academy, National Galleries of Scotland

    “Frozen patch of snow. Each section carved with a stick. Carried about 150 paces, several broken along the way. Began to thaw as day warmed up. Helbeck, Cumbria. March 1984 (1984), Cibachrome photograph

    “Cracked Line through Leaves” (1986)

    “Hedge crawl. Dawn. Frost. Cold hands. Sinderby, England. 4 March 2014” (2014), video still

    “Wool. Hung from fallen elm. Dumfriesshire, Scotland. 6 August 2015” (2015), from ‘Fallen Elm’ (2009-ongoing) , a suite of ninety archival inkjet prints

    “Gravestones” (2025) at the Royal Scottish Academy, National Galleries of Scotland

    “Hazel stick throws. Banks, Cumbria. 10 July 1980” (1980), suite of nine black-and-white photographs

    “Rain shadow. Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland. 10 June 2024” (2024)

    “Stretched canvas on field, with mineral block removed, after a few days of sheep eating it” (1997)

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    Cosemtics and Cosmos Blend in Circe Irasema’s Wooden Sculptures

    ‘Hecha a mano’ (2024). All photos by Ramiro Chávez, courtesy of Proyectos Monclova, shared with permission

    Cosemtics and Cosmos Blend in Circe Irasema’s Wooden Sculptures

    July 25, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    “For me, painting is a question about time,” says Circe Irasema. The artist, who lives and works in Mexico City, thinks deeply about the dominance of the male gaze in Western art history and how that authority influences the technical and material qualities of the works themselves. Preserving a piece made in this tradition, her work acknowledges, necessarily means preserving all that it represents.

    As a contrast, the artist has turned to an unconventional feminized medium. Using colorful eyeshadow cakes, powder blushes, and long acrylic nails, Irasema creates “an alternative version of the history of painting. A history that tells intimate or hidden stories about the body, the feminine, the performative, metamorphosis, the fragility and transience of life, the domestic, the gaze, and beauty.”

    “Los brazos de Morfeo (from ‘Cosmic Garden’ series)” (2025), gouache, acrylic, and polished artificial nails on an anatomical wooden mannequin, two pieces of 80 x 20 x 8 centimeters each

    Combining comestics and adornments with more common materials like gouache and acrylic paint, Irasema creates vibrant anatomical models and more abstract wooden works embedded with eyeshadows. Appearing as paintings from a distance, these mixed-media works meld a traditional art form with a longstanding mode of self-expression and beautification.

    Given the delicate nature of powder compacts—a reality for anyone who’s dropped an eyeshadow palette and watched it shatter—the fragile material requires a level of care that becomes symbolic for the artist. “It stems from a popular understanding that relates to the everyday, distances itself from academia, and maintains a connection with sentimental education,” she adds. Where expression through high art has long been privileged, makeup and fashion have historically been read as shallow and even frivolous, a conception Irasema handily rejects.

    Many of the works shown here are part of a series titled Cosmic Painting, a nod to the shared etymological root of the terms cosmetics and cosmos. Translating to “order,” “the word is understood as something harmonious and beautiful,” the artist adds. “This Greek meaning represents and is the basis of the canon of beauty that emerges from geometry, the cornerstone of painting since the Renaissance. This work attempts to use these same premises to reconfigure this pictorial notion with the compact powder of makeup.”

    Irasema is currently preparing for a solo exhibition at Carrillo Gil Art Museum and creating works for Art Basel Miami. Follow her practice on Instagram.

    “Pintar II” (2024), gouache, acrylic, and polished artificial nails on an anatomical wooden mannequin, 27 x 8 x 8 centimeters

    ‘Hecha a mano’ (2024)

    “Cartografía de formas simples” (2024), eyeshadow palettes on 17 plywood assemblages, 122 x 244 x 4 centimeters

    “Flor estrella (from ‘Cosmic Garden’ series) (open)” (2024), gouache and eyeshadows inlays on veneered wood, 6 x 40 x 40 centimeters

    Installation view at Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City (2024)

    Detail of “Arcoiris (from ‘Cosmic Garden’ series)” (2024), eyeshadow palettes on tropical wood assemblage

    Installation view at Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City (2024)

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    Whittled Wood Sculptures by Brett Stenson Conjure Curiosity and Longing

    All images courtesy of Brett Stenson, shared with permission

    Whittled Wood Sculptures by Brett Stenson Conjure Curiosity and Longing

    July 24, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Kate Mothes

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    When Portland-based artist Brett Stenson was studying illustration in college, he hung out with a few industrial designers with whom he pored over how things were made. “We spent a lot of late nights watching 3D modeling tutorials, geeking out over sculpted clay figures, and rewatching the Wētā Workshop DVD about building The Lord of the Rings sets,” he tells Colossal. Stenson was especially fascinated by the world of vinyl toys and wished he knew how to make his own, even though the learning curve felt steep.

    The artist’s interests began to shift as he considered more approachable mediums to achieve what he wanted to make. “Even then, wood always felt like the material I connected with most,” he says. “I was drawn to antique and vintage objects—things that felt like they had been made by hand, with warmth and intention. Vinyl, as cool as it was, never quite resonated in the same way.”

    In 2018, Stenson signed up for a workshop at Wildcraft, a studio school based in Portland, to learn how to make Norse carved-wood Christmas ornaments. “Suddenly, I could see the endless possibilities—if I could sketch it, I could carve it,” the artist says. “The tools, the process, even the idea of becoming one of those old guys who wanders around a woodworking store all day—it all felt deeply romantic and aligned with who I wanted to grow into.”

    Stenson started with a simple knife and began whittling away at hunks of timber, only to find that he quickly needed to upgrade to better tools so that the process didn’t take forever. He also introduced clay modeling, composing animals, figures, and other objects in a more malleable material before committing to wood. Focused on whittling bears and other woodland creatures, which often carry freshly plucked fish or flowers, he emphasizes emotional perception through animals—the sweet slyness of a fox or a charming bear proud of its fresh catch.

    “Lately, my obsession with carving bears has started to shift,” Stenson says. “I find myself more interested in exploring the human side of my work.” Since the recent loss of his dog, he’s been exploring a theme that, at least at first, seems unrelated, but outdated technology like retro televisions, satellites, old computers, and disused telecom gear play into what he describes as “a kind of futile attempt to communicate with him again.” He adds that he’s interested in how there “all these tools we built to connect with one another, and yet the afterlife remains out of reach.”

    Stenson is also the Senior Art Director of Young Jerks, a branding and packaging design studio based in Brooklyn. See more work on his website and Instagram, and find screen prints for sale in his shop.

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    Five Latinx Artists Explore Materiality, Identity, and Belonging in ‘Los Encuentros’

    Facade mural by Ozzie Juarez. Photos by Alex Marks. All images courtesy of Ballroom Marfa, shared with permission

    Five Latinx Artists Explore Materiality, Identity, and Belonging in ‘Los Encuentros’

    July 23, 2025

    ArtSocial Issues

    Kate Mothes

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    Marfa sits at the crossroads of US-90 and US-67 in the expansive Chihuahua Desert of far West Texas. About 60 miles from Mexico, U.S. Border Patrol trucks are a common sight along the roads, in addition to an unmissable, otherworldly tethered surveillance blimp that hovers near the highway between the town center and one of its most iconic installations, Elmgreen & Dragset’s “Prada Marfa.”

    As the current administration’s immigration policy has taken effect, the politics of identity and geography have again been thrust front and center—often violently. In this remote borderland, where the one-stoplight-town has been redefined by influential art world personalities for several decades in an idiosyncratic convergence of ideas and lifestyles, there is a unique opportunity to engage with themes of community, narrative, socio-economic realities, and a sense of place.

    Justin Favela

    Ballroom Marfa’s summer exhibition, Los Encuentros, gathers the work of Latinx artists Justin Favela, Ozzie Juarez, Antonio Lechuga, Narsiso Martinez, and Yvette Mayorga. The gallery describes an aim of the show, the title of which translates to “the meetings” or “the gatherings,” as “the representation of Latinx culture to confront the accessibility of art spaces, colonial art histories, the conditions of labor, and lived experience.”

    Amid daily news reports of ICE raids around the nation, the work in Los Encuentros is a timely and provocative exploration of today’s societal complexities along with being a way of “responding to the experiences of the people and places they engage with and depict,” a statement says.

    All the artists employ a wide range of materials and techniques, from Mayorga’s frosting-like, piped paint to Favela’s vibrant ruffled paper installations redolent of piñatas. Lechuga uses Mexican blankets, or cobijas, creating sewn textile collages that explore a wide range of experiences and perspectives amid the current political climate.

    Martinez continues to create intimate, candid portraits of farm workers by using produce boxes, bags, and repurposed plastic as his substrates as a reminder of the often invisible labor that goes into putting food on Americans’ tables. And Juarez has completely transformed Ballroom’s facade in to a giant painting derived from ancient Mesoamerican motifs.

    Narsiso Martinez

    Los Encuentros is curated by Texas-based Maggie Adler, who expressed delight at being able to collaborate “with artists whose practices center on allowing a broad range of community members to see themselves represented in art spaces.”

    The show continues through October 12. Find more on the gallery’s website. And during open hours, keep an eye out for Rachel Hayes’ colorful patchwork flag that flies out front.

    Ozzie Juarez

    Narsiso Martinez

    Justin Favela

    Antonio Lechuga

    Detail of a work by Antonio Lechuga

    Yvette Mayorga

    Detail of a work by Yvette Mayorga

    Antonio Lechuga

    Detail of a work by Antonio Lechuga

    Narsiso Martinez

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    Six Activist Trolls Tromp Through a California Woodland to ‘Save the Humans’

    “Kamma Can: The Treasure Troll.” All images courtesy of Filoli, shared with permission

    Six Activist Trolls Tromp Through a California Woodland to ‘Save the Humans’

    July 22, 2025

    ArtNature

    Grace Ebert

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    As visitors wander through a mile-stretch of Filoli’s Natural Lands this summer, they’ll encounter a group of eager wooden characters ready to share their wisdom. Trolls: Save the Humans is a playful, yet urgent exhibition by Danish artist Thomas Dambo (previously), who’s known for creating enormous fairytale characters from reclaimed wood.

    At Filoli, Dambo has installed six creatures, each with a distinct personality and agenda. There’s the innovative “Kamma Can,” a “treasure troll” that enjoys teaching people to turn their leftover wrappers and disposable containers into vibrant creations. “Ibbi Pip: The Birdhouse Troll” is similarly concerned with transforming the environment by installing avian homes, while “Sofus Lotufs: The Listening Troll” directs our attention to the forest floor and asks us to be mindful of the changes happening all around.

    “Sofus Lotus: The Listening Troll”

    “I’m so happy my Trolls get to spend some time amongst the giant redwoods at Filoli,” Dambo says. “I spent a day hiking in the forest, and it is a magical place where I know my Trolls will feel at home.”

    Staggering in stature and inviting in presence, the characters are activists at their core and passionate about teaching sustainability. Like much of the artist’s practice, this exhibition utilizes the charm and wonder of fairytales to convey critical messages about the climate crisis and human behavior.

    Trolls continues through November 10 in Woodside, California. Follow Dambo’s passionate personalities on Instagram.

    “Ronja Redeye: The Speaker Troll”

    Detail of “Sofus Lotus: The Listening Troll”

    “Ibbi Pip: The Birdhouse Troll”

    “Basse Buller: The Painting Troll”

    “Sofus Lotus: The Listening Troll”

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    Anatomy and Ancient Sea Creatures Converge in Hiné Mizushima’s Felt Sculptures

    Group of anatomical felt brooches. All images courtesy of Hiné Mizushima, shared with permission

    Anatomy and Ancient Sea Creatures Converge in Hiné Mizushima’s Felt Sculptures

    July 22, 2025

    ArtCraftNature

    Kate Mothes

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    From the spiral shells of prehistoric ammonites to uncanny depictions of organs and fish, Hiné Mizushima has a knack for combining cuteness and humor with the unusual and unseen. The Vancouver-based artist (previously) continues to create vibrant dioramas and wall sculptures that toy with textiles, anatomy, and taxidermy.

    Using felt, sequins, embroidery thread, and yarn, Mizushima builds colorful displays of coral, animals, and botanicals. A mounted moray eel, for example, mimics a natural history display, showing a cutaway of its belly revealing a—rather lively—baby eel.

    “Squids”

    Recently, the artist also sewed a series of brooches in the form of microscopic organisms like Daphnia and Paramecium and anatomical human organs. Nerves and blood vessels extend along the root and crown of a tooth, complete with a filled cavity.

    Mizushima is currently preparing for a group show at Ranbu Gallery in Osaka this fall, plus another group exhibition at Beinart Gallery in Melbourne in early 2026. The artist looks forward to experimenting with some new craft techniques and focusing on her Etsy shop, where original pieces and prints are available for purchase. Explore more on her website, Instagram, and Behance.

    Anatomical felt brooch

    “Anatomical Moray Eel”

    Detail of “Anatomical Moray Eel”

    “Phantom Squid”

    “Ammonite”

    Anatomical felt brooch

    “Turtleback Twin Beasts”

    Anatomical felt brooch

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