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      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 Shares129 Views

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      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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    • 138 Shares169 Views

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

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      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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      Architecture Converges with the Human Form in Antony Gormley’s ‘Body Buildings’

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      “Resting Place II” (2024) terracotta, 132 figures, dimensions variable. All images of ‘Body Buildings’ at Galleria Continua, Beijing, China 2024–25. Photos by Huang Shaoli. All images courtesy of the artist and Skira, shared with permission

      Architecture Converges with the Human Form in Antony Gormley’s ‘Body Buildings’

      August 21, 2025

      ArtBooks

      Kate Mothes

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      In Edinburgh, along a stream known as the Water of Leith, six bronze figures known as “6 TIMES” stand amid the current and beside bridges, peering enigmatically down the urban waterway. Similarly, in Liverpool, “Another Place” comprises 100 life-size sculptures made from 17 molds that artist Antony Gormley (previously) took from his own body, installed permanently along Crosby Beach. In fact, the artist has dozens of permanent installations throughout the U.K. and all over the world, the majority of which interact with shorelines, parkland, and historic sites.

      Gormley has long been fascinated by the relationship between humans, landscape, and the built environment. While many of his figurative sculptures retain natural, muscular curvatures and a true-to-life scale, he also ventures into abstract territory, incorporating cubist and brutalist elements into geometric, three-dimensional forms. In spite of their blockiness, which we associate with built structures of rigid materials like concrete and steel, his pieces are anything but soulless.

      “Resting Place II”

      Gormley’s recent solo exhibition, Body Buildings at Galleria Continua in Beijing, ran from November 2024 and April 2025 and forms the basis of a new monograph of the same title. Forthcoming from SKIRA, the volume is slated for release on October 7.

      Using terracotta clay and iron for pieces like “Resting Place II” and “Buttress,” Gormley taps into materials often found in construction in the form of bricks or angular frameworks. He describes his approach as a means “to think and feel the body in this condition.” Whether arranged on the floor in various positions or leaning against walls, his figures are simultaneously independent of the architecture and indelibly connected to it. “Buttress,” for example, prompts us to inquire whether the wall is holding up the person or the other way around.

      New scholarship published in Body Buildings by Hou Hanru and Stephen Greenblatt explores Gormley’s engagement with China over the course of the past three decades. And a photo essay by the artist traces his interactions with the region, sharing never-before-seen archival photographs that document a 1995 research trip, where he visited the phenomenal army of terracotta warriors in Qin Shi Huang’s tomb in Xi’an.

      Pre-order your copy of Body Buildings on Bookshop, and explore more of Gormley’s work on his website.

      “Buttress” (2023), cast iron, 176.8 x 54.5 x 67.2 centimeters

      Detail of “Resting Place II”

      “Shame” (2023), cast iron, 161.7 x 59 x 42.9 centimeters

      Detail of “Resting Place II”

      Detail of “Resting Place II”

      Detail of “Resting Place II”

      “Circuit” (2022), cast iron, 29.3 x 201.3 x 122.4 centimeters

      Installation view of Detail of “Resting Place II”

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      In Milwaukee, Four Artists Unravel Trauma to Move Toward Collective Wellness

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      Swoon, “Medea” (2017), wood, hand cut paper, laser cut paper, linoleum block print on paper, acrylic gouache, cardboard, lighting elements

      In Milwaukee, Four Artists Unravel Trauma to Move Toward Collective Wellness

      August 21, 2025

      ArtColossalSocial Issues

      Grace Ebert

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      In a world riddled with injustice and predicated on privilege for the few at the expense of the many, what does it mean to be well? An exhibition opening Friday at the Haggerty Museum of Art in Milwaukee considers the effects of concealed trauma and the inextricable ties between personal health and collective wellness.

      No One Knows All It Takes invites four artists—Bryana Bibbs, Raoul Deal, Maria Gaspar, and Swoon (previously)—who utilize art-making to grapple with complex emotions, imagine solutions to widespread problems, and share their stories and those of others. The timely exhibition, curated by Colossal, brings forth pressing issues like addiction, incarceration, immigration, and a lack of support for caregivers, conveyed through visually arresting works across media.

      Bryana Bibbs, “1.25.24-1.26.24” (2024), handwoven Papa George hospital blanket, Papa George playing cards, gifted pants, 11.5 x 14.5 inches

      No One Knows All It Takes opens with portraits by Deal, intimate renderings made through hours of conversations with the subjects. Paired with his wooden sculptures, the elaborate carvings explore the central role of immigration in American history and culture. Bibbs’ weavings and monotype prints—created while she cared for her dying grandparents with many of their belongings— follow as a sort of ghostly archive of what remains after death.

      Swoon’s “Medea” fills the fourth gallery space, a deeply personal installation that the artist made, in part, to confront her mother’s lifelong struggle with addiction and mental illness. An exposed tarantula mother, portraits of Swoon’s own family, wooden windows, and audio elements layer personal artifacts with recurring motifs about intergenerational trauma.

      The Wisconsin iteration of Gaspar’s Disappearance Jail series tucks into a smaller, more confined space at the end of the exhibition. Featuring images of 113 prisons, jails, and juvenile and immigrant detention facilities throughout the state, the project invites visitors to use hole punches to literally remove and obscure the carceral spaces. Because incarceration has historically been the only manner in which society addresses harm and trauma, Gaspar’s work tasks each person with the abolitionist exercise of imagining other possibilities.

      Raoul Deal, “Trenzas” (2023), woodcut with deckled edge, 28 x 42 inches

      The title, No One Knows All It Takes, came from a conversation with Bibbs, in which she described the emotional, mental, and physical toll of caring for her grandparents in their final months. Referencing the intersecting and multilayered effects of trauma, the phrase is also multivalent: it invokes the immense amount of energy needed to function while ill, the wide-reaching impacts of trauma on an individual’s life, and the social, political, and cultural costs of unaddressed issues.

      No One Knows All It Takes will be on view from August 22 to December 20. The Haggerty Museum of Art is located at Marquette University in Milwaukee.

      Maria Gaspar, Disappearance Jail series (detail), (2021-ongoing), hundreds of perforated archival Inkjet prints on rice paper, 5 x 7 inches each

      Raoul Deal, “Immigration Series #8” (2013), woodcut, 40 x 26 1/4 inches

      Swoon, “Medea” (2017), wood, hand cut paper, laser cut paper, linoleum block print on paper, acrylic gouache, cardboard, lighting elements

      Bryana Bibbs, “12.27.23” (2023), handwoven Papa George casino playing cards, Papa George hospital blanket, 14 x 9.25 inches

      Bryana Bibbs, “8.26.24” (2024), handwoven Papa George athletic tee, Papa George gifted pajama pants, Mema decor flowers, 25 x 9 inches

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    • 163 Shares159 Views

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      Junk Mail and Found Papers Undulate in Agate-Like Wall Sculptures by Jessica Drenk

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      Detail of “Slice 3” (2025), junk mail and plaster, 54 x 79 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Galleri Urbane, shared with permission

      Junk Mail and Found Papers Undulate in Agate-Like Wall Sculptures by Jessica Drenk

      August 20, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      If you’ve ever studied the rainbow-like mineral rings of petrified wood or observed light filter through the striations of a slice of agate, you’ll understand Jessica Drenk’s fascination with geology. The New York-based artist upcycles objects like junk mail and pencils to create elaborately layered, sculptural pieces evoking banded crystals and colorful sedimentary stone.

      Drenk’s forthcoming solo exhibition, Elemental Form at Galleri Urbane, continues to plumb the relationship between ephemerality and eternity. The gallery says, “Building in layers, Drenk renders erosion, sedimentation, and crystallization human-made.”

      “Agate 3” (2025, junk mail and used paper, 57 x 79 inches

      Many of Drenk’s wall pieces are made solely of paper, while some new pieces, like the Slice series, incorporate plaster. Redolent of the way marble is sliced from quarries in neat slabs, “Aggregate Triptych” or “Flow” look as though they have been hewn directly from some much more expansive deposit. Panning out, we might see streams and oxbows amid a vast natural landscape.

      Drenk emphasizes flow in the sense that earth, water, and our perception of time can be fluid, as can be the nature of art-making itself. Creatives often strive for moments in which they experience being in “a state of flow.” From the perspective of both making the work and the way it is viewed, the artist describes this guiding ethos as “an aqueous sensibility.”

      Elemental Form runs from September 6 through November 8 in Dallas. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

      “Aggregate Triptych 4” (2025), junk mail and used paper, 42 x 88 inches

      “Agate 2” (2025), junk mail and used paper, 66 x 44 inches

      Detail of “Agate 2”

      “Slice 2” (2025), junk mail and plaster, 66 x 64 inches

      “Aggregate Strata 3” (2025), junk mail and used paper, 75.5 x 81.5 inches

      “Agate 1” (2025), junk mail and used paper, 50 x 78 inches

      Detail of “Slice 2”

      “Slice 3” (2025), junk mail and plaster, 54 x 79 inches

      “Flow 1” (2025), junk mail and used paper, 74 x 56 inches

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      Steve Keister Conjures Mythological Creatures from Clay, Wood, and Cardboard

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      “Moondog” (2024), glazed ceramic and acrylic on wood, 16.5 x 11.5 x 28.5 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Derek Eller Gallery, shared with permission

      Steve Keister Conjures Mythological Creatures from Clay, Wood, and Cardboard

      August 19, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      From glazed ceramic, coated cardboard, wood, and acrylic paint, Steve Keister summons mythical beings and enigmatic animal-human hybrids. The artist’s current exhibition, Split Level at Derek Eller Gallery, is a survey of work made during the past eight years, glimpsing the artist’s ongoing exploration of Pre-Columbian art and architecture.

      Keister’s mixed-media sculptures initially emerged from experiments with salvaged styrofoam and cardboard packing cartons, which evoked the bold, blocky forms of Mesoamerican architecture like Aztec stone carvings and Mayan step pyramids.

      “Leaf-Nose Bat” (2025), glazed ceramic and acrylic on wood, 23 x 33 x 6.5 inches

      Through ongoing series like Bio Meso, Batz, and Masked Figures, Keister merges painting, sculpture, and craft techniques into three-dimensional portrayals of what the gallery describes as “bespoke deities that pay homage to Pre-Columbian myth.” Some creatures, like “Xoloitzcuintle,” represent real animals—in this case, a species of hairless dog.

      Hybrid creatures like “Standing Bat II” and “Coyote Man” tap into oral histories and belief systems that span North America. Bats are historically emblematic of the boundary between life and death. And Coyote, a potent character in the folklore of numerous Indigenous North American peoples, is variously a magician, creator, glutton, and trickster.

      Keister’s compositions range from wall reliefs to freestanding, monument-like sculptures to sprawling floor pieces. “At the core of his ethos is a profound interest in human and animal consciousness,” the gallery says. “Keister extrapolates his subjects from Central American mythology to develop a complex ecosystem of mystical fauna.”

      Split Level continues through August 22 in New York City. Explore more on the artist’s website.

      “Coyote Man” (2025), glazed ceramic and acrylic on wood, cement, 66 x 16.5 x 17.5 inches

      “Xoloitzcuintle” (2025), glazed ceramic and acrylic on wood with found object, 25 x 20 x 33 inches

      “Red Tabby” (2024), glazed ceramic and acrylic on wood, 11 x 14 x 3.5 inches

      “Cosmic Crocodile” (2017), coated cardboard, glazed ceramic, cement and acrylic on wood, 5 x 32 x 55 inches

      “Contrapposto” (2024), glazed ceramic and acrylic on wood, 30 x 24 x 4 inches

      “Standing Bat II” (2022), glazed ceramic and acrylic on wood, cement, 65 x 48 x 12 inches

      “Mictlantecuhtli” (2017), coated cardboard and acrylic on masonite on wood, 37.25 x 41 x 6.25 inches

      “Lateral Bat” (2024), glazed ceramic and acrylic on wood, 40.25 x 24 x 4.25 inches

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    • 113 Shares99 Views

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      In ‘JUJU’s Castle,’ Jean Jullien Reinvents His Childhood Escapes

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      All images © Jean Jullien, courtesy of Nanzuka Art Institute, shared with permission

      In ‘JUJU’s Castle,’ Jean Jullien Reinvents His Childhood Escapes

      August 15, 2025

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      As a child, Jean Jullien (previously) preferred to spend his time immersed in the pixelated worlds of video games, embarking on adventures with action figures, and reinventing himself in RPGs. Imagining a universe parallel to his own offered a joyful refuge when he needed it most.

      Jullien summons this memory for JUJU’s Castle, an enormous, multi-gallery exhibition that invites viewers into the artist’s youthful fantasyland. Rendered in his signature flat, two-dimensional style, monsters, wizards, menacing mushroom creatures, knights, and friendly faces stand ready for play. From tile-esque floors to brightly painted walls to fiery lights lining dungeon walkways, each detail captures Jullien’s exuberant and witty aesthetic. “Years later, as the world seems more and more dire, I’ve decided to visit Juju’s castle once more and to open its doors to the public,” he says.

      Eighty small paintings accompany the larger installations and sculptures and are vignettes of make-believe and amusement. There are games of chess, hand-made masks and costumes, and even an elephant slide like those found on the playgrounds of Taiwan.

      Although his works often appear lighthearted, Jullien frequently responds to some of today’s most pressing issues, including capitalism’s grip on society and the all-too-relatable feelings of existential dread. JUJU’s Castle is another response to contemporary life. He says:

      With constant news of war, global warming, pandemics, and dystopic technological advancements, it seems like our daily lives have become more and more anxiogenic. But there is resistance in the form of escapism, and people have resorted to it in many ways. From video games to role playing games, cosplays, niche literatures, and online communities, people have found means to deviate from the harsh reality.

      If you’re in Shanghai, visit Nanzuka Art Institute before October 26 to immerse yourself in Jullien’s world. Otherwise, explore more of his work on his website and Instagram.

      “Toshima Playground” (2025), acrylic gouache on canvas, 35.5 x 47.7 x 3.3 centimeters

      “Masks” (2025), acrylic gouache on canvas, 35.5 x 47.7 x 3.3 centimeters

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