Gem-Encrusted Creatures Encounter Otherworldly Ecologies in Jon Ching’s Vibrant Oil Paintings

“Arroyo.” All images © Jon Ching, shared with permission

A seahorse nestles in amongst cherry blossoms, and a cone of violet flowers morph from a glistening amethyst in Jon Ching’s uncanny ecologies. In jewel-toned oil paintings, the Los Angeles-based artist’s hybrid creatures sport regal headdresses or merge their bodies with gems and crystals. He often focuses on a central character in a contradictory environment, such as an owl among gourds, a flamingo wading between cacti in a wetland, or a bird hatching from a Fabergé egg.

Recently, Ching started creating what he describes as “quieter” compositions, panning out from central portraits to unveil the enigmatic wonder of nature as a whole. Landscapes and the details of the animals’ surroundings take precedence and sometimes border on optical illusions, like the luna moths tucked in with ginkgo leaves in “Nagamorphose” or a dewy spider web made of diamonds in “Arachnitite.” Increasingly highlighting species that are misunderstood or get a bad rap, his new paintings “are less about the animal itself and more about the beauty that exists in the world,” he says in a recent article in American Art Collector, sharing that he wants to “push back against our cultural biases about certain animals.”

Many of these pieces are part of Ching’s solo exhibition Terra Brio at Haven Gallery on Long Island, which continues through June 4. He also just released a print edition of “In Plain Sight,” which you can find in his shop. Discover more of his work on his website, and follow him on Instagram for updates and insights into his process.

 

“In Plain Sight”

“Cerebro”

“Sakura”

“Makali’i Rising”

“Nagamorphose”

“Trellis”

“Arachnitite”

“Prick”

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By Imprinting an Ornate Rug in Snow, Javier de Riba Draws Attention to Flora and Fauna Living in the Pyrenees

All images © Javier de Riba

Catalan artist Javier de Riba (previously) once again collapses the boundaries between public and private, this time by adding a cozy intervention to a frigid environment. “Canal Roya” imprints a swath of fresh snow with the artist’s signature ornate motifs to mimic a rug-like covering on the frozen landscape.

Completed in early April, de Riba created the work near the proposed location of an 8-kilometer cable car connecting ski resorts in Astún and Formigal. The project, which drew criticism for its enormous price tag and disastrous environmental effects, would likely have displaced many of the animals, plants, and other organisms that inhabit that region in the Pyrenees. Thanks to pushback from activists, though, construction has since been halted.

Find more of de Riba’s ephemeral gathering spaces on Behance and Instagram.

 

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Dilapidated Mom-and-Pop Shops Stand Alone in the Scottish Highlands in New Paintings by Andrew McIntosh

“Pentangle” (2023), oil on linen, 200 x 150 centimeters. All images courtesy of James Freeman Gallery, shared with permission

In Dreamers, Andrew McIntosh simultaneously conveys the plight and resilience of small businesses, rendering lone shops and inns among desolate landscapes. The Scottish artist (previously) often taps into nostalgia and the forgotten, and he’s known for using the highlands of his childhood as a backdrop for his mysterious scenes in oil paint.

This new body of work, which is on view this month at James Freeman Gallery, pits the inhospitable landscape against the needs of commerce with a heavy dose of irony. A travel agency towers above a small island requiring a trip by boat to reach, a tanning salon glows amid a foggy forest, and a lawnmower repair shop stands amid an overgrown field. Often outfitting the buildings with flaking paint, neon signs, and graffiti, McIntosh positions each as a relic of a former era, positing that like the Romantic notions of a wild, untamable nature becoming outmoded, so is “the postwar idealism” of capitalism and enterprise.

If you’re in London, stop by the gallery to see Dreamers from May 18 to June 10. Otherwise, find more on Instagram.

 

“Neptunes” (2023), oil on linen, 200 x 150 centimeters

“Newman Arms” (2023), oil on gesso panel, 40 x 30 centimeters

“Austin” (2023), oil on linen, 200 x 150 centimeters

“Paradise Travel” (2023), oil on linen, 150 x 130 centimeters

“Sunset Beach” (2023), oil on linen, 200 x 150 centimeters

“The Clock Inn” (2023), oil on gesso panel, 40 x 30 centimeters

“Zodiac” (2023), oil on linen, 200 x 150 centimeters

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Dilapidated Mom-and-Pop Shops Stand Alone in the Scottish Highlands in New Paintings by Andrew McIntosh appeared first on Colossal.

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Frenzied Emotions Swirl Through Changyu Zou’s Poetry-Inspired Illustrations

“Starry Bird 7.” All images © Changyu Zou, shared with permission

Tinged with magic and metaphor, the energetic illustrations by Savannah-based Chinese artist Changyu Zou are emotionally candid and reflect her reactions to verse. “I think poetry uses the most beautiful words to express what’s most real in the poet’s heart. Although these words sometimes are very abstract and not easy to understand, they can give me unlimited imagination,” she says, sharing that she tends to pull a few terms or phrases from a poem and then use those as the basis for her drawings.

Zou strives for an interplay between the original text and her visual language, which often relies on a feverish mishmash of figures and symbols. The mixed-media illustrations—she works with both digital and analog materials, including gouache, acrylics, crayons, colored pencils, and sometimes collaged details—draw directly from the Misty Poets, a tradition that emerged in defiance of the restrictive Cultural Revolution of 20th-century China and is characterized by its obscure haziness. This mysterious and indeterminate quality arises in Zou’s works as birds, human hands, cars, houses, and other objects appear to whirl in chaotic motion.

In addition to the Misty Poets, the illustrator mentions Kahlil Gibran, Haizi, and Rabindranath Tagore as influences. One line of Tagore’s “Starry Bird” reads “light in my heart the evening star of rest and then let the night whisper to me of love” and inspired Zou’s series by the same name. ” Because Tagore’s poetry expresses the harmony of life and nature, I chose elements for these to represent humans, such as cars and houses, and also elements that symbolize nature, such as birds,” she shares. “They are together on a planetary ring, expressing a state of harmony and love.”

Zou is preparing for a solo exhibition this fall, so keep an eye on her Instagram for news about that show and other projects. (via Creative Boom)

 

“Starry Bird 1”

“Plan Adviser 1”

“The World Remade”

“Starry Bird 6”

“Starry Bird 4”

“Plan Adviser 2”

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‘Drip! Drop! Slice!’ Bursts with Color and Texture Inside the You Are Beautiful Gallery

All images courtesy of You Are Beautiful Gallery, shared with permission

Oozing mounds, supple paper pods, and tightly coiled handles capture the vast range of color, texture, and shape within Drip! Drop! Slice! The first guest-curated exhibition at the You Are Beautiful Gallery and the project of Colossal’s founder and publisher Christopher Jobson, the show is vibrant and energetic as it brings several mediums and works by nine artists to the Chicago space. There are tufted tapestries by the anonymous Mz. Icar Collective, Brian Giniewski’s signature drippy pots, and a collection of wildly popular mugs from Lolly Lolly Ceramics, all of which exude the playful, optimistic tone of the You Are Beautiful message.

Find available pieces on the gallery’s site, and stop in to see the works in person through July 8.

 

Mz. Icar Collective

Lalese Stamps of Lolly Lolly Ceramics

Kassandra Guzman of Kuu Pottery

Brian Giniewski & Holly Jean Studios

Dan Lam

Adrianne Hawthorne of Ponnopozz

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Through Gripping Photos, Ryan Newburn Captures the Depths of Iceland’s Ancient Glacial Caves

All images © Ryan Newburn, shared with permission

“When you look into the walls of an ice cave, you are looking into the past as if you were suddenly inside of a time capsule that had been buried for 500 to 1,000 years,” says Ryan Newburn. “Every air bubble that you see is oxygen from a different time period. Every speckle of ash is from a different volcanic eruption.”

Raised in Omaha, Nebraska, and now based in Reykjavik, Newburn is closely acquainted with the ice caves that surround his adopted home. He first came to Iceland in 2018, training on the enormous Vatnajokull Glacier before working as an expedition guide and eventually launching his own tour company, Ice Pic Journeys, with his fellow American business partner Mike Reid.

Today, Newburn ventures into the frozen caverns with groups, photographing them and the landscape along the way. His images capture the immensity of the arctic masses, their smooth, ribbed surfaces, and the shapely contours of caverns and rivers carving through the ice. Explorers are often seen in the distance, at the end of a rippling, rocky tunnel or precariously posed beneath a cluster of sharp icicles to showcase the scale of the openings.

Occupying such an ancient and always evolving space is an experience that’s difficult to photograph, Newburn shares, because the constant trickle of melting water, the roar of distant rivers, or even the unique interplay of light and glacier are impossible to depict entirely. “Underneath the ice, where the sun cannot penetrate,” he says, “your eyes slowly adjust from the bright sun to the glowing deep blue crystal walls of the ice cave. The more that your eyes adjust, the more saturated the blue gets. It’s a surreal visual experience that you cannot get from any photo of an ice cave.”

 

While shades of blue dominate most of his images, much of the walls are transparent and crystalline, making it appear as if you could “gaze into it for miles.” This clarity, he explains, is because glacial ice has low oxidation, about 10 to 15 percent only, due to the extreme pressure exerted during their formation that forced much of the oxygen from the snow as it compacted.

Although exploring these spaces is dangerous—Newburn emphasizes the necessity of proper gear and a guide who knows the ins and outs of performing crevasse rescues—it’s also an experience that truly only happens once. He elaborates:

What’s even more unreal is realizing that when you discover an ice cave for the very first time, you are the only human that has ever been inside. On a planet where almost every area of land has been explored, the glacier provides you with never-ending caves and structures to discover. This is because the ice is always melting away and forming something new that didn’t exist yesterday and won’t exist next year. This creates an unending sense of wanderlust of what I am going to stumble upon next when exploring.

Newburn shares many of his glacial adventures on Instagram, and you can find more about his company’s expeditions on its site.

 

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Ravishing Roosters and Perky Pigeons Populate Sarah Suplina’s Vibrant Flock of Paper Birds

Rooster. All images © Sarah Suplina, shared with permission

Drawing on nature’s vibrant patterns, Sarah Suplina replicates the radiant feathers and beady eyes of a variety of birds. The Connecticut-based artist crafts detailed, lifelike animal portraits of species that she selects for their distinctive plumage and expressions, painting on lightly textured watercolor paper to achieve the vivid hues of chickens, ducks, and songbirds. “I love the subtle value and color surprises that I get with watercolors,” she says, using the medium to building up gradients and contrasts that reveal richness and depth.

Taking around six to ten hours to complete, each bird presents its own intricacies and hurdles. “I found the subtle tonal colors of doves to be challenging to capture correctly,” Suplina says. She often selects birds at random, but her surroundings provide a constant source for ideas. One series titled Backyard Beauties captures individuals spotted out her kitchen window, and her current project Dove Love focuses on pigeons and doves she sees around her neighborhood and during walks throughout New York City. “Birds are so full of personality and variations, and they are an artist’s dream to create, especially with paper,” she says.

Suplina’s work will be featured in the forthcoming book Stitched Journeys with Birds: Inspiration to Let Your Creativity Take Flight, scheduled for publication in September from Schiffer Craft. You can find intricate originals and prints in her Etsy shop and on Society6. Explore her website to learn more about her work, and find updates on Instagram.

 

Quail

Wood Hen

Goldfinches

Ground Dove

Pigeons

Mourning Doves

Rooster

Turtledoves

Titmouse

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