Tiny Human Activities Erupt into Vast Celestial Nightscapes in New Paintings by Oliver Jeffers

All images © Oliver Jeffers, courtesy of Praise Shadows Art Gallery, shared with permission

Whether working in acrylic on panel or illustrating a scene for one of his children’s books, artist Oliver Jeffers is fascinated by positioning. He returns to questions about perspective and finding a place in the world amidst chaotic politics and an overwhelmingly vast universe.

In The Night in Bloom, a series of ten works soon to be on view at Praise Shadows Art Gallery in Brookline, Massachusetts, Jeffers imagines explosive astronomical scenes and impeccably aligned constellations. One work shrouds an abandoned picnic in deep blues and purples before erupting into a bright nebula, cradling stars between the soft glow of city skylines. Another piece, which the artist will replicate at a massive scale on a facade at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, depicts a figure at home underneath a colorful expanse of galaxies and celestial bodies.

Each of the stellar works, which are the artist’s first rendered in acrylic, celebrates the possibilities of the unknown. He explains:

The worlds beyond our world, whose clues only reveal themselves when the light of our day grows low enough to view the dramatic and brilliantly colorful heavens after dusk, suggest a vastness we cannot possibly comprehend above our heads. These are the same heads that grow bored of looking for what to play on the radio, wonder when our internet purchase will arrive, or what activity we will use to pass the time this weekend. Perhaps there is more to this business of being alive than we give ourselves time (and perspective) to enjoy.

Jeffers, who splits his time between Belfast and Brooklyn, recently unveiled Our Place in Space, a series of sculptures that bring the solar system to Northern Ireland and Cambridge. This immersive experience complements The Night in Bloom, which will run from June 3 to July 10. Explore more of the artist’s dreamy paintings, sculptures, and illustrations on his site and Instagram.

 

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Influential Artworks Find Wearable Reinterpretations in Handmade Garments by Ariel Adkins

Ariel Adkins in a skirt inspired by Hilma af Klint, “The Ten Largest” (1907) at the Guggenheim Museum. Image by Allison Chipak. All images courtesy of Ariel Adkins, shared with permission

After a museum visit, we might pick up a postcard or T-shirt as a memento of the artworks we’ve enjoyed most. Brooklyn-based blogger Ariel Adkins, who is also Curator of Art, Culture & Community at Twitter, takes her love of masterpieces to the next level by creating one-of-a-kind apparel inspired by some of the world’s most influential artists. Donning capes, dresses, and coveralls in bright colors and bold patterns, Adkins draws inspiration from a variety of aesthetics and eras to make garments for herself and for people she meets who share a similar love for the power of expression. Painting directly onto the fabric of the clothing, she translates the forms and hues of specific artworks into wearable compositions.

Adkins is the creator of Artfully Awear, which began as a way of responding to grief and healing in response to the loss of her mother, who was an artist. Through the language of fashion, both a personal and public assertion of identity and style, she continues the project as an embodiment of joy and a unique way of kindling togetherness. She also admires iconic fashion like designer Michelle Smith’s dress worn by Michelle Obama in Amy Sherald’s portrait, utilizing her platform to share stories of groundbreaking moments in art history.

You can follow more of Adkins’ apparel adventures on Instagram.

 

A cape inspired by Etel Adnan, “Mont Tamalpaïs” (1970/2017) at the Guggenheim Museum. Image by Olivia Manno

Dress by Michelle Smith worn by God-is Rivera in front of Amy Sherald’s “First Lady Michelle Obama” (2018) at the National Portrait Gallery. Image by Ariel Adkins

Dress inspired by Yayoi Kusama, “Yellow Pumpkin” (1994) at Benesse Art Site. Image by Meri Feir

Dress inspired by Seward Johnson, “Welcome Home” (2014) at Grounds for Sculpture. Image by Will Sealy

Coveralls worn by Chet Gold inspired by Claude Monet, “Water Lilies” (1914-26) at the Museum of Modern Art. Image by Gina Tatianna

Top inspired by OSGEMEOS exhibition ‘Portal’ at Lehmann Maupin Gallery. Image by Will Sealy

Image by Will Sealy

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An Ethereal Documentary Illuminates the Booming Grasshopper Harvest in Uganda

In the Luganda language, the word nsenene describes the long-horned grasshoppers that are the backbone of a robust industry in Uganda. The nocturnal insects are a crunchy delicacy, often served boiled or fried, and are harvested in incredible quantities during the rainy seasons in May and November. A poetic documentary directed and produced by Michelle Coomber follows locals as they set up precarious traps and gather hordes of the crickets under the nighttime sky.

Narrated by a grasshopper hunter named Ibrah, “Nsenene” peers through the darkness and smoke from a nearby fire to illuminate the collection process. The insects are attracted to bright bulbs strung up around tall iron panels, which stun the crickets and drop them into the open drums at the base. “We add smoke so the light makes a lens in the sky, and the grasshoppers get drunk on the smoke. They fall into the barrels like fat raindrops on a tin roof,” the narrator says.

The noisy crickets, though, are also imbued in lore. “There are so many beliefs, like, if a pregnant woman ate them, her child would have a grasshopper head,” says Ibrah, whose family has participated in the industry for generations. “Some people believe they come from water in the lakes. Others say they emerge from the soil like ants. I believe they’re not from this world.”

Coomber has garnered multiple awards for “Nsenene” from Raindance, Sydney Short Film Festival, and Fargo Film Festival, to name a few, and you can watch more of her works on her site and Vimeo. (via Short of the Week)

 

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‘Bamboo Contemporary’ Spotlights 14 Designs Advancing Sustainable Architecture Around the World

Tommaso Riva. All images courtesy of Princeton Architectural Press, shared with permission

Six times stronger than steel and using an estimated 50 times less energy to produce, bamboo is at the forefront of sustainable architecture. The durable material is central to recent projects like a latticed welcome center in Vietnam and this swelling canopy offering respite from the elements of the Karst Mountains, two constructions that accentuate the plant’s organic shape and sturdy qualities.

A new book published by Princeton Architectural Press highlights fourteen homes around the world built with the perennial grass. Written by author and architectural historian William Richards, Bamboo Contemporary explores a vast array of styles and techniques, ranging from sleek remodels with the material to the lavish home in Bali fabricated by the firm behind this spiraling school. “In design circles, bamboo has been heralded as the material of the future—a pliable solution for architects seeking sustainable methods and materials. For many architects and builders along the equatorial band, bamboo’s past is just as rich. It’s both new and nothing new at the same time,” Richards writes in the introduction.

Containing structural renderings and photos for each project, the 256-page volume is an insightful and forward-looking consideration of the architects working toward a more environmentally conscious future. Explore more by picking up a copy of Bamboo Contemporary from Princeton Architectural Press.

 

Maira Acayaba

Mischa Witzmann

Satoshi Asakawa

Mischa Witzmann

Photo by Marc Gerritsen

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Shop Limited-Edition Prints of Mia Bergeron’s Imaginative Works from Sebastian Foster

“Stop Running”

Austin-based gallery and print studio Sebastian Foster has a new addition to its roster, Tennessee-based artist Mia Bergeron. To celebrate her joining the gallery, they’re releasing a collection of limited-edition prints of the artist’s dreamlike, dualistic works.

A classically trained oil painter, Bergeron uses modern techniques and concepts to create layered pieces. She often oscillates between the fictitious and the observed, blending the realities of the physical world with the fanciful and imaginative. Through phantasmic figures and mundane domesticity turned eerie, Bergeron explores seemingly disparate sentiments within a single work, whether through the contrasts between curiosity and loss, longing and presence, or emptiness and saturation.

Add Bergeron’s ethereal renderings to your collection by heading to the Sebastian Foster site. The gallery also represents numerous artists previously featured on Colossal, including Grant Haffner, Jeremy Miranda, Sabine Timm, and Diana Sudyka, who have originals and prints available, as well.

 

“Apparition”

“Vessel”

“Ancestors”

Aurora Living

“Next Year”

“Tranquil Ghosts”

“Remains”

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Lush Canopies of Hundreds of Purple Flowers Erupt from Japan’s Wisteria

Ashikaga Flower Park, Tochigi, Japan. All images © Ryo Tajima, shared with permission

Each spring, the Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi, Japan, is flooded with bright, blossoming canopies of purple flowers. The area is home to more than 350 wisterias, including one monumental specimen that’s at least 150 years old, and hosts an annual festival that illuminates the lengthy tendrils against the nighttime sky. For the past few years, Ryo Tajima has visited the park, in addition to other locations around the country, to photograph the flowers as they reach peak bloom. His images capture the stunning magnitude of the vines, showing the breadth and density that appear to explode with color.

Some of Tajima’s wisteria photos are compiled in a book from National Geographic, and you can follow his travels to document cherry blossoms, cosmos, and fields teeming with lavender on Instagram.

 

Ashikaga Flower Park, Tochigi, Japan

Ashikaga Flower Park, Tochigi, Japan

Yamaguchi, Japan

Ashikaga Flower Park, Tochigi, Japan

Saitama, Japan

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A Brilliant Orange Orb Shape-Shifts Through Time in a Meditative Animated Short

A metaphor for the way fragments of time both accumulate and mutate as they slip from one moment to the next, a glowing sphere is the subject of a calming short film by Argentinian artist Ezequiel Pini, of Six N. Five. The CGI animation follows the bright orb as it expands, multiplies, and transfigures into alternate forms like a sun dropping beneath the horizon and windows evocative of the recently demolished Nakagin Capsule Tower. Although simple in shape, the round object “represents care, calm, and attention to achieve its ultimate perfection. We are a circle, without boundaries, beginning or end. Infinity,” Pini says. Watch more of his poetic works on Vimeo.

 

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