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    Isabella Mellado Summons Sins and Desire in Her Tarot-Inspired Paintings

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    “Pride (Temperance).” All images courtesy of the artist and Povos, shared with permission

    Isabella Mellado Summons Sins and Desire in Her Tarot-Inspired Paintings

    August 7, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    What does it mean to sin? In mystical paintings in oil, Isabella Mellado diverges from the Catholic guilt she knows all too well to instead bask in desire and the beauty of transgressions.

    The Chicago-based, Puerto Rico-born artist is known for her magical realist works that draw on tarot and the occult to explore queer identities and Latinidad. Mellado’s most recent exhibition, 7 Pecados, presented a collection of vivid paintings that, like much of her practice, reject Christian strictures. Rather, the artist questions how we might see laziness, gluttony, and lust not as wrongs to be avoided but as empowering and essential to our humanity.

    “Sloth”

    Mellado often begins a piece by staging a photo. She and her accomplices don witchy garments and commune in bodies of water or around fires, their hands occupied with a deck of cards or a chalice. These images serve as the basis for her large-scale paintings, which render the already magical scenes in a dreamy, even mysterious light.

    Whereas Western religions like Christianity have left little room for identities and behaviors that don’t conform to their beliefs, Mellado beckons us into an alternative space where figures are free to revel in pleasure. The characters take on the role of witches and conjurers, those who remain anonymous behind their disguises yet engage resolutely in their own empowerment.

    Mellado’s previous projects include Te Dire Quien Eres, an exhibition at Povos in Chicago that took its central premise from a line in Miguel Cervantes’s Don Quijote de la Mancha: “Tell me who you surround yourself with, and I’ll tell you who you are.” The paintings reject shame around queerness and what’s often considered monstrous, instead honing in on the intimate relationships that inform one’s life and the sacred spaces offered by a coven.

    Find more from Mellado, including the original photos and resulting paintings, on her website and Instagram.

    “Lust (The Lovers)”

    “The High Priestess’

    “Two of Wands”

    “Three of Cups”

    “The Magician”

    “Gluttony (The Emperor Midas)”

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      Werner Bronkhorst’s Tiny Beachgoers and Sailors Wade Through Chunky Blue Expanses

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      Detail of “Walk On Water” (2025),
      archival pigment print on heavyweight 395gsm matte Canson Infinity PhotoArt ProCanvas, made with long-lasting Epson archival inks, 33 × 43 centimeters framed, edition of 69. All images courtesy of Dellaposa, shared with permission

      Werner Bronkhorst’s Tiny Beachgoers and Sailors Wade Through Chunky Blue Expanses

      July 23, 2025

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      In a world constrained by rising sea levels and the climate anxiety that comes with a warming planet, it’s not far-fetched to imagine a life surrounded by the blue ocean. For Werner Bronkhorst, the overwhelming nature of this potential future inspires a collection of mixed-media works that find minuscule figures amid broad expanses.

      Bronkhorst’s new body of work, Sail Away, on view at Dellaposa, visualizes solitary protagonists as they trudge to the beach or surf on a seemingly endless tide. Thick impasto strokes in varying shades of blue provide an abstract backdrop for each piece and minimize the already tiny characters. “I pour layers of gel, then wait for landscapes to emerge—mountains, waves, ice. Only then do I add the figures,” the artist shares.

      “Mockney” (2025), archival pigment print on heavyweight 395gsm canvas, hand-stretched over FSC-certified, finger-jointed New Zealand pine, and float framed in FSC-certified Meranti with a painted white finish, 33 × 43 centimeters framed, edition of 69

      Given their rare communion with other humans, Bronkhorst’s subjects also seem to embody the dissociation and disconnection of a post-digital world. Like a blip when viewed from afar, the figures emerge from their gestural environments as if in low resolution, their distinctive features impossible to discern.

      Raised in Pretoria, South Africa, Bronkhorst now lives and works in Australia. You can find more of his practice on Instagram.

      “Sail Away” (2025), archival pigment print on heavyweight 395 gsm canvas, hand-stretched over FSC-certified, finger-jointed New Zealand pine, and float framed in FSC-certified Meranti with a painted white finish, 33 × 43 centimeters framed, edition of 69

      Detail of “Sail Away” (2025), archival pigment print on heavyweight 395 gsm canvas, hand-stretched over FSC-certified, finger-jointed New Zealand pine, and float framed in FSC-certified Meranti with a painted white finish, 33 × 43 centimeters framed, edition of 69

      Detail of “Mockney” (2025), archival pigment print on heavyweight 395gsm canvas, hand-stretched over FSC-certified, finger-jointed New Zealand pine, and float framed in FSC-certified Meranti with a painted white finish, 33 × 43 centimeters framed, edition of 69

      Detail of “Blue Water High” (2025), archival pigment print on heavyweight 395gsm matte Canson Infinity PhotoArt ProCanvas, made with long-lasting Epson archival inks, 100× 100 centimeters framed, edition of 69

      “Blue Water High” (2025), archival pigment print on heavyweight 395gsm matte Canson Infinity PhotoArt ProCanvas, made with long-lasting Epson archival inks, 100× 100 centimeters framed, edition of 69

      “Diamond Sea” (2025), archival pigment print on heavyweight 395gsm matte Canson Infinity PhotoArt ProCanvas, made with long-lasting Epson archival inks, hand-stretched over FSC-certified, finger-jointed New Zealand pine, and float framed in FSC-certified Meranti with a painted white finish, signed by the artist, 100× 100 centimeters framed, edition of 69

      “Walk On Water” (2025), archival pigment print on heavyweight 395gsm matte Canson Infinity PhotoArt ProCanvas, made with long-lasting Epson archival inks, 33 × 43 centimeters framed, edition of 69

      Detail of “Diamond Sea” (2025), archival pigment print on heavyweight 395gsm matte Canson Infinity PhotoArt ProCanvas, made with long-lasting Epson archival inks, hand-stretched over FSC-certified, finger-jointed New Zealand pine, and float framed in FSC-certified Meranti with a painted white finish, signed by the artist, 100× 100 centimeters framed, edition of 69

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    • 150 Shares189 Views

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

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      “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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    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Art

      On Vintage Objects, David Cass’s Paintings Summon the Sea

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      Work in progress for ‘Where Once the Waters.’ All images © David Cass, shared with permission

      On Vintage Objects, David Cass’s Paintings Summon the Sea

      September 5, 2024

      Art Climate

      Kate Mothes

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      For David Cass, the sea offers an endless source of wonder at its depths, history, bounty, and sometimes ferocity. Based between the Scottish Borders and Athens, the artist (previously) has long been fascinated by the power of water, especially its increasing vulnerability to the effects of the climate crisis.

      On found objects like tins and matchboxes to book pages and antique pulleys, Cass repeats motifs of waves and distant marine horizons in oil and gouache. In Light on Water, his current solo exhibition at The Scottish Gallery, the artist continues to address the warming and rapid rising of ocean levels around the world through paintings that hover between abstraction and representation.

      “Reach” (2022-23), oil and oil bar on primed bus blind on board, 75 x 75 centimeters

      While creating much of the work for the show at his studio in Greece, Cass considered the landscape outside—its islands and peninsulas encompassed by water. He observed how the rippling surface can transform its appearance moment by moment due to the weather or time of day. Although “a threat rests behind this mesmeric picture,” he says in a statement. “In this exhibition, light also represents heat.”

      Cass draws attention to estimates that 91 percent of Earth’s excess heat energy trapped in the climate system is stored by our oceans. As the planet continues to warm, this storage capability disappears, threatening all manner of life.

      The artist calls on a time before we were aware of climate change, evoking the Industrial Age—incidentally, the dawn of greenhouse gases—in a series of oil paintings titled 500 Years that subtly nod to the Old Masters.

      Light on Water continues through September 28 in Edinburgh. Find more on Cass’s website and Instagram.

      “September 2020 – April 2024, Norfolk” (2020-24), gouache on c.18th-century solid oak plank door, 77 x 196 x 4 centimeters

      “October 2017,” gouache on card

      “Pulley I – Rockport, ME” (2023-24), oil on marine pulley, 23 x 11.5 x 8 centimeters

      “500 Years (after Van Eertvelt) II” (2023-24), oil and pencil on gessoed chest panel, 22 x 29 centimeters

      “September 2020 – April 2024, Norfolk” (2020-24), gouache on c.18th-century solid oak plank door, 77 x 196 x 4 centimeters

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