Category: art
Creativity, design, culture, inspiration
-
A View From the Easel
Welcome to the 320th installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists find sanctuary in a studio blanketed with yarn and use their bodies as a canvas. Want to take part? Check out oursubmission guidelinesand share a bit about your studio with us throughthis read more
Written by
-
Michelangelo Made His First Masterpiece When He Was 12 Years Old
Before he was a titan of Renaissance art history, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) was a 12-year-old, although his childhood looked quite a bit different from what we associate with that age today. Already deeply invested in drawing and painting, he studied others’ work, such as an engraving titled “Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons,” created by 15th-century read more
Written by
-
A Short Documentary Celebrates the Community that Rallied Around 'Rick on the Roof'
Two decades ago, a man named Rick Canty lost his mother and was shortly thereafter evicted from their home in Barry, Wales, due to bankruptcy charges he vehemently claimed were fraudulent. In protest against being forced to move, he climbed on top of the house and settled into a new routine on the rooftop, not read more
Written by
-
Christina Sharpe's Appeal to South Africa
Daily Newsletter A call to reinstate Gabrielle Goliath’s Venice Biennale pavilion, Ana Mendieta’s earthworks, and the California College of the Arts is no more. How could the same government that brought Israel in frontof the International Court of Justiceto answer for its war crimes in Gaza also censor an artist’s performance about Palestinian grief? The read more
Written by
-
Uncanny Personalities Appear from Nature in Malene Hartmann Rasmussen's Ceramics
In her uncanny visages and sculptures, Malene Hartmann Rasmussen taps the ceramic medium as a form of make-believe. Surreal folkloric creatures take on absurd, sometimes cartoonish personalities, assembled from disparate plants and critters or reflecting characterful, mask-like qualities. In Rasmussen’s playfully monstrous “Egg-head,” for example, silly antics are equally unsettling—what’s in its mouth? Where is read more
Written by
-
'Making the Invisible Visible' Highlights an Ambitious Digitization Project at Harvard
In museums everywhere, collections departments are troves of historical objects, art, cultural artifacts, and scientific specimens. In our increasingly digital age, it’s easy to forget that in many cases, a good amount—sometimes even the majority—of records are documented in heavy, physical catalogues or accession registers. And over the course of decades or even centuries, labels read more
Written by
-
Rep Your Love for Independent Arts Publishing
Our new line of Colossal merchandise is finally hitting the (digital) shelves in the Colossal Shop. We’re big fans of repping publications that inspire us, and we’re excited to finally offer our own goods to this special community of readers. Hats and mugs are now available, and all proceeds directly support our ongoing commitment to read more
Written by
-
One Second After: The Art of Lola Dupre – Hi-Fructose Magazine
Born in Algeria, Dupre grew up in Paris, London, and Glasgow, with much of her limited, formal education completed in the confines of several scattered schools. A self-described “hell-raising-know-it-all” in her youth, she spent time traveling across Europe, indulging in a transient lifestyle she seemed well suited for, which came with its own set of read more
Written by
-
Helena Minginowicz Paints Personal Works Utilizing & Depicting Disposable Materials – Hi-Fructose Magazine
Looking at Minginowicz’s paintings of human faces on bird heads, cute kitten pillows, and horses with manga tears, leaves the observer feeling like they’re watching a friend’s text thread superimposed onto a gallery wall, but, to the artist, that’s just a byproduct of observing life, these days. “We can’t escape the language of the internet; read more
Written by
-
Laurie Lee Brom Paints Beautifully Dreary Window Portraits – Hi-Fructose Magazine
Brom notes that she previously had painted portraits of women standing at windows—notably in her nod to Wuthering Heights in “Cathy’s Ghost at Heathcliff’s Window.” These paintings draw from Victorian and Edwardian imagery. “I felt like I had explored that, and that was more expected of me,” she says. In the midst of a long read more
Written by
-
Art-World Giants We Lost in 2025
As the year winds to an end, we cannot move forward without remembering who we’ve lost. David Lynch, a filmmaker so revolutionary that his style became a new standard. Frank Gehry, the sculptor of skylines. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, the multi-hyphenate force of Indigenous aesthetics. Alonzo Davis, who was one of the first Black gallerists in read more
Written by
-
Architect David Adjaye Speaks Out Against Sexual Misconduct Allegations
In some of his first public comments after being accused of sexual misconduct in 2023, David Adjaye lambasted the Financial Times story that detailed the allegations, calling it “deeply unfair”. Adding, “There was just an interest in just destroying me, and I got caught in a sort of version of the #MeToo slam.” As reported read more
Written by
-
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Critic Christopher Knight Retires from the Los Angeles Times
Renowned critic and commentator Christopher Knight is retiring after writing about art for some 45 years, including 36 years at the Los Angeles Times. Knight is among the few remaining full-time critics at magazines and newspapers. Friday is his final day. “It’s impossible to overstate the loss Knight’s departure represents for the paper and Los read more
Written by
-
The Detroit Museum of Arts Confronts Art History While Shaping Its Future
“We have not yet begun to utilize the museum as an instrument of cultural education.” Those words, from Alain Locke’s 1925 essay “The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts,” carry visitors through a set of newly installed permanent collection galleries at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). When he penned that text a century ago, Locke, read more
Written by
-
Immerse Yourself in the Creative Culture of Peru's Sacred Valley with Murmur Ring's Unique Program
Experience design firm Murmur Ring, in partnership with Empathy and the Institute of Design, invites artists, designers, makers, and creatives of all kinds to join the Reclaiming Value: Sacred Valley Design Immersion from June 15 to 19, 2026, in Peru’s Sacred Valley. The Colossal team previously joined Murmur Ring for a transformative week-long immersion in read more
Written by
-
The Colossal Shop’s 2025 Gift Guide: Gift Like an Artist
The end of the year is quickly approaching and so is the season of giving. By choosing to shop with us this year, you’re supporting independent publishing and allowing us continue to share important stories every day. This year’sColossal Gift Guide highlights some of our favorite art and design products. From world-renowned artist tools and read more
Written by
-
Who is Alma Allen, Trump’s Pick to Represent the US at the Venice Biennale?
Following a fraught selection cycle, the US Department of State on Monday confirmed that Utah-born, Mexico-based sculptor Alma Allen will represent the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale. The prestigious exhibition opens next May, when scores of curators, collectors, and journalists descend on the lagoon city to judge not only the quality of art read more
Written by
-
Mexico City’s Museo Jumex to Stage ‘Football & Art’ Exhibition During World Cup
The Museo Jumex, a private museum in Mexico City established by top collector Eugenio López Alonso in 2013, hopes to score a golazo with one of its exhibitions next year, timed to the upcoming FIFA World Cup. “Fútbol y Arte. Esa misma emoción”(Football & Art. A Shared Emotion) will open at the museum’s David Chipperfield–designed read more
Written by
-
Bottle of Dom Perignon from King Charles III and Princess Diana’s Wedding Comes to Auction
A once-in-a-lifetime bottle of champagne from the 1981 marriage of King Charles III (at the time the Prince of Wales) to Lady Diana Spencer will hit the auction block at Bruun Rasmussen on December 11. The pair wed on July 29, 1981, in a ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, which was followed by read more
Written by
-
A Sculpture Made of Tens of Thousands of Aluminum Facets Writhes in a Knoxville Park
A vibrant new pavilion rises to meet the square’s picturesque trees in Cradle of Country Music Park in Knoxville, Tennessee, connecting the city’s Old Town and its theater district. Made from tens of thousands of individual pieces of painted aluminum, the vivid “Pier 865” provides both a resting place and a vantage point in a read more
Written by
