Subtle Hues and Papery Textures Create Intimate Atmospheres in Lea Woo’s Tender Illustrations

All images © Lea Woo, shared with permission

Lea Woo coaxes subtle polarities from her illustrated interactions. Centering on women in moments of quiet affection and admiration, the renderings contrast a vintage style with modern subjects and a largely soft color palette with spots of bolder hues. “Red, a frequently used tone in my works, represents bravery and boldness and green a close relationship with mother nature,” she shares. Grainy, paper-like textures add to the retro feel of the scenes, which convey a warm tenderness between people and the birds, fish, and cats around them.

Based between Shanghai and Hangzhou, Woo draws stark distinctions between her personal works and commissions—recent collaborators include Burberry and The New Yorker. For the latter, she tends to start with a sketch that captures the directive, while other projects are more instinctive. “I open my heart for all possibilities and unexpected ‘accidents,’” the artist tells Colossal.  “I collect and save my daily doodles and pictures I took for future use. With less set-ups, more random arrangements, I find it so much fun to freely combine different elements and they turned out to be harmoniously together at the end.” 

Woo has prints, postcards, and other goods available in her shop, and you can follow her latest projects on Instagram.

 

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For the Love of Dog: A Group Show Fetches Wide-Ranging Interpretations of Our Favorite Companions

Nicholas Bono Kennedy, “Maybe I Can Have Some?” (2023), acrylic, oil, and pastel on linen, 30 x 24 inches. All images courtesy of Hashimoto Contemporary, shared with permission

Dogs have been humans’ best friends throughout the ages, so it’s no surprise that they’ve also been prime subjects of art—the first works depicting pups date back more than 8,000 years. A group show opening at Hashimoto Contemporary this month extends this long-running tradition through paintings, ceramics, and plush sculptures that look to our canine pals and their wide range of antics for inspiration.

For the Love of Dog features works of over thirty artists who dig up adoration, fear, and other affinities for the beloved companion species: Katie Kimmel sculpts scrunched-up rolls on a chunky basset hound, Joey Wolf’s lounging gray bulldog takes on human characteristics, and Debra Broz (previously) splices a chaotic pack of pups that makes it difficult to distinguish heads from tails.

A playful and heartfelt ode, For the Love of Dog is on view from August 19 to September 9 in Los Angeles.

 

Katie Kimmel, “Daytona Peppers” (2023), ceramic, 16 3/4 x 12 x 12 inches

Joey Wolf, “Girl in Pink Armchair” (2023), oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

Debra Broz, “Dog Pile” (2023), secondhand ceramics and mixed media, 16 x 15 x 20 inches

Jillian Evelyn, “Olie” (2022), acrylic on wood panel, 24 x 18 inches

Stephen Morrison, “Orchids” (2023), oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches

Jodie Niss, “Untitled” (2023), oil paint on wood panel, 8 x 10 inches

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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

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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

 

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