In Introspective Paintings, Artist Ocom Adonias Explores Narratives of Blackness

“Here After,” oil on canvas, 200 x 180 centimeters. All images © Ocom Adonias, shared with permission

Fusing history with the political and social contexts of today, Ocom Adonias’s body of work interprets the experience of moving through the world in a Black body. His vibrant, realistic paintings portray people in ordinary moments of ritual, solitude, and bonding, honing in on individual narratives to convey a broader message. “I’m particularly interested in the global conversation of what being an African and what being Black means, history, and the representation of the Black figure in the contemporary sense,” he shares.

Having worked primarily with charcoal on newspapers for years, Adonias recently shifted to oil painting, swapping the hazy layers of his previous works for bold color palettes and clean lines. He continues to focus on those around him, though, translating their conversations into intimate, introspective pieces.

The artist is based in Kampala, Uganda, and has a residency at Montresso Art Foundation slated for this fall. Currently, he’s working on a painting referencing myth and Michaelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” fresco, which you can follow on Instagram.

 

“Letters from us,” newspapers and oil on canvas, 150 x 130 centimeters

“Saloon secrets (we are who we were),” oil and collage on canvas, 130 x 150 centimeters

“King Adebwa”

“Utopia duality,” newspapers and oil on canvas, 200 x 150 centimeters

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Lethargic Sleepyheads Loaf in Pajamas in Ikuo Inada’s Meticulous and Contemplative Sculptures

“Night by Night.” All images © Ikuo Inada, shared with permission, courtesy of Medel Gallery Shu

Embodying the bleary-eyed feeling of an early morning, insomnia, or a long, lazy day at home, artist Ikuo Inada’s meditative sculptures personify sleepiness. The Japanese artist’s meticulously carved, realistic figures clutch feather pillows, envelop themselves in comforters, or stand drowsily in soft hoodies. His ambiguous subjects, often half-hidden in a sweatshirt or a blanket, are usually between one and three feet tall and carved from a single block of wood, allowing the natural grain to complement the delicately chiseled hem of a shirt, a drawstring, and slender fingers and toes. Influenced by the expressive wrinkles and folds of Renaissance carvings, the sculptures crystalize relatable, emotional moments of solitude.

Inada’s work will be exhibited at Art Taipei with Medel Gallery Shu from October 21 to 24. You can also find more on his website and Instagram.

 

“Leave Me Alone”

Left: “A Cramped Day.” Right: “I’m Still Here”

“Such A Night”

Left: “Everything at Night.” Right: “Night Falls IV”

Detail of “Leave Me Alone”

“Night Head,” resin and acrylic

 

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Humor Infuses Exaggerated Features in Lola Dupre’s Meticulously Distorted Collages

“Randy 3,” 8.2 x 11.6 inches. All images © Lola Dupre, shared with permission

Glasgow-based artist Lola Dupre’s evocative and often humorous photographic collages of animals, historic images, and portraits tap into the unique personalities and emotions of her subjects. A cross-eyed cat has its vision multiplied, and a Shiba Inu’s joyful face pokes out of an enormous body in a play on repetition and perception. Dupre captures a range of expressions in both human and animal form (previously), exaggerating a raised eyebrow or fuzzy paw by layering numerous pieces of paper to extend legs, arm, eyes, and other features.

Dupre’s work will be included in Division of Birds at Paradigm Gallery + Studio in Philadelphia, and you can find more pieces on her website, Behance, and Instagram.

 

“Andromeda,” 11.6 x 8.2 inches

“Hercules,” 11.6 x 8.2 inches

Left: “Toni,” 8.2 x 11.6 inches, from original photography by Dacefer. Right: “David,” 8.2 x 11.6 inches, from original photography by David Sierra

“Fluffy,” 8.2 x 11.6 inches

“Ivor, After Walter Chandoha,” 11.6 x 8.2 inches

“Mari,” 8.2 x 11.6 inches, from original photography by Laerke Rose

Left: “Melange,” 8.2 x 11.6 inches. Right: “Mia,” 8.2 x 11.6 inches, from original photography by Arsalan Danish

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Interview: Production Designer Liz Toonkel Describes Creating the Adorable Universe of ‘Marcel the Shell with Shoes On’

A tiny mollusk with a big personality, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is famous for quirky antics and endlessly entertaining use of human-sized objects. In a new interview supported by Colossal Members, production designer Liz Toonkel discusses building the universe the adorable character occupies in the feature-length mockumentary released this summer from A24.

All of those little details that you wouldn’t think about, when you watch it they give it an inherent truth because everything feels like it does in our real world. Same thing with the garden. Those are real plants. That’s so rare in stop motion that you have real organic materials. It’s pretty much impossible to stop-motion animate with them because they decompose. There was a lot of thought put into how to bring organic, real life to the things around Marcel.

Colossal editor-in-chief Christopher Jobson recently sat down with Toonkel to discuss building a realistic micro world within a macro setting, the challenges of blending live-action with stop-motion animation, and why the tennis ball scenes are as impressive as the internet thinks. Read the full interview here.

 

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RISD Continuing Education Opens Fall Registration With 10 Online Certificates

Artwork by Lani S., Advanced Program Online student

Choose from more than 140 courses for adults and youth ages 13 to 17 this fall at Rhode Island School of Design Continuing Education, including options for beginning, intermediate, and advanced students. Enroll by August 23 to save 10% with the code EARLYBIRDCE.

This fall, RISD CE online courses offer adult students a range of courses for all skill levels that can be taken at any time of day or night, from anywhere in the world. Our online certificate programs are designed for adults looking to accelerate their creative lives and work and join a community of certificate program graduates. Subjects include:

● Animation
● Graphic Design
● Interactive Design
● Interior Design
● Jewelry Making and Design
● Natural Science Illustration
● Painting Studies
● Photography
● Product Development and Manufacturing

We are also offering a new series in Entrepreneurship in Art and Design for adult learners that upskills students and practicing artists to develop their business ideas, studio practice, and freelancing. Choose from courses such as How to Launch Your Own Art and Design Business or How to Market Yourself as a Creative Freelancer.

RISD’s Advanced Program Online is a year-round pre-collegiate program designed for high school students interested in pursuing art and design in college. This online intensive offers an online certificate program for changemakers who want to develop their art practice, learn new ways to collaborate, and create a future they’re excited about. Enrollment is now open for the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 sessions.

Our online classes for youth ages 13 to 17 allow students to grow creatively as they develop and refine their artistic abilities. Led by visual artists, designers, and educators, these programs journey into the artistic process where the emphasis is on thinking, designing, communicating, and creating.

The Fall term starts September 12, 2022, and many online courses fill quickly, so register today! Enroll by August 23 to save 10% with the code EARLYBIRDCE.

Browse online courses at Rhode Island School of Design Continuing Education or register for RISD’s Advanced Program Online year-round intensive.

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Discarded Tools, Scrap Metals, and Fabrics Form the Spirited Sculptures by Mohsen Heydari Yeganeh

All images © Mohsen Heydari Yeganeh, shared with permission

Artist Mohsen Heydari Yeganeh extends the life of broken tools, wooden handles, and scraps of fabric found in resale shops, stalls, and alleys. Utilizing chains for plumage or a long, steel blade for a beak, Yeganeh forms stylized animalistic assemblages of discarded materials, which he refers to as “flying garbages.” Conveying the awkward, jutting postures of birds or the broad stance of a bison, the spirited sculptures combine abstract components into lively, expressive characters.

Yeganeh is one part of Kasmeh, a Tehran-based studio where he works in collaboration with the artist Arman. You can follow their upcycled creatures on Instagram.

 

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Underwater Photos by Steven Kovacs Frame the Shimmering Unearthly Bodies of Larval Fish

A young Ribbonfish off Palm Beach, Florida. Image © BluePlanetArchive / Steven Kovacs. All images licensed

Set against the stark backdrops attainable only during blackwater dives, larval fish become strange, otherworldly specimens with glasslike bodies and translucent fins that billow outward. Their delicate, still-developing anatomies are the subjects of Steven Kovacs’s underwater photos, which frame the young creatures at such precarious stages of life.

Living in Palm Beach, Kovacs (previously) frequents the waters off the Florida coasts, although he’s also recently explored areas near Kona, Hawaii. Expeditions have brought encounters with both the elusive acanthonus armatu and a type of larval ipnopidae that hasn’t been documented previously. “Of course, we are always hoping to run across a never-before-seen species like the discoverichthys praecox,” he says. “To be the first to ever find and photograph a species in the wild is an absolute thrill.”

Next on Kovacs’s list are a hairy goosefish larva and a crocodile toothfish species. Dive into an extensive archive of his images on Instagram, and pick up a print from Blue Planet.

 

Acanthonus armatus off Palm Beach, Florida. Image © BluePlanetArchive / Steven Kovacs

Discoverichthys praecox off Kona, Hawaii. Image © BluePlanetArchive / Steven Kovacs

Flying fish off Palm Beach, Florida. Image © BluePlanetArchive / Steven Kovacs

Larval fish off Florida. Image © BluePlanetArchive / Steven Kovacs

A Caribbean Reef Octopus tending to her eggs off Riviera Beach, Florida. Image © BluePlanetArchive / Steven Kovacs

Larval flounder off Kona, Hawaii. Image © BluePlanetArchive / Steven Kovacs

“Fu Manch” Flyingfish off Kona, Hawaii. Image © BluePlanetArchive / Steven Kovacs

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