Enigmatic Scenarios Unfold in Levi van Veluw’s Complex and Confrontational Sculptures

“In the depths of memory.” Photos by Michèle Margot, courtesy of Galerie Ron Mandos. All images © Levi van Veluw, shared with permission

Combining translucent polymer clay with saturated pigments or carving delicate ridges from tulipwood, Levi van Veluw constructs enigmatic, immersive narratives. The Dutch artist has been fascinated by symbols and rituals since childhood, spurred by an upbringing in a religious household. The complexity and conviction of faith and “the stark visual language of its practice made him sensitive to the visual vernacular of religious seduction,” reads a statement for the artist’s series Beyond Matter.

Memory, architecture, and storytelling manifests in Beyond Matter through the portrayal of naves or chapel-like spaces, altars, and mandalas redolent of rose windows. Geometry and repetition interact with light and shadow in meditative patterns, exploring the parallels of spiritual experience and viewing art. Van Veluw prompts questions about what and how we see and our role in completing the picture.

In another body of work, In the depths of memory, van Veluw explores portraiture and interactions between figures in a series of framed reliefs that echo movie stills or storyboard frames. And an immersive room stacked top-to-bottom with identical portraits invites viewers to stand in the center of a mysterious chamber. Mirrors on the floor and ceiling reflect the walls and one another, giving the impression of a space that is both confined and infinite. The artist leaves its interpretation open: Are you in a studio? A fever dream? Inside the artist’s mind?

 

“Dinner”

Van Veluw’s uses portals, windows, and the power of the gaze to invite us into the narrative. “In between,” for example, depicts an unhappy family in a car, viewed straight-on through the windshield. In “Dinner,” an argument has been interrupted, and one subject turns around in his seat to face outward in frustration. “Stared at by piercing gazes, you are made complicit in a situation that unfolds before your eyes,” says a statement. “You are being looked at, but, in a way, you are also looking at yourself from the outside.”

An acquisition of van Veluw’s piece “Planetary Chapel” by the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam is scheduled to go on view soon, and he is currently preparing solo exhibitions for the Singer Museum in Laren, The Netherlands, and Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris. The artist is represented by Galerie Ron Mandos, and you can explore his work in much more detail on his website. He also shares updates and amazing process videos on Instagram.

 

“In between”

Detail of “In between”

“In the depths of memory”

Detail of “In the depths of memory”

“Circular Compound”

“Beyond Matter”

“Distinct”

“Divine”

“Conversation”

“Abstruse”

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Jeff Rubio Chains Ceramic Beads and Childhood Memory in Giant Lizard Sculptures

All Images © Jeff Rubio, shared with permission

Anyone who grew up crafting with pony beads and cord will recognize the iconic beaded lizard. Dangling from backpacks traveling to and from grade school, trading colorful designs with friends, and crafting these tiny reptiles together are fond memories that come to mind when admiring at Jeff Rubio’s giant creaturely sculptures.

Invoking queerness, nostalgia, and joy, the artist taps into childhood experience by creating large-scale versions of the youthful pastime. Based in Philadelphia and working out of the historic Bok building, Rubio first molds dozens of ceramic pony beads, substantially oversized in comparison to the typical craft material. They then introduce vibrant rope to string together each piece to form the evocative, recognizable lizard shape. Rubio also fashions large steel paperclips onto several of their pieces to transform them into keychains, again connecting to the act of crafting as a kid, scrounging around for materials, and working with the most accessible supplies.

“In my studio, I find myself surrounded by tokens of my childhood—Tamagotchis, action figures, and Happy Meal toys. While these artifacts hold great sentimental value, they’re often a lot smaller than we recollect,” Rubio tells Colossal, explaining further:

The small scale makes the childhood memories more distant and wistful. When I was creating a replica of the beaded lizard keychain from my childhood, I wanted to have a deeper reflection on the act of play. Through the use of large-scale ceramic beads, I’ve managed to recapture the sensation of being a small child.

The artist continues to create works drawing from their adolescent memories, focusing on iterations of Tamagotchis, Mr. Potato Head, and more. Rubio is anticipating a forthcoming group show at Commonweal Gallery, opening this November. To see more of their process, check out their Instagram and website.

 

Photo by Ian Shiver

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Tons of Broken Glass Flood Architectural Spaces in Captivating Site-Specific Installations by Baptiste Debombourg

“Black tide” (2023), broken laminated glass from vitroplus , black lacquer, nails, wood, medium, silicone, and tape, 3.5 x 10 x 9 meters. Installed in Maison Hazeur for Passages Insolites in Quebec, Canada. All images © Baptiste Debombourg, shared with permission

“I am interested in individual repeated attempts, which sometimes lead to failure,” says Baptiste Debombourg. “The impression of impotence generated by such situations, and by the individuals themselves, simply highlights the fragile and endearing nature of the human being.”

The French artist is known for large-scale installations that repurpose utilitarian objects like cafe chairs, staples, and windshields into elaborate, immersive artworks. Enormous sheets of glass cascade from the windows of an abbey or slosh around inside of a courtyard, often using many tons of the fragile planes to accomplish a sense of undulating motion.

Debombourg’s most recent work, “Black tide,” combines black lacquer with broken glass, silicone, and other materials to flood a Quebec gallery. A powerful gush buries everything in its wake like a tidal wave, landslide, magma flow, or oil spill. Furniture is half-submerged and strewn throughout the deluge, referencing environmental disasters that humans both cause and experience.

“My inspiration and influences come from everyday life, and more specifically, from day-to-day objects that condition our lives,” Debombourg says. Architecture plays a crucial role in his site-specific installations, providing openings, boundaries, and elements that inspire each work. In “Aerial,” for example, classical columns and high windows at Brauweiler Abbey, a former Benedictine monastery in Pulheim, Germany, inspired a set of giant drape-like windows that appear to billow from the walls as if pushed by a strong wind, turning viscous at the bottom and oozing across the floor.

Debombourg is currently working on several projects, including an installation scheduled to open in November at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, Romania, curated by Anca Mihuleţ. A commissioned, permanent artwork for Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland, is also slated to open in February. Explore much more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

 

Detail of “Black tide”

“(R)evolve” (2017), windshields, wood, nails, screws, and paint, 8 x 8 x 4.5 meters. Installed at Eduardo Secci Gallery in Florence, Italy

Detail of “(R)evolve”

“Aerial” (2012), 33/2 laminated glass from Glas König, wood, nails, and white paint, 3 x 12 x 4.5 meters, two ons of glass. Installed at Brauweiler Abbey in Pulheim, Germany

Detail of “Aerial”

Detail of “Aerial”

Detail of “Aerial”

“Acceleration field” (2015), white laminated glass, wooden structure, screws, nails, paint, silicone3D, 11 x 7 x 1.8 meters, 250 meters² glass at four tons. Installed at Fondation Antoine de Galbert in Paris, France, with technical assistance from Léa Marchalwith the support of Wellmade and Saint-Gobain

Detail of “Acceleration field”

Detail of “Acceleration field”

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Through Gilded Portraits, Tawny Chatmon Envisions a Dazzling Future

“Iconography/A Hopeful Truth” (2022-2023), 24k gold leaf, 22k moon gold, acrylic paint, semi-precious stones, and other mixed media on archival pigment print, 56 x 42 inches. All images © Tawny Chatmon, shared with permission

“Whenever I think about the future, I think about my children and the fact that I feel that the future does not belong to me; it belongs to them,” says Tawny Chatmon (previously). “The work I’m creating now is what I’m manifesting for their present and future.”

Often centering her portraiture on adolescents, Chatmon is visionary, imagining a time when children are “living in peace, being safe, being protected, being free of stereotypes, living freely and joyously, being treated gently by the world.” This dream is rooted in a long-held desire for young Black people to be recognized as inherently valuable and significant, visualized through the artist’s signature glimmering embellishments.

Reminiscent of Gustav Klimt’s works and pastiglia, or low-relief decorations, of 15th-century Italian artists, Chatmon’s Remnants and Pastoral Scenes series overlay portraits with gold leaf, acrylic paint, semi-precious stones, and other mixed-media. The gilded additions often cloak garments and sometimes the backdrop, while the works retain the original photographic depiction of the sitter’s face and limbs.

Remnants contains cut-and-pasted scraps from the artist’s early paintings, and Pastoral Scenes positions the figures against distant landscapes. Both series, though, honor ancestral ties and emphasize the need to break free from outdated modes of being. “My work is a beautiful resistance simply because it exists,” she says. “Existence, by definition, is the state of being alive or being real, and despite early depictions of Black bodies as background or ‘other’ in Western art, while primarily centering whiteness, we are real. We always have been.”

 

“Iconography/In honor of the sacred divinity that exists within us” (2023), 24k gold leaf, paper, acrylic on archival pigment print, 47 x 35 inches

Chatmon takes a similar approach in her ongoing Iconography series, which evokes Byzantine-era works that depict religious figures through dense mosaics. “These visual declarations were used to assist the observer in focusing on all things sacred and were viewed more as literal prayers than art. Believed to serve as conduits to the divine, each was meticulously crafted by an iconographer embarking on a journey of prayer and meditation,” she shares.

Her pieces draw on this tradition through swaths of gold tesserae that transcend the earthly. In “A Hopeful Truth,” Chatmon fashions flowing, metallic garments for two young girls, who embrace in front of a tiled backdrop with blue, floral filigree. Another work, “In honor of the sacred divinity that exists within us,” features the artist’s daughter wearing a robe draped over her shoulders and a gown with a portrait of Harriet Tubman near her heart. “Just as Byzantine icons serve as windows to the spiritual realm, may my icons serve as means of sending gratitude to our ancestors and a connection to those who helped shape our lives throughout history,” the artist says.

And the devotional nature of these early Roman works isn’t lost on Chatmon. For each piece, she pre-determines what she’s hoping to communicate and when complete, considers “what I want the work to do once shared with others by saying a prayer over the work and setting intentions.”

Chatmon currently has a limited-edition print available through Art + Culture to support The Last Resort Artist Retreat, a residency for Black creatives. She also has work in several exhibitions opening in the coming weeks, including group shows at Galerie Myrtis in Baltimore, the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, and Florida State University’s Museum of Fine Arts. You can follow her latest endeavors on Instagram.

 

“Remnants/I Was Born to Stand in the Light” (2020-2022), 24k gold leaf, paper, acrylic, other mixed media on archival pigment print, 63 x 41 inches

“Pastoral Scenes/Ralisha” (2021-2022), 24k gold leaf, acrylic, semi-precious stones, thermoplastic polymer resin, and other mixed media on archival pigment print, 56 x 36 inches

“Bridgetower Frieze” (2021), 24k gold leaf and acrylic on archival pigment print, 40 x 30 inches

“Remnants/Aunt Mattie’s Beloved Frock” (2021), 24k gold leaf, paper, acrylic on archival pigment print, 30 x 24 inches

“Iconography/And All Generations Shall Call Us Blessed (before completion)” (2022), 24k gold leaf, paper, abalone shell, and acrylic on archival pigment print, 44 x 36 inches

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 Through Gilded Portraits, Tawny Chatmon Envisions a Dazzling Future appeared first on Colossal.

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Interview: Amy Sherald On Bearing Witness, Social Anxiety, and Finding Respite in Her Work

“The lesson of the falling leaves” (2017), oil on canvas, 54 x 43 x 2 1/2 inches. Photo by Joseph Hyde. All images © Amy Sherald, courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth, shared with permission

Here’s what painter Amy Sherald has always known about herself: She was born to be an artist.

In a new conversation with Colossal contributor Paulette Beete, Sherald says that she was born to bear witness to Black life, with painting becoming a “corrective” to the struggle story that’s often the only one told about Black communities.

Portraiture, for me, is having the opportunity to tell a story, to tell my story, to tell our story (as Black people), to have the portrait work in ways that are creating a counter-narrative, a corrective narrative, but then also a narrative that can carry us into our future selves. They have the capacity to be mirrors for today and also vessels to look through to see into the future.

Sherald discusses her early desire to work with her hands, why she prefers removing context and instead painting solid backgrounds, and how her practice offers a place of rest and hope in a heartbreaking world.

Read the conversation.

 

“They Call Me Redbone but I’d Rather Be Strawberry Shortcake” (2009), oil on canvas, 54 x 43 inches, National Museum of Women in the Arts

 

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 Interview: Amy Sherald On Bearing Witness, Social Anxiety, and Finding Respite in Her Work appeared first on Colossal.

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Karen Navarro Puzzles and Stacks Fragmented Portraits Into Explorations of Identity

“Fragment” (2019), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wood, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 56 x 48 inches. All images © Karen Navarro, shared with permission

Stacked, spinning, and puzzled together, Karen Navarro’s vibrant portraits explore myriad facets of identity. Photography provides the foundation for the Houston-based artist’s practice, which often encompasses sculpture, text, and collage to examine ideas around self-representation, gender, race, and a sense of belonging. In two of her recent series, The Constructed Self and Neither Here Nor There, Navarro slices bold portraits into cubes or strips, then rearranges the pieces into shape-shifting patterns.

Born in Argentina, Navarro later immigrated to the United States, and in 2014, she discovered that she could trace her ancestry to the Mapuche culture. “I have always been interested in identity, but this piece of information shook my past understanding of who I was,” she says. The Constructed Self developed from an interest in the simultaneously personal and universal human experience of building and exuding a persona. She is also interested in how one’s perspective can alter what one sees.

Through fragmenting, layering, and reassembling, Navarro splices images with bright edges that draw attention to negative space, uneven surfaces, and intersections. She captures digital portraits of her sitters in front of solid backgrounds, emphasizing their direct gazes and garments. While she focuses on others, she sees the work as self-reflective and driven by “the need to celebrate diversity to reframe the representation of historically marginalized identities.”

 

“Untitled (rearranged)” (2021), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wood, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 30 x 24 inches

Neither Here Nor There centers on first, second, and third-generation immigrants and reconfigures the images to visualize the endless process of forming one’s identity. “I’m attracted to the contradiction of creating work that is made out of a photograph but ceases to be one when I separate it into pieces and add other materials like wood, paint, and resin,” she says. “It’s no longer a photograph, but it doesn’t become a sculpture either…The hybridity of the final artwork conceptually embodies how I feel, that I don’t belong here or there.”

Navarro recently traveled to Argentina to photograph people reconnecting with their Indigenous heritage, and she plans to return to present an exhibition of the final works. To help fund the project, she will launch a series of prints on Indigenous Peoples Day (October 9). “The work is about reconnecting with my Indigenous identity and celebrating its beauty,” she tells Colossal. “For me, reconnecting with that part of my identity is a profound act of resilience, resistance, and reclamation.”

Find more of Navarro’s work on her website, and follow Instagram for updates about the print release and future projects.

 

“Untitled (perspective)” (2021), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wood, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 35 x 28 x 3 inches

“Displaced” (2022), from ‘Neither Here Nor There,’ archival inkjet print, wood, acrylic paint, , and epoxy, 24.75 x 23 inches

“Rearranged ll,” (2021), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wood, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 32 x 30.5 inches

Left: “Fractured” (2021), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wood, acrylic paint, epoxy, and vinyl, 50 x 40 inches. Right: “Twisted” (2020), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wood, epoxy, acrylic paint, and metal rope, 52 x 18 x 18 inches

“Puzzled” (2020), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wood, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 50 x 36 inches

“Untitled (perspective ll)” (2021), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wood, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 30 x 24 x 3 inches

“Twisted variation” (2021), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wood, gesso, metal, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 24 x 24 x 15 inches

“Sliced” (2022), from ‘Neither Here Nor There,’ archival inkjet print, wood, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 27 x 27.5 inches

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 Karen Navarro Puzzles and Stacks Fragmented Portraits Into Explorations of Identity appeared first on Colossal.

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Whimsical Creatures, Mechanics, and Celestial Details Collide in Ori Toor’s Frenzied Illustrations

“TJF.” All images © Ori Toor, shared with permission

Tucked in the cramped confines of a rectangular form, the lively and fantastical illustrations of Tel Aviv-based artist Ori Toor (previously) are suffused with chaotic energy. Set on solid backdrops, the works are a frenzied mishmash of overlapping mechanical components, cartoonish characters, and natural elements like flowers with faces or pill-shaped planets. Toor plays with scale and perspective in a way that creates several winding narrative paths throughout each piece, along with seemingly endless visual intrigue.

While the artist often works digitally, he shares that he’s returned to doodling in ink in his sketchbooks. “It’s something I used to do all the time but suddenly stopped a few years ago. It’s a lot of fun and takes off the pressure of posting everything you make—when it’s on the computer, it’s already one step away from Instagram—but still very challenging,” he says. “Things look different when you can’t use undo.”

Toor was recently commissioned to illustrate a map of the multiverse for the collector’s edition of A24’s award-winning Everything Everywhere All At Once, in addition to a soothing, black-and-white piece for WeTransfer’s new coloring book. He currently has a limited-edition print available through Massbase and a few other works on Society6. You can follow his latest illustrations on Behance and Instagram.

 

“GHFHJ”

“Inside the Flamingo Cloud”

“Plant Friends”

“Ride”

“Salads”

“Dogwalking Machine”

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