Enchanting Vignettes Illustrated by Melpomeni Chatzipanagiotou Nestle Inside Small Wood Cuts

All images © Melpomeni Chatzipanagiotou, shared with permission

Encircled in roughly textured bark, thin woodcuts become canvases for the whimsical landscapes and scenes illustrated by Melpomeni Chatzipanagiotou. The Greek artist uses a combination of pen, ink, gouache, and acrylic paint to draw outdoor vignettes cloaked in pattern and cosmic details. Nighttime skies are brimming with snowflakes, stars, and light trails that illuminate the natural subject matter and add a dose of fantasy to the heavily patterned works.

Chatzipanagiotou has a number of illustrations on wood and paper available on Etsy, and you can watch her at work on Instagram.

 

 

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Bees Wrap Ava Roth’s Intricately Beaded and Embroidered Motifs in Golden Honeycomb

“Beaded Circle,” encaustic, Japanese paper, glass beads, thread, natural honeycomb, local Ontario maple frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches. All images © Ava Roth, shared with permission

Seasons and the natural rhythms of bees determine much of Ava Roth’s practice, which hinges on collaborating with the fuzzy pollinators. The Ontario-based artist (previously) stitches elaborate embroideries with beads and intricate thread-based motifs that, once her contribution is complete, she turns over to her insect counterparts. The critters then finish the mixed-media pieces by embedding them in golden, hexagonal honeycomb.

Because the bees Roth works with only produce the waxy substance during the heat of the summer, many of her embroideries evolve across a few years as the insects return to a frame again and again. In a note to Colossal, the artist describes recent shifts in her practice that more deeply embody the cooperative process:

The collaged portion of this season’s pieces, which are made largely of encaustic and stitch work, are designed to match the intricacy of the comb in a fair exchange of labour. I had in mind “a stitch for every cell.” I have also introduced more sophisticated shapes, and multiple shapes, into the comb, and the results have been very exciting.

In addition to the pieces shown here, Roth has also been developing n a collection of larger encaustic paintings on photographs that she works on when her collaborators are dormant. “Using the beeswax in these different ways feels very holistic,” she says, “and having the intimate connection to the bees in the summer makes working with wax as a material during the winter months deeply satisfying.”

Explore an archive of the artist’s organically formed works on her site and Instagram.

 

“Hardwood Lake with Flower Embroidery,” encaustic, oil stick, photography on bamboo paper, embroidery floss, natural honeycomb, in custom local Ontario maple frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches

“Honeycomb Quilt,” encaustic, birch bark, paper, gold leaf, embroidery floss, glass beads, and natural honeycomb, in custom local Ontario maple frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches

Detail of “Honeycomb Quilt,” encaustic, birch bark, paper, gold leaf, embroidery floss, glass beads and natural honeycomb, in custom local Ontario maple frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches

“Honeybee Collaboration, Lunaria Leaves,” beeswax, Hemlock cones, porcupine quills, Lunaria leaves, photography, oil stick, embroidery floss and glass beads on seeded paper with honeycomb, in custom maple frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches

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Movement and Instinct Inform Taquen’s Murals of Migrating Birds and Human Touch

“Magpies and swifts.” All images © Taquen, shared with permission

Thin, structural lines delineate a magpie wing and contour a child’s nose or cheekbone in Taquen’s murals. Working with a color palette of pastels and neutral tones, the Spanish artist (previously) paints large-scale portraits, fragments of limbs, and birds, often leaving the composition’s skeletal forms visible. “The supports are just as important as the work itself,” he tells Colossal. “I look for camouflage, minimalism, and mixture. In the end, it is also a metaphorical form of the footprint that I believe we should leave in the places we pass through.”

Many of Taquen’s works consider the relationship between species through the lens of movement and impulse, focusing on gesture, touch, and instinctive acts. Birds mid-flight embody the tie between freedom and migration, while bare feet lounging in the grass or a hand grasping a flower channel a desire for physical contact. “I think we are very disconnected, living in parallel with nature, and it is a mistake. We must share it, experience it, live it, and thus we will be able to understand and respect it,” he says.

In the coming months, the artist will be working on murals in Belgium, Portugal, Ireland, France, and Spain, in addition to a conceptual project centered on paths and walking. You can follow those on Instagram.

 

Briançon, France

Detail of mural in Briançon, France

“Discover and learn,” Port of Sagunto, Valencia

Grenoble

Camprovin

“Hold the oak, be a tree for the trees,” Mostar

“Apology for the wild,” Stockholm, Sweden

Madrid. Photo by Gustavo Bulnes

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Systems Evoking Roots and Veins Sprawl Across Raija Jokinen’s Organic Flax Figures

All images © Raija Jokinen, shared with permission

Finnish artist Raija Jokinen (previously) echoes the natural shapes of botanics and anatomy in her elaborately formed figures. The sculptural works are comprised of sprawling webs that appear like both root and vein systems, with flowers and more dense, fleshy patches emerging from an arm or torso. Each piece fuses the physical and mental, Jokinen says, sharing that her “approach is focused on everyday feelings, situations, and thoughts we all have.”

The mesh works are created from flax—Jokinen employs a technique similar to that used for handmade paper—that she dyes and molds into branches, twigs, and other organic forms. She then adds floral and structural details through machine stitching, which also strengthens the otherwise fragile material. “With these methods, I am able to create free forms, like cut-outs, and transparent structures that allow strong shadows on the wall or occupy the space around it,” she says.

Many of Jokinen’s figures shown here are on view as part of a solo exhibition through October 9 at Château de Trévarez in Brittany, and she will also have pieces included in the International Mini Textile Exhibition in Bratislava this November. To see more of her works, check out her site and Instagram.

 

Photo by Philippe Robin

Photo by Philippe Robin

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Interview: Sho Shibuya Discusses Ritual, His Impulse Toward Minimalism, and His Love for Ubiquitous Objects

All images © Sho Shibuya, shared with permission

Since March 2020, artist and designer Sho Shibuya has fostered a ritualistic creative practice of painting the morning sunrise on the cover of The New York Times, a routine he describes in a new interview supported by Colossal Members. The daily project was born out of lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic, although it’s evolved into a broad body of work that transcends the artist’s original intent for the pieces.

The process of flipping through the newspaper, watching the sunrise, and then painting every morning is quite meditative… But I treat the paintings the same as eating or sleeping; a vital part of my daily routine. It’s a little mission for myself, to capture the sunrise every day as a visual diary.

In this conversation, Shibuya speaks with Colossal managing editor Grace Ebert about the ongoing series and the addition of more sculptural, conceptual works that respond to politics and current events. They discuss his pared-down, measured approach to conveying complex subject matter, the fluctuating relationship between concept and visual, and his fascination with humble, everyday materials.

 

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Adorably Emotional Creatures Comprise Nosey Mungo’s Playful Ceramic Menagerie

All images © Helen Burgess, shared with permission

In the hands of Helen Burgess, goofy grins, bloated bellies, and eyes wide with surprise turn endangered or overlooked animals into endearing creatures with playfully exaggerated emotions. The British ceramicist, who works as nosey mungo (previously), sculpts quirky renditions of wildlife and other critters—she prefers to focus on conservation issues and species struggling to survive— crafting kooky pufferfish covered in spikes and chicks with tiny beaks poking out from their downy, yellow bodies.

Currently, Burgess is working on a collection of marine wall hangings, and you can follow her progress, along with shop updates and glimpses into her process, on Instagram.

 

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Figures and Events Are Transfixed by Time in Pep Carrió’s Extensive Daily Visual Diaries

Spreads from 2013. All images © Pep Carrió, shared with permission. Photographs by Antonio Fernández

In 2007, Madrid-based artist and illustrator Pep Carrió’s expansive diary project began as a challenge with a simple premise: to draw something every day. No matter what materials were at hand and without any predetermined theme or subject matter, he took a game-like approach to see if he could accomplish filling an entire Moleskine datebook throughout the year. The numerous editions that have followed feature a dazzling array of scenes fashioned from marker, pencil, tempera, pen, ink, collage, and found materials.

Carrió’s stream-of-consciousness process has led to a collection that ranges from abstract flora to silhouetted and patterned figures to surreal vessels and landscapes. Originally, the volumes contained one drawing each day with complementary images on facing pages, but in recent years, the artist has begun to more consistently fill the entire spread with a single image, creating bold compositions that play with the symmetry of the book and the confines of its edges. Imagery of sprawling tree branches, obscured faces and masks, and bodies in precarious circumstances strike a metaphorical chord, exploring human society and psychology. His method of completing a drawing each day is itself an exercise in memory, as the diaries have accumulated records of the artist’s thoughts over time and unfurl into a personal archive.

Carrió currently has work on view as part of From Spain with Design traveling throughout Spain during 2022 and Play with Design at the Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporánea in Valencia through October 23. You can find more information on his website and follow the visual diary project on Instagram.

 

 

2007

2010

2018

2020

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