referencing the biblical tower of babel, the vertically composed complex departs from superficial symbolism to offer a site-sensitive response.
The post central tower rises from elliptical courtyard in V taller’s arched complex in mexico appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

When the Dutch city authorities declined to honour the bravery of a policeman who sheltered Jewish people, his family enlisted the help of the artist Gunter Demnig

the photographic monograph by romain jacquet-lagrèze examines the structural, and cultural dimensions of an evolving craft embedded within hong kong’s urban context.
The post romain jacquet-lagrèze captures bamboo scaffolding workers hovering above hong kong appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

null²'s warped and geometric modules are wrapped in a membrane that is responsive to environmental forces, causing the surface to shift in rhythm with its surroundings.
The post NOIZ’s reflective, voxel-based pavilion blurs physical and digital at expo 2025 osaka appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Photography prize winners examine the legacies of coca and coal.

Yoko Ono (b. 1933) has long occupied the liminal space between concept and action, thought and sensation. Her latest exhibition, Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, now on view at Berlin’s Gropius Bau, offers a strikingly intimate journey through more than six decades of experimentation. There are over 200 pieces on view – this is the exhibition of all exhibitions. It spans instruction-based artworks, installations, scores, photography, film and music; the show is as much a meditation on inner landscapes as it is a reflection on the artist’s enduring call to action. “The only sound that exists to me is the sound of the mind,” Ono wrote in 1966. “My works are only to induce music of the mind in people …...

Heft, a new contemporary art gallery founded by artist and curator Adam Heft Berninger, will officially open its doors in New York City’s Lower East Side

exposed brick masonry and earth plaster create dynamic bands in the elevation, while rammed earth elements highlight the foyer.
The post warmth and tactility of earth wrap bayhauz and dustudio’s duo of houses in india appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

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Nella turbolenta stagione politica italiana degli anni Settanta, l’intreccio tra creatività artistica e impegno politico ha generato alcuni dei fenomeni più interessanti nel panorama culturale del paese. Quella fase storica ha visto emergere pratiche espressive che rifiutavano la separazione tra arte e vita, tra creazione estetica e azione politica diretta. I linguaggi visivi dell’epoca si sono nutriti tanto dell’eredità delle avanguardie storiche quanto dell’urgenza comunicativa propria dei movimenti extraparlamentari, dando vita a una produzione grafica e artistica che rifletteva le tensioni sociali del periodo in forme spesso sperimentali.
Nanni Balestrini, “Una lunga primavera”, installation...

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themes of figures and human conditions run throughout the exhibition, which the artist has incorporated into his artworks since 1982.
The post caricatured sculptures of human figures lead thomas schütte’s major retrospective in venice appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

On February 26, the Washington Post reported that the Organization of American States (OAS) had canceled two major exhibitions at the Art Museum of the Americas, which is funded by the OAS. Founded in 1948, the OAS consists of 30 member countries across the Western Hemisphere, with its unofficial headquarters in Washington, DC. The canceled exhibitions were Before the Americas, curated by Cheryl Edwards, and Nature’s Wild with Andil Gosine, which featured Canadian artist Andil Gosine and other queer and Canadian artists of color. Both exhibitions were part of the OAS’s broader cultural mission, but their cancellation reflects broader political shifts in the US government’s cultural and diplomatic...

If one theme stands out in this week’s list, it’s the presence of strong, talented women. With Patty Chang, Myrlande Contant, and Amy Sherald all featured in solo exhibitions, it’s a great moment to consider the massive skills of these mid-career artists. And while Rembrandt may be the artist driving the Jewish Museum’s current exhibition, the Book of Esther is the inspiration. That said, all the artists in a show on BIPOC design history at the Ford Foundation are definitely worth checking out. The Chang and Constant shows end this weekend so get there soon! —Natalie Haddad, Reviews EditorMyrlande Constant: The Spiritual World of HaitiFort Gansevoort, 5 Ninth Avenue, Meatpacking District,...

Pope Francis, who died today, April 21 at the age of 88, is remembered as a pontiff of many firsts. Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he became the first pope from Latin America and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first from the relatively progressive Jesuit order. In the realm of arts and culture, Pope Francis arguably also heralded a new era for the papacy: He was the first pope to visit the Venice Biennale, supported the creation of new artworks, and opened a contemporary art gallery at the Vatican library. He also said he supported the restitution of artifacts stolen under colonial violence (though the Vatican Museums faced criticism for failing to meet Indigenous repatriation...

What had begun as a vibrant propagation of a monstera vine had withered away into nothing more than a dead leaf and a clump of dried-out roots in a plastic cup of dirt sitting on my bedside table. I’d watched its gradual demise over the course of months while I tried desperately to revive it with water, fertilizer, and in a last-ditch effort, my own voice. But the moment had finally come for me to accept the truth that my lifeless cutting was gone for good. It was time to say goodbye and move on.With my plastic container of vegetal remains in hand, I entered the Lower East Side gallery Chinatown Soup on late Saturday afternoon, April 19, for my first “plant funeral,” where I was greeted with cheeky...

Christ is risen, and so too has the average height of New Yorkers’ hats, at least at this year’s Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival. Residents (and their dogs) flocked to the steps of the towering St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Sunday, April 20, to flaunt extravagant lids, some several feet high, for the highly anticipated annual event. From 10am to 4pm, participants filled the streets wearing real-life Chinese take-out containers, entire miniature cities balanced on the crowns of heads, and political drag, among other highlights.Bonnet wearers join the procession on Fifth Avenue.Emerging after the Civil War, the annual creative hat festival along Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue began as a “fashion promenade”...

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A group of ACLU-affiliated organizations filed a class-action lawsuit Friday in federal court in New Hampshire, seeking to reinstate the legal status of over 100 international students whose visas were abruptly revoked this year. The suit aims to protect students in New England and Puerto Rico who advocates say were stripped of their legal standing by the Trump administration without due process. Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the ACLU of New Hampshire, called the move an unlawful overreach. “No administration should be allowed to unilaterally strip students of status, disrupt their studies, and put them at risk of deportation,” he said. Since late March, roughly 1,100 students across more than 170...

Pope Francis died on April 20 at 88, marking the end of an epoch for the Catholic Church and the beginning of its search for the next spiritual leader, who will also become proprietor of the Vatican’s library and vast art collection. He was born in 1936 as Mario Bergoglio, and was named Pope in 2013, following the resignation of Benedict Pope Benedict XVI. Francis was the first Jesuit priest to lead the 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide and having hailed from Argentina, he was the first from the southern hemisphere to hold the position. He signaled almost immediately upon his election a principle of austerity and altruism over pomp, as the first pontiff to take his title from St. Francis of Assisi. Though...

Artist Kehinde Wiley has been accused of sexual assault by a fellow artist, Ogechi Chieke, in a lawsuit that was filed in New York this past February. Wiley, who is most famous for painting Barack Obama’s official presidential portrait, has faced multiple allegations of sexual assault by men in the past year. Many of those claims were made on Instagram, and he has repeatedly denied the allegations against him. But Chieke’s lawsuit is the first time any of those accusations have been aired in a legal setting. Her lawsuit was filed in New York Supreme Court on February 28, one day before the expiration of an amendment to New York’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law that allowed survivors...

This week marks the beginning of Chicago’s art world Olympics as the largest fair returns to Navy Pier. From April 24 to 27, EXPO CHICAGO will host hundreds of galleries, site-specific projects, talks, and multi-disciplinary programming both downtown and across the city. To help you navigate, we’re sharing the artworks we’re most looking forward to seeing. And, if you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, use the code COLOSSAL25 for $5 off. 1. Wangari Mathenge with Pippy Houldsworth Gallery (London) The Chicago-based, Kenyan artist will present a collection of vivid new paintings that speak to the immense amount of information generated through her intensive research process. Surrounded by books, plants,...

The fair’s programming included events with local institutions and stands devoted to non-profits and collectives

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The election of the new pope will be closely watched by supporters of the Argentinian pontiff’s legacy looking for a successor who will act as a progressive voice, highlighting global climate crisis and the needs of immigrants and the poor

On Thursday, four members of the United States’ House of Representatives sent a letter to Vice President J.D. Vance urging him to reject an overhaul of the Smithsonian Institution. The letter was sent in response to President Donald Trump’s “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” order, issued on March 27, to eliminate “divisive” and “anti-American” content from the Smithsonian’s exhibitions and to restore “monuments, memorials, statues, markers” that have been removed from public spaces since 2020. “We write to you as shared custodians of one of the nation’s crown jewels—and with great concern over its future,” the letter begins. It highlights bipartisan efforts spanning...

The director and the secretary of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., met with representatives from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), according to a report published Friday evening by Kriston Capps in Bloomberg CityLab. The Trump administration has not previously targeted the National Gallery of Art. Instead, the administration has focused much of its attention on the Smithsonian Institution, whose many museums do not include the National Gallery. Previously, in an executive order, Trump accused the Smithsonian of enacting a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather...

Murals by Agostino Iacurci bring drab buildings to life in bold jewel tones, playful patterns, color blocks, and symmetry. Whether painting directly onto bricks and plaster or designing immense fabric sheaths to cover construction scaffolding, the artist’s vibrant compositions enliven street corners and urban thoroughfares. Iacurci often emphasizes geometric patterns, flora, classical vases, and niches that hold symbolic objects or figures. You might enjoy checking out Gingko Press’s Mural Masters, a survey of the next generation of street artists, and see more on Iacurci’s website and Instagram. “Landscape n.1” (2021), wall painting, 27.7 x 7.1 meters. Las Vegas, Nevada. Commissioned by Life is...

Tracy L Chandler  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Tracy L Chandler’s Website
Tracy L Chandler on Instagram

In 2023, UN chief Antōnio Guterres declared: “The era of global warming has ended. The era of global boiling has arrived.” A year later, all evidence suggested that he was correct. 2024 was the hottest year on record, and according to the UN, more than 150 “unprecedented” climate disasters occurred over the course of the 12 months. These incidents included life-threatening heatwaves in Australia, Iran, Japan and Mali, as well as record floods in Italy, Senegal and Pakistan. Hurricane Helene was the strongest storm ever recorded in Florida’s Big Bend region, whilst 3.6 million people were hit by Super Typhoon Yagi in Vietnam. The world is facing catastrophic change. 22 April marks Earth Day, an...

The Argentinian pontiff was a powerful progressive voice in world politics, the first Jesuit priest to be spiritual leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics and the first from the Americas or the southern hemisphere to hold the office

Alongside his paintings and sculptures, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds has created two public art installations in the form of basketball courts, where visitors are encouraged to play a friendly game

È possibile avverare l’ossimoro di una danza che si attua nella più completa immobilità? Se qualsiasi elemento di matrice biologica è vivificato dall’interno da un costante movimento, impercettibile in superficie, come si possono distillarne gli andamenti centrifughi in modo da trasformarli in attitudini corporee leggibili anche dall’esterno? Come creare una connessione con i nostri simili (e non) in assenza di contatto visivo, auditivo e corporeo? E ancora: se la pluralità dell’osmosi è l’ambito entro al quale questi interrogativi cercano una soluzione, quali ripercussioni ha tale orientamento nella percezione della distinzione tra il sé e l’altro?
CollettivO CineticO, “Manifesto...

In 1983, Sally Ride (1951-2012) made history as the first American woman in space. Gender made her the subject of scrutiny and celebration in equal measure. After retiring, she dedicated her career to encouraging more girls to take up careers in STEM fields. Yet, Ride’s obituary was the first time it was publicly stated that she was in a relationship with a woman. It made her one of only three publicly queer crew members from NASA, all of whom came out after going to space. Today, the agency has still never selected an openly LGBTQIA+ astronaut. Mackenzie Calle’s photographic series The Gay Space Agency takes inspiration from Ride. The ground-breaking work of docu-fiction confronts the American space...

“On the Street” è un itinerario storico-critico attraverso le opere di quegli artisti che, a partire dagli anni Sessanta, hanno esplorato lo spazio pubblico ripresentandolo attraverso il loro peculiare punto di vista. Infatti, in quegli anni di grandi rivolgimenti culturali e sistemici, molti autori, abbandonando il contesto istituzionale protetto degli spazi espositivi white cube, hanno rivolto il loro sguardo alla strada non come banale passaggio di transito bensì come luogo deputato per produrre azioni radicali e poetiche oppure come fonte di ispirazione sicché detto modus operandi ha finito per riconfigurare il rapporto tra spazio privato e pubblico. Il progetto espositivo, ospitato al Kunstmuseum...

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The Global North is responsible for 92% of all excess emissions, whilst the populations of the Global South bear the brunt of the resulting ecological damage. However, most scientific research and artistic discourse around climate change neglects African diasporic, Latin American and Native American perspectives. A new book from Thames & Hudson provides an alternative narrative. Black Earth Rising opens with an interrogation of the Anthropocene, a term used to describe how human activity has caused geological change. Author Ekow Eshun proffers an alternative: Plantationocene, which foregrounds the effect of colonialism and slavery on humanity and the planet, stating “we still live in its shadow.”  The...

Arrivando sulla più alta delle tre colline su cui sorge Ficarra, comune siciliano di 1275 abitanti localizzato nell’area della città metropolitana di Messina, si cammina tra i resti dell’antico convento dei Frati Minori Osservanti di San Francesco, chiamato anche Convento dei Cento Archi. Tale nome richiama l’architettura originaria dell’edificio, al tempo circondato da venticinque archi a tutto sesto per lato, costruito nel XI secolo da un ordine di monaci basiliani e, dalla sua ricostruzione avvenuta nel 1522 fino alla confisca di beni ecclesiastici operata dai Savoia nel 1866, seconda biblioteca della Sicilia dopo quella di Palermo. Ad oggi, rimangono le mura perimetrali, il portale, l’abside e...

Employees of New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on April 16 demonstrated outside the institution in response to its recent staff cuts. Hyperallergic reports that more than fifty cultural workers, including employees of the American Folk Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, Dia Art Foundation, the Hispanic Society, the Museum of Modern Art, and the New […]

The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow on April 17 announced Daria Kotova as its new director, effective immediately. Kotova, who since 2021 has served as director of the Garage Endowment Fund, succeeds Anton Belov in the role. Belov had led the institution since 2010, shepherding its move to its current home in Gorky […]

In January 2021, Joshua Rozells ventured out into the Pinnacles Desert in Western Australia, intending to photograph a star trail. But after shooting for more than three hours and reviewing his images, he realized that the light patterns he captured weren’t what he had hoped for. “There were satellite trails visible in almost every single photo,” he wrote on Instagram. “Instead of trying to get rid of them for a star trail, I decided to put the satellite trails together into a single image to show how polluted the night sky is becoming.” Stitching together 343 distinct photos, Rozells illuminates a growing problem. When Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched Starlink in 2019, 60 satellites filled the skies,...

Known for their elaborate performances almost as much as their albums, the American band OK Go just released a new music video that is very literally a hall of mirrors. Filmed in a Budapest train station, “Love” incorporates 29 robots and 60 mirrors that move in perfect synchronicity. The result is an endlessly evolving kaleidoscope that distorts reality and illusion, connecting the band and their surroundings through a trippy, impeccably timed production. To get a closer look at the making of this iconic video, check out the behind-the-scenes video shot from the perspective of each band member. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts...

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L’associazione LeArtiPossibili dà il via al bando per l’installazione collettiva “BOSCO – tessuto vitale di connessioni“ che concluderà il biennio 2024-2025 dedicato al legno e alle fibre vegetali. Le adesioni sono aperte fino al 16 maggio 2025, mentre la mostra finale si terrà dal 26 al 28 settembre e dal 3 al 5 ottobre 2025 presso Stecca3, Milano.
Il bando è rivolto ad artisti, artigiani, collettivi artistici, gruppi di libera aggregazione o gruppi raccolti intorno a figure professionali che svolgono attività creative in atelier d’arteterapia, strutture di cura, di riabilitazione o educative. LeArtiPossibili è infatti una realtà innovativa che promuove l’arte come risorsa sociale e di...

Mughal finery, an Underground Museum, River Guardians, rhinestones and the 1980s.

SXSW® London 2nd – 7th June has announced the Arts & Tech projects set to headline its inaugural strand of Interdisciplinary Exhibitions

The Photo of the Year winner for 2025 is a photo by Doha based Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf

Giuseppe Penone (b. 1947), an artist renowned for his deep engagement with the natural world, opens Thoughts in the Roots, an exhibition that spans his expansive five-decade career. The show, bringing together a range of works from 1969 to the present-day, highlights Penone’s unwavering exploration of the relationship between humanity and nature. Born in 1947 in Garessio, Italy, Penone’s practice reflects his profound connection to the landscapes of Northern Italy, where he first developed an awareness of nature’s rhythms and processes. His works, often made from organic materials such as wood, stone, and metal, have been celebrated for their exploration of the forces that govern life, growth and decay....

Florida gallerist Leslie Roberts has been charged in federal court with wire fraud stemming from a conspiracy to sell fake Andy Warhol artworks using forged invoices and authentications. According to a statement from the US District Attorney’s office for the Southern District of Florida, Roberts is alleged to have sold the pieces out of his […]

The Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, has announced Carlos Basualdo as its next director, effective May 12. Basualdo, who spent twenty years in various curatorial roles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), where he was most recently curator at large, fills the role vacated by Jeremy Strick, who announced his departure in November 2023. Strick, […]

Tom Leighton (previously) is known for highlighting plants’ photosynthesis process by swapping their characteristic greens for otherworldly fluorescent colors. Often focused on the nightlife of specimens found around his Cornwall home, Leighton photographs in a manner that turns common species into extraordinary subjects. His newest series, Spines, expands on this trajectory. The macro images concentrate on the fine fibers cloaking stems and flowers. Water droplets cling to the surfaces as if the plants had just emerged from a heavy downpour. The glistening botanicals capture the surrounding light, while the thick dew drops add a glimmering, skewed view of the lifeforms that reside underneath. Prints of...

Nikolas Antoniou  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Nikolas Antoniou’s Website
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A radical exploration of stones, sub-terrain, and speculative worlds in the artist’s first UK solo exhibition Nolan Oswald Dennis, recurse 4 a late planet (lush), 2024. Wallpaper. Courtesy the artist and Swiss Institute New York. Photo: […]

Vamika Sinha reviews a group exhibition of seven southern African artists in Rhodes House, Oxford, reflecting on colonialism, monuments and memory Installation view of ‘Entangled: Southern African Artists reflect on Colonialism, Monuments & Memory’ at […]

Oana M. Baković is a Romanian fine art photographer based in the UK. Her work focuses on exploring the beauty and fragility of nature, with a particular emphasis on flowers and plants. Over the past few years, she has developed a distinctive style that captures the vibrant, raw energy of the natural world. Her photography has been featured in respected publications such as CNN Style, Amateur Photographer, Forbes, and in our very own FOOD STORIES. She has also received recognition from the Sony World Photography Awards and other international competitions. Her collections have been exhibited internationally, reaching audiences across Europe and beyond.
 
Over the last four years, my work as a fine art...

Jillian Freyer  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Jillian Freyer’s Website
Jillian Freyer on Instagram

A ceremony held at The Flying Saucer in Sharjah recognises Al Qasimi’s contributions to cultural exchange and contemporary art. H.E. Nicolas Niemtchinow, Ambassador of France to the UAE, Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of […]