“The world I build has no constraint, no logic. Everything is possible,” says Pontiroli. “My objective is to shake our imagination by developing a universe based on the absurd and the senseless.” Read the full article on the artist by clicking above!
The post Sometimes You Just Have To Hug That Walrus: The Humorously Surreal Paintings of Bruno Pontiroli Twist Our Relationship with the Animal World first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

In a recalibrating market, auction houses carefully balance much-needed fee revenue with compelling deals for both buyers and sellers

In the lobby of the Bronx Museum of the Arts, right before the entrance to Forms of Connection, the seventh edition of the institution’s biennial exhibition, there’s a clutch of three men facing each other, engaged in animated conversation. They don’t move or shift their focus when I approach. They won’t, because they’re life-size figures made of papier-mache, foam, and acrylic paint made by Piero Penizzotto to represent what the show’s curators describe as “people he interacts with in everyday life.” I also see people like these men — all wearing a version of the urban youth uniform of sneakers, jeans, a hoodie, backpack, and baseball cap — daily. Penizzotto’s “Big Brother Obii Knows...

Police in Queensland, Australia, have arrested a man suspected of stealing precious Egyptian artifacts from a museum outside of Brisbane. According to local reports, the 52-year-old man was arrested Saturday on Russell Island in Moreton Bay after police discovered part of the stolen haul in a camper van parked at a ferry terminal. Among the recovered items was a 2,600-year-old wooden cat figure from Egypt’s 26th Dynasty, the last dynasty ruled by a native Egyptian pharaoh before the Persian conquest. Police apprehended the suspect within two days and returned most of the artifacts to the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology in Caboolture. Authorities said he entered through a smashed window facing its...

Comparing the Trump administration’s efforts to control historical documentation to George Orwell’s 1984, a federal judge ordered the return of displays that acknowledge George Washington’s ownership of enslaved people to a monument in Philadelphia. Last month, the National Park Service removed the signs from the President’s House Site, the presidential residence for Washington and John Adams before the completion of the White House. The President’s House Site is part of the Independence National Historical Park, which is managed by the NPS. The removed exhibit described “the local history of slavery and commemorating the nine enslaved people Washington kept there while he was president,”...

Anne-Claire Legendre, a senior diplomat and one of French President Emmanuel Macron’s closest advisers on North Africa and the Middle East, has been chosen to lead the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, according to Le Monde, marking a turning point for the institution after weeks of turmoil. Legendre, 46, was selected by the institute’s board on Tuesday morning. Her appointment is expected to be ratified by the high council made up of representatives from the 22 member states of the Arab League. If confirmed, she will become the first woman to head the institute in its 40-year history. She steps into the role following the abrupt resignation of Jack Lang earlier this month after renewed scrutiny over...

Earlier this month, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá announced on Instagram that it had terminated its contract with longtime artistic director Eugenio Viola. Now, Viola is claiming that the board of directors did so after he raised concerns with working conditions at the museum. In a statement to the Art Newspaper, Viola, who began serving as artistic director in 2019, said, “The board of directors ended my contract early, not due to any artistic or leadership deficiencies. My departure followed my decision to raise concerns with the board in September 2025 regarding the progressive deterioration of working conditions—concerns shared by several team members. Instead of conducting an internal review,...

Anne-Claire Legendre comes to the role after ex-culture minister Jack Lang resigned over links to Jeffrey Epstein

Members of the faculty of College of Visual Arts and Design (CVAD) at the University of North Texas (UNT) released an open letter on Friday objecting to the cancelation of a solo exhibition of artist Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez. In the letter, which was addressed to the “Office of the President and University Leadership, University of North Texas,” the faculty said that they “strongly object to the abrupt and unexplained cancellation” of Quiñonez’s exhibition, adding, “The removal of legally protected artistic expression from a university gallery contradicts the institution’s own commitments to academic freedom, constitutional principles, and the open exchange of ideas fundamental to higher...

a restomod based on the Volvo P1800ES shooting brake
 
Autoforma has revealed the Norrsken, a restomod based on the Volvo P1800ES shooting brake. The project originates from the design studio of Niels van Roij and is developed in collaboration with Volvo Lotte. Its foundation is the glass-tailed P1800ES produced in the early 1970s, a car remembered for its clean proportions and restrained surfacing. Here, the familiar silhouette remains intact while surface tension, stance, and detailing are recalibrated to contemporary standards.
 
The original Volvo P1800ES carries a distinctive visual rhythm, with an elongated hood, a gently tapering roofline, and the frameless rear glass panel that reads as a single...

Maurenn Paley have announced the representation of the artist Mary Stephenson. Mary Stephenson (b. 1989 London, UK) lives and works in... Read More

In March, White Cube marks 30 years of collaboration with Sarah Morris

KINGSTON, NY — Being really, really good at something is a double-edged sword: People will forever judge everything you do by the standard of what you’re best at. The writer and poet Ocean Vuong, for instance, is the sort of person one could reasonably describe in a press release as “one of the defining voices of his generation” without raising any eyebrows. It’s not surprising, then, that when Vuong publicly revealed that he’s a photographer, too, he soon landed a solo exhibition at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, the Hudson Valley photo mecca now housed in a lovingly restored four-story factory building. Without having seen the show, one might assume that Vuong’s photography is the...

Whenever you’re creating a graphic for a historical or older subject, or just want to reflect the idea of it... Read More

Eugenio Viola will leave the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (MAMBO) in May after seven years in the dual roles of artistic director and chief curator. The museum announced the news on its social channels on February 6, praising his “avant-garde and professional vision” and saying his departure followed a “comprehensive and ongoing review […]

At David Zwirner (Chelsea location), The Last Dyes explores William Eggleston’s last analogue run of photographs from the 1970s. There’s... Read More

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At the most recent edition of Art Genève, luxury watchmaker Piaget was everywhere:

Marina Rebeka comes tantalizingly close to triumph in Cherubini’s Médée at Théâtre des Champs Elysées.

For all of the “progress” associated with advancing technologies and the purported conveniences of having tiny, powerful computers at our fingertips, there are certainly some drawbacks. Smartphones today—and their millions of apps—are data-collecting devices as much as they are portals to search engines, maps, social media, the news, and anything else on the internet. And the market for regular hardware upgrades and software updates can trap us in a perpetual loop, spending big money for faster speeds and the newest features. There’s certainly some merit in phones and gear that are a bit “less smart.” Just as the Luddite Club, members of which prefer to switch off or use “dumb phones,” citing...

Saltzman’s departure caps a turbulent time for the London institution

Challenges loom but artist royalties on secondary sales now apply in 90 countries

Documentary photography began to be used as social reform evidence in the 19th century, with early practitioners using the camera to record social conditions and urban poverty. This was truly solidified in the 1930s, when the Great Depression in the USA saw figures like Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans turn the lens on human dignity within the economic crisis, whilst later war photography from Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson brought global conflicts to home audiences. Since the dawn of the medium, the camera has gone hand-in-hand with social activism and consciousness. These five exhibitions foreground the masters of the craft, from those like Brassaï and Helen Levitt, who pioneered the field during the...

Artists face months of waiting and uncertainty around eligibility before they may receive payments

In 2026, the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago marks its 50th anniversary, a milestone that prompts reflection on photography’s shifting status within the cultural landscape. Founded in 1976 and initiating its collection in 1979, the museum has amassed more than 18,000 objects by over 2,000 artists, forming a collection that charts half a century of aesthetic, political and technological change. The anniversary exhibition MoCP at Fifty: Collecting Through the Decades functions as both a celebratory gesture and a critical enquiry into how institutions shape photographic history. It offers an opportunity to look back at the museum’s evolving priorities and consider how these...

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Nábito architects restore fisherman’s house with lava stone 
 
Villa Lava is a private residence located in Santa Tecla, in the province of Acireale, on the eastern coast of Sicily. The project is a unique architectural blend of two houses in one single villa. On one side stands an old fisherman’s house dating from around 1900, completely restored by Nábito Architects, maintaining its essential character and carefully uncovering and preserving the original lava stone vaults. On the other side, the restored house connects to a contemporary extension that opens toward the sea, designed to blend seamlessly with the surrounding landscape of coastal lava stone, local vegetation and the ever-present...

It was many decades ago that I first listened to the Solti Ring Cycle.

Wall labels are not always the first thing that grabs my attention when I’m in a museum: there’s the art surrounding me, the commotion and conversation in the galleries. But I do take notice when I feel like they’re communicating with me — and when they’re not. Wall texts aren’t just for listing who made an artwork; they’re one of the most direct ways that institutions can connect with visitors. So on those rare occasions when they speak to me clearly and graciously, without telling me what to think, but rather inviting me to ruminate on the art, I feel welcomed into the museum. In an illuminating essay below, art critic Aruna D’Souza reflects on what makes a good wall label and why getting...

eco poker chips made from recycled plastic
 
Recycledin introduces a series of eco poker chips made from recycled plastic populating the seas, landfills, and beaches around the Mediterranean. Around 2.5 kilos of collected plastic make up a set, and the material is cleaned and melted before being molded into eco poker chips. By using plastic that would otherwise pollute nature, the set reduces waste and prevents plastic from harming marine life, and the company believes it is one of the first poker sets in the world made entirely from recycled plastic.
 
The design of the set is similar to standard casino poker chips, with each set including 300 chips in five different colors, all the same size as...

benedetta tagliabue EMBT’s square renewal in shanghai
 
In the heart of Shanghai, along the most iconic pedestrian corridor of the city, Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT completes the renewal of Century Square on East Nanjing Road (find designboom’s previous coverage here). The architects reimagine this civic and commercial landmark as an ecological and interactive public space, anchored by a central kaleidoscopic structure that reframes the cityscape. Long associated with large-scale events and luminous commercial displays, the square operates as a green urban living room that links People’s Square to The Bund, a protected historical district, while foregrounding climate responsiveness and public...

CORNCRETL: A Bio-Based Construction Material from Corn Waste
 
MANUFACTURA developed CORNCRETL as a bio-based construction material that combines corn byproducts, recycled nejayote, and lime-based aggregates to reduce carbon emissions and introduce circular economy principles into the building industry.
 
Mexico’s construction sector faces significant environmental and social challenges. The widespread use of carbon-intensive materials has positioned the industry as a major contributor to national CO₂ emissions. At the same time, construction labor conditions remain unstable, with limited access to technical training and high occupational risk. CORNCRETL, developed by MANUFACTURA, proposes a circular...

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In November 2025, Mental Health UK reported that more than one in three adults were using an AI chatbot to support their mental health or wellbeing. There were many reasons why: these tools fill gaps in overstretched systems, provide ease of access and anonymity. Yet further studies point to a darker side, revealing the potential for harmful advice and, ultimately, worse outcomes. Then there’s the issue of “sycophancy” – where researchers warn of chatbots’ tendency to flatter, reinforce bias, and bend the truth. What remains less examined, however, is not whether these systems can genuinely “feel,” but why humans continue to engage with them emotionally, even in the full knowledge that they are...

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A Parigi, presso lo spazio espositivo Parliament Gallery, figure e immagini si dissolvono e sfumano senza scomparire. Tramite il colore a olio e diversi altri media l’artista Helmut Stallaerts crea una rappresentazione visiva che interpreta il nostro tempo. Lo spazio è qualcosa che viene meno, si dilata e si assottiglia, è una variabile. Ciò che rimane è la nostra presenza, che perdura anche senza il riferimento tangibile della nostra figura aprendosi alla rappresentazione più intima e profonda di noi stessi.
Helmut Stallaerts, “The Return”, 2025, olio e cera su tela, courtesy Parliament Gallery
La tecnologia adatta, connette e manipola l’uomo, creando una struttura comunicativa che lo estrania...

In 2024, I made a vow to never base my art criticism on wall labels. My decision came after reading reactions to that year’s Whitney Biennial. “If every label in ‘Even Better Than the Real Thing,’ the 81st installment of the Whitney Biennial, were peeled off the walls and tossed into the Hudson, what would happen?” asked Jackson Arn in the New Yorker. (He went on to suggest that the overall show would have been much better.) Travis Diehl, writing for the New York Times, noted that the labels, which attempted to “help viewers orient themselves according to the works’ intentions, or social causes,” felt “belittling.” In the Washington Post, Sebastian Smee, who proclaimed the show was the best...

Revisiting Sean Keller’s essay on the 2008 Beijing Olympics

In the autumn of 2022, Max and I walked up the iconic steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to visit Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color. As the young son of a professional classicist, and a burgeoning one himself, my museum partner already knew about the ancient history of painted statues when we began to explore the galleries. Max’s knowledge seemed the exception rather than the rule. During our tour of the exhibition, as we wove between ancient works and their modern polychromatic restorations, we came across parents and children transfixed in front of these colorful re-imaginings — and, by the look of it, the parents’ reactions ranged from disbelief to intrigue to disgust. “It...

Their presence is implied. They’ve built gravity-defying structures from shopping carts, stacked newspapers, and plywood. They’ve hung laundry and left crushed beer cans scattered across surfaces, and yet the real subjects of Alvaro Naddeo’s paintings are never seen. Read the full article on the artist by clicking above!
The post The Price of Everything: The Art of Alvarro Naddeo first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

German artist Henrike Naumann, known for her installations of furniture and household objects addressing the turmoil of German reunification and showing how aesthetic choices affect political ideology, died in Berlin on February 14. She was forty-one. Her husband, Clemens Villinger, wrote in a statement that her death arrived “after a cancer diagnosis that came far […]

Hoping for a "Tristan for the ages" in New York next month, John Danaher considers five versions of Tristan's Act III "Muss ich dich so verstehn" for "Perspectives on an Aria."

Under the baton of Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale proves they have a magic touch in a program of Rameau and Handel.

Alfred Freddy Krupa works in ink, a medium through which questions of history and responsibility come sharply into focus. His practice emerges from a distinct artistic lineage, turning it into something fresh and modern, testing what that legacy can mean in the present. His studies in Zagreb provided a grounding in European modernism, whilst time spent in Japan introduced him to the discipline and restraint of Japanese aesthetics. Krupa developed a visual language out of these experiences, that treats tradition less as something to safeguard than as something to examine, unsettle and reshape. Krupa’s involvement in the arts stems from a childhood immersed in creativity. His grandfather, Alfred Krupa Sr., was...

The Texas African American Photography (TAAP) Archive is a visual record of Black life in Texas since the 1870s. The collection is 60,000 images strong, ranging from the earliest tin types and crayon drawings, through the 20th century, to contemporary digital photography. Typically operating small studios that provided portraiture, promotional images and event documentation, many of the photographers featured worked within their communities to develop an enduring vision of hope and uplift. The TAAP first began with Alan Govenar’s Living Texas Blues, which collated images of blues musicians from the early 20th century. He began the project in 1984, after realising that these figures were the last...

Il lavoro di Jonathan Lyndon Chase si costruisce attorno a una riflessione sulla memoria come esperienza incarnata, sull’identità come processo relazionale e sull’appartenenza come spazio vissuto. Philadelphia, città d’origine dell’artista, diventa il luogo da cui osservare e restituire una geografia affettiva fatta di case, fisicità e relazioni.
Jonathan Lyndon Chase, “Keep thinking nobody does it like you here comes the sunset”, installation view at Gió Marconi, Milan, photo: Fabio Mantegna, courtesy the artist and Gió Marconi, Milan
In Keep thinking nobody does it like you here comes the sunset, personale dell’artista alla Galleria Gió Marconi, la dimensione domestica emerge come motore...

Austin Opera’s moving production of Fiddler on the Roof grounds itself in lived tradition, to great effect.

Non si tratta di una semplice retrospettiva del collettivo Opiemme (Torino, 1998), Senza bandiere v.3.0. Divide et impera è piuttosto una dichiarazione d’intenti, una poetica del dissenso visualizzato, che trasforma le opere in scenari di resistenza simbolica. Alla galleria Marignana Arte di Venezia sono esposti alcuni lavori realizzati negli ultimi quindici anni, che insieme funzionano come un manifesto artistico, poetico, sociale e insieme profondamente umano, dove ogni gesto e parola tracciata diventa un atto di lettura critica del presente. Il progetto prende forma attraverso le opere di Davide e Laura Bonatti, Margherita Berardinelli e Stefano Campano, membri del collettivo, riuniti in una pratica...

From Do Ho Suh’s ethereal architecture to Kimsooja’s irridescent mirrors to Lauren Halsey’s fringed tapestry, a new book from Monacelli celebrates a broad spectrum of light and color. Rainbow Dreams features more than 200 installations, sculptures, paintings, photographs, and more that revel in the possibilities of pigment. Bound in a smooth gradient that extends to the pages’ edges, this vivid survey is a celebratory, playful object in itself. Rainbow Dreams features numerous artists previously featured on Colossal, from Nina Chanel Abney and Nick Cave to DRIFT and Katharina Grosse, among many others. The book is slated for release on April 2, and you can pre-order your copy in the Colossal Shop....

La ceramica come materia che conserva memoria del gesto, come superficie su cui si stratificano segni e tempo, come forma ambivalente tra l’arcaico e il contemporaneo: è questo il territorio espressivo in cui Fiorenza Pancino (1966, S. Stino di Livenza, Venezia) situa la propria ricerca, radicata nella tradizione faentina ma capace di trascenderla per farsi riflessione esistenziale. La personale “Oro vivo”, curata da Margherita Maccaferri negli spazi di BoA Spazio Arte, riunisce un corpus di opere recenti attraverso cui l’artista restituisce un percorso di alchimia spirituale volto a trasformare il dolore, la rabbia e le emozioni più oscure in una forma di bellezza contemplativa.
Fiorenza Pancino,...

French police have detained nine people in relation to a ticketing fraud scheme that may have cost the Louvre €10 million ($12 million). The Paris prosecutors’ office reports that two Louvre staffers, several tour guides, and a person thought to be the organizer of the scheme are among those being held. “Based on the information available to […]

The Hammer Museum  in Los Angeles has announced multidisciplinary artist Ali Eyal as the winner of the 2025 Mohn Award. The institution presents the laurel every two years, in connection with its Made in LA Biennial. The prize honors underrecognized and emerging artists from the Los Angeles area, whose work the biennial was established to support. Eyal will receive $100,000 and […]

Hieu Chau compares his dense, dynamic compositions to his always active mind. Playing with scale and proportion, the Vietnamese artist renders surreal scenes in which flora and fauna converge and figures interact with the outside world as if in a dream. Chau, who was trained as a painter, now works digitally, although his pieces capture the grainy textures and gestures of a physical medium. The artist recently published a book collecting his projects from the last decade, and you can find explore an archive of these pieces on Instagram. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Surreal Dreams...

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Daniel Dorsa’s Website
Daniel Dorsa on Instagram

We’re thrilled to invite you all to the Chicago premiere of Paint Me a Road Out of Here, the award-winning documentary from Aubin Pictures directed by Catherine Gund. Along with Intuit Art Museum and the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at DePaul University, Colossal is co-hosting a screening of the film followed by a conversation between film participant Leah Faria and our editorial director Grace Ebert on March 25. This event is free to attend, but seating is limited. Featuring artists Faith Ringgold and Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, Paint Me a Road Out of Here uncovers the whitewashed history of Ringgold’s masterpiece, “For the Women’s House,” following its 50-year journey from Rikers...

Nel suo lavoro più recente, Stephanie Temma Hier indaga il confine poroso tra pittura e scultura, facendo dialogare immagini dipinte e strutture ceramiche in composizioni ibride che mettono in crisi la bidimensionalità dell’immagine. Swan Song si configura come un percorso unitario, in cui cornici, oggetti domestici e figure ricorrenti concorrono a costruire un immaginario sospeso tra quotidiano e straniamento. Attraverso una pratica che intreccia temporalità differenti – l’immediatezza della pittura e la lentezza irreversibile della ceramica – la mostra riflette sui temi della trasformazione, del consumo e del passaggio del tempo, evocando una fine che non coincide con una chiusura, ma con...

Szilveszter Makó’s enigmatic photographs carry layers of mystery and introspection. Standing inside curious block-like backdrops and lain against two-dimensional fields of color and texture, his subjects seamlessly meld into stories in which every detail carries intention. Taking inspiration from art history, the Milan-based artist references Surrealism and grotesque art through his use of chiaroscuro effects via light exploration and contrasting earth tones. Similar to 20th-century Surrealist paintings, Makó’s images delve into uncanny realms and evoke a dreamlike sense of unfettered imagination. It’s no surprise that the photographer was once a painter and has suggested that these impulses may be a...

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What does love look like? Sometimes it comes with lust and desire, sometimes with deep-rooted care from the heart, and other times it’s a disguise for something that isn’t love at all.
Love can be found in the quieter gestures of everyday life. It can look like kindness, the people and places you hold dear, moments of care and support, or the small comforts that bring you peace: a cup of tea, a single flower, a familiar corner of home.
DO YOU LIKE LOVE? is a metaphor for the things that bring us joy and comfort, and for what we offer others to help them feel the same. Within the pages of DO YOU LIKE LOVE?, photographers answer the question – do you like love?
© Chloe Sastry
The photographers selected...