In Remarkably Realistic Sculptures, Brock DeBoer Preserves Quotidian Objects in Porcelain

All images © Brock DeBoer, shared with permission

What do skateboarding and ceramics have in common? Artist and avid skater Brock DeBoer discovered the medium as a teenager during a requisite stint in summer school, and he latched on to learning something new. “When I sat at the potter’s wheel, I was challenging myself almost the same way as I did skateboarding,” the Los Angeles-based artist says. “Like, okay, next one is gonna be taller or wider, or I’m going to make this shape I saw in a book, and almost overnight, I had found something that would change my life.”

DeBoer attended ceramics classes in community college while he was still in high school, and as a student at the Kansas City Art Institute, he was introduced to porcelain. It sparked a practice he has pursued since. Portraying objects we typically associate with heavy use, like sneakers, radios, and basketballs, the artist elicits a playful tension between fragility and function. “The subjects, such as the sneakers, have a shelf life before the soles crumble and bubbles pop, and having the ability to preserve them and give them a new life is interesting to me,” he says.

 

Each piece’s decor harkens back to popular traditions in pottery like blue-and-white Chinese porcelain, which emerged in the 14th century and was wildly popular in Europe, spurring subsequent styles like Royal Delft. “Adding this surface decoration also folds a layer of history into the sculptures, which I think is even more impactful when on these common objects,” he says.

DeBoer chooses everyday, recognizable items as a way to emphasize the medium itself. “Presenting something familiar allows the viewer to experience and be absorbed in the exactness of the sculpture before reading too much into it,” he says. “There’s a challenge to capturing objects like this. And in this way, because there is no room for shortcuts, every detail has to be perfect.”

Recently, DeBoer has been learning glass casting and is looking forward to incorporating new techniques into his work, along with creating larger-scale installations inspired by his time in L.A. See more on his website, and follow updates on Instagram. You might also enjoy Brendan Lee Satish Tang’s porcelain-inspired drawings or Helena Hauss’ Delft-style weaponry.

 

 

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Celebrate Creativity and Community at the Detroit Month of Design Festival

All images courtesy of Design Core Detroit

The Detroit Month of Design Festival is a citywide celebration of creativity that gathers designers and the greater community to celebrate Detroit’s role as a national and global design capital. Every September, partners across the city—from emerging studios to established companies and educational institutions—come together to show off their latest works and ideas. These cross-disciplinary events take place in all corners of the metropolis, highlighting the talent and innovation that makes Detroit the first and only UNESCO City of Design in the U.S.

With over 80 events put on by hundreds of creatives, the 13th Annual Detroit Month of Design festival is expected to engage over 50,000 attendees in various neighborhoods throughout September.

For more information, visit detroitmonthofdesign.org.

 

Dress by Detroit designer Nabeela Najjar from the Building a Lasting Impact exhibition at the 2022 Detroit Month of Design. Photo by Christian Najjar

The Detroit Month of Design is presented by Design Core Detroit. As the steward of the UNESCO City of Design designation, Design Core champions the transformative power of design by supporting creative problem-solvers using myriad solutions to improve our city’s economy.

Through UNESCO, Detroit is part of an elite network of cities around the world that harnesses design to improve the lives of everyday people. The designation puts Detroit’s assets to work, ensuring a more sustainable and equitable future for all residents.

Follow along with all things Detroit Design on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

 

Outdoor Gazebo by Sean Hages

Image of conference room at design studio PopHouse

Image from “313 030 PROJEKT” by The Container Globe

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A Colossal Interview: Chris Pappan On Connecting to His Ancestors, Stereotypes, and the Center for Native Futures

“Relatives.” All images © Chris Pappan, shared with permission

For Chris Pappan, distinguishing between the past and present, the present and the future, is irrelevant. Time, for him, is circular and cyclical, an understanding he discusses in a new conversation with Colossal.

Our people believe that our ancestors are always with us and watching over us. I think that’s very important. In a lot of my work, I try to honor our ancestors in that way. I’m always looking at old photographs, and I feel like I’m communicating directly with them. Whether they’re my direct ancestors or indirect ancestors, that’s really special… I don’t want it to stay in the past. It’s about the present and the future, as well.

A citizen of the Kaw (Kanza) Nation and of Osage, Lakota, and European descent, Pappan is invested in honoring his ancestors while emphasizing Native American contemporaneity. He often works on municipal ledger paper and other found substrates to depict people in photorealistic detail, mirroring their faces and forms and creating myriad metaphors for split selves, distortion, and human interaction that transcend time and space.

In this conversation, Pappan discusses his evolution as an artist, the complex nature of Indigenous life in Chicago, and the importance of his new venture, the Center for Native Futures.

Read the interview.

 

“Howageji Nizhuje Akipé (Where the Rivers Meet)” (2023)

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‘Abandoned Theatres’ Spotlights the Remains of Small-Town Midwestern Cinemas

All images © Ben Geier, shared with permission

Like many sectors of the U.S. economy, movie theaters struggled during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many were forced to shut their doors after months of lockdown, an additional blow to the small, independently run spots that had been competing with multiplex chains for decades.

When the pandemic hit, Ben Geier already had his eye on local cinemas, particularly those in Midwestern areas that closed years before. He photographed the remains for Abandoned Theatres, an ongoing series that’s both a nostalgic and clear-eyed look at small-town life. As more cinemas shuttered in 2020, Geier’s subject matter became more abundant. “Covid times really allowed me to get out on the road and photograph most of the theatres without anybody around, which gave each photo an eerie quality,” he tells Colossal.

Primarily shot straight on, the images document remnants and what are now relics of an earlier era: painted plywood covers the spot where a poster once hung, metal gates rest along a drive-in wall, and a marquee advertises the phone number of the movie hotline. So far, the series includes about 20 locations with a wide variety of architecture, from the classic State Theatre to the old-world farmhouse style of the Delft.  “I really enjoy rural America and the roadside aesthetic from the ’50s to ’80s, and there’s still a lot of it hiding in small towns, so I try my best to photograph it while it’s still around,” he says. “I have a lot of interests, and the Abandoned Theatre series seemed like a perfect blend of so many of them: Americana, architecture, and neon signs.”

Geier, who’s based in Batavia, Illinois, will be traveling throughout the Southwest U.S. in the coming months, in part, to scout theatres to add to the series. You can find more of his work, including a collection that peers inside a house with impeccably preserved 1960s charm, on Behance and Instagram. (via Present & Correct)

 

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In Macro Photos, Barry Webb Captures the Fleeting, Otherworldly Characteristics of Slime Molds and Fungi

Didymium squamulosum with ice crown. All images © Barry Webb, licensed

Photographer Barry Webb (previously) continues his hunt for the speckled, glimmering, and ice-crested organisms that pop up near his home in South Buckinghamshire, U.K. Armed with a 90-millimeter macro lens, Webb ventures into woodlands and other natural areas where slime molds and fungi thrive. There, he zeroes in on their microscopic features, documenting their wildly diverse characteristics that often last for just a brief moment in time. Recent shots include a tuft of Muppet-like fuzz topping Metatrichia floriformis, a water droplet suspended between two cup-like Craterium minutum, and a cluster of Pink stemonitis filaments propped on spindly black legs.

Webb has won several awards in recent months, including from the Royal Photographic Society and Close-Up Photographer of the Year. Four of his photos will be featured at the Vienna Mushroom Festival next month, prints are available on his site, and you can find more of his work on Instagram.

 

Metatrichia floriformis and physarum

Cribraria

Pink stemonitis

Craterium minutum

Leocarpus fragilis

Holly parachute fungus, Marasmius hudsonii

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Nick Gentry’s Technological Portraits Broach the Artificiality of Online Identities

“Mask 1” (2023), used VHS cassette tapes, spray paint, and oil paint on wood, 20.5 x 29.5 inches. All images © Nick Gentry, courtesy of Robert Fontaine Gallery, shared with permission

In Skin Deep, Nick Gentry probes the “chasm between real and online personas.” Working on painted backdrops of outdated technology like floppy disks and VHS tapes, the artist invites questions that are uniquely contemporary, asking about performance and presentation on the internet, increasingly artificial standards of beauty, and the instability of memory over time.

Diverging from his earlier portraits that were more faithful to a subject’s likeness, Gentry’s new body of work is deeply influenced by the virtual. He often paints his figures in grayscale, leaving them devoid of defining characteristics, and uses the tape’s plastic reels to highlight their eyes. This melding of human and machine elicits the cold, detached feeling associated with a cyborg and emphasizes the synthetic, masked nature of online identities. Given the irrelevance of the once-groundbreaking technology, the portraits also speak to the inevitable shifts in importance and how information is stored, shared, and remembered.

Skin Deep is on view through September 30 at Robert Fontaine Gallery in Miami Beach. You can find more from Gentry on his site and Instagram.

 

“Replicant 3” (2023), used VHS cassette tapes, spray paint, and oil paint on wood, 20.5 x 29.5 inches

“Viewing Figures” (2022), used VHS cassette tapes and paint on wood, 25 x 37 inches

“Skin Deep” (2023), used VHS cassette tapes, spray paint, and oil paint on wood, 45 x 45 inches

“Analogue Montage Number 1” (2023), used VHS cassette tapes, spray paint, and oil paint on wood, 32.25 x 37 inches

Left: “The Fool” (2023), used VHS cassette tapes, spray paint, and oil paint on wood, 10 x 9 inches. Right: “Populous” (2023), used computer disks and oil paint on wood, 37 x 28 inches

“Binary” (2021), used floppy disks and paint on wood, 19 x 32 inches

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Beastly Snouts Nose Into Kathryn Reid’s Playful Ring Collection

Bull. All images © Kathryn Reid

Kathryn Reid toys with the idea of a nose ring in her collection of muzzle designs, no piercing required. Working from her family farm in Northern Ireland, Reid creates playful, cheeky rings with wrinkled skin and nostrils of common livestock like horses, cows, and bulls. The silver, gold, and mixed-metal pieces are entirely hand-crafted and all based on animals the designer has known personally, including her beloved pup, Theo.

Although the nose rings are currently sold out, Reid frequently shares news about shop restocks, along with glimpses into her process, on Instagram.

 

Horse

Dog

Dog

Cow

Bull

Cow

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