Minimal Paintings by Artist Liz Flores Explore What It Means to Belong

“Fresca y Atrevida (Bold and Outspoken)” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 39 ⅜ x 47 ¼ inches. All images © Liz Flores, courtesy of Vertical Gallery

A new series by Chicago-based artist Liz Flores explores familial roots and community through minimal portraits in a palette of deep, warm colors and neutral tones complemented by blues. In Ni De Aquí, Ni De Allá, which translates to “from neither here nor there,” Flores uses the anonymity and ambiguity of her figures to explore the connections between generations and the human desire to position oneself within an ancestral context. “This work is a direct reaction to the question ‘What are you?’” the artist says. “In the U.S., you don’t always feel like you are American enough. But then at the same time, you may not always feel Latina enough. You live in the in-between.”

Born to a Cuban mother and a Mexican father, Flores describes deepening her understanding of this liminal space during a recent collaboration with The Jaunt, a travel project that sends artists to various locations around the world. She traveled to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she joined her aunt and other family members for the first time without her parents. She explains:

I spent the next few days at their home talking with her about the differences in living in the States vs. Mexico, how the family in the States has changed, and the difficulty in keeping traditions alive. During this conversation, she mentioned how it can feel like you are “ni de aquí, ni de allá” and that became the title and theme of my show. It was a moment that felt like an evolution for me, not just as an artist gaining inspiration but as an adult, making connections with my family members not through my parents but on my own.

That moment followed a trip to Cuba a week earlier to visit her mother’s family when she talked with her cousins about the same feelings of belonging.

 

“Generaciones (Generations)” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 72 inches

These moments culminate in Flores’ solo show, which is on view through the end of the year at Vertical Gallery in Chicago. Fourteen acrylic paintings center on the artist’s signature color-blocked figures, whose bodies bend and join each other in abstract compositions. Elongated limbs and hand gestures imply movement through clean, graceful lines, and puzzle pieces on the threshold of fitting into place reference broader themes of identity and kinship. Works like “Fresca y Atrevida,” for example, are more personal and reflect Flores’ affinities with Cuban culture by finding a blue zunzuncito, the world’s smallest bird that’s native to the island nation, as it prepares to land on the tip of the woman’s finger.

A few of the prints the artist created with The Jaunt are available on the project’s site, and you can find more of her work on both canvases and walls on Instagram.

 

“Piezas Perdidas (Missing Pieces)” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 inches

“Espejo (Mirror),” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 inches

“Pedazo (Piece)” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 11 x 14 inches

“Sin Barreras #1 (Without Barriers #1)” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 11 x 14 inches

“Sin Barreras #2 (Without Barriers #2)” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 11 x 14 inches

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The ‘Pillars of Creation’ Glow in Remarkable Detail in a Groundbreaking Image from NASA’s James Webb Telescope

“Pillars of Creation.” All images courtesy of NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

In a small region within the vast Eagle Nebula—a 6,500 light-year journey from our solar system in the constellation Serpens—the iconic “Pillars of Creation” appear in a ghostly formation. Made of cool hydrogen gas and dust, these incubators for new stars are dense celestial structures that have survived longer than their surroundings. Ultraviolet light from incredibly hot newborn stars gradually erodes the surrounding space and illuminates the ethereal surfaces of the pillars and the streams of gas they emit.

Since July, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has released numerous photographs of the cosmos in unprecedented detail. To process this image, scientists combined captures taken with the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which brought different elements into focus. Near-infrared light emphasizes the stars, including thousands of newly-formed orange spheres that hover around the columns. The saturated hues around the interstellar formations are visible thanks to the mid-infrared contribution, which highlights the diffused orange dust around the top, deep indigo of the densest regions, and bright neutral color of the pillars. Lava-red spots on the upper parts of the spires contain young, embedded stars that will continue to form for millions of years.

See the full 47.59-megapixel photograph on the James Webb website. (via PetaPixel)

 

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Surreal Narratives Energize Karlotta Freier’s Vibrant Dreamlike Illustrations

All images © Karlotta Freier, shared with permission

Brooklyn-based illustrator Karlotta Freier accentuates aspects of the mundane into energetic, surreal compositions. Often working on commissions for larger editorial and advertising projects, she begins with a mood, narrative, or compelling fact that unwinds into vivid, dreamlike scenes with otherworldly elements. Scale and perspective figure largely in her illustrations, which sometimes position people alongside enormous flowers or animals or use landscapes to amplify the minuscule nature of humans in comparison to the vastness of the world.

Prints of Freier’s works are available from The Honey Pump, and you can find more of her personal projects and commissions for brands and publications like Hermès, The New Yorker, and The New York Times on Instagram.

 

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A New Apple Campaign Shines a Light on the Diverse Possibilities of Accessible Tech

In an empowering new ad from Apple, accessibility features of the brand’s products take center stage. Backed by an energizing soundtrack by Australian ensemble Spinifex Gum that puts famed boxer Muhammad Ali’s 1974 “I am the greatest” speech to music, scenes emphasize the features of phones, watches, and computers that allow people with physical disabilities to access myriad creative and life pursuits: a deaf mother is alerted to her child crying, a performer uses his camera to access the stage door, and a man makes various facial expressions to edit photos. Directed by Kim Gehring, “The Greatest” is a stunningly produced campaign that evinces the powers of greater access to technology for all.

 

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Vibrant Coral Expresses of the Power of Nature in Courtney Mattison’s Whirling Wall Relief

“Gyre I” (2022), glazed stoneware and porcelain, 75 x 75 x 11 inches. Photography by Daniel Jackson for Brandywine Museum of Art. All images © Courtney Mattison, shared with permission

In Courtney Mattison’s elaborate ceramic wall reliefs, the rich textures and hues of coral sweep elegantly across vast surfaces. Made of numerous individual pieces that she forms by hand, each composition references the fragility, diversity, and resilience of marine ecosystems, which she describes as an effort to “visualize climate change.” Currently on display at the Brandywine Museum of Art, “Gyre I” draws inspiration from forces of nature exemplified in the immense power of hurricanes and the delicate spirals of seashells or flower petals.

See “Gyre I” in Fragile Earth through January 8, 2023, and find more of Mattison’s work on her website and Instagram.

 

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In ‘It Is What It Is,’ Alfred Conteh Takes a Realistic Approach to Examining Life for Black Southerners

“Daishon” (2022), acrylic, atomized brass dust, and atomized steel dust on canvas, 120 x 84 inches. All images © Alfred Conteh, courtesy of Kavi Gupta, shared with permission

The urgency of Alfred Conteh’s portraits lies in the present. He portrays Black people he meets around Atlanta, creating monumental works that accentuate the material both physically and metaphorically, in their mediums and the critical analysis of current social conditions. “Black folks are not doing well in this country,” Conteh tells Colossal. “We will not do well until we come to terms with how this country was built, and the resulting racial wealth gaps and social decay. Nothing is being done to improve that, first and foremost economically.”

Layered with urethane plastic or steel and bronze dust, the works, which are on view at Kavi Gupta in Chicago as part of Conteh’s solo show It Is What It Is, are distressed with cracked surfaces and blotches of acrylic paint. Some stand ten feet tall, and the magnitude of their scale echoes that of the issues the artist is addressing. Conteh focuses on the gritty, harsh reality of the lives of Black people in the U.S., particularly as it relates to the historical policies and institutions that continue to affect the  economic, social, and cultural conditions of those he meets. “Stanton Road Water Boys,” for example, features three young men who were solicited drivers on an Atlanta road. “If there were opportunities for them to work, I doubt they would stand here trying to sell a two dollar bottle of warm water,” Conteh shares.

 

“Stanton Road Water Boys” (2022), acrylic and urethane plastic on canvas, 84 x 84 inches

As the title suggests, the exhibition exposes the overlooked or disregarded truths about life today, centering on current conditions rather than a hopeful view for the future. The myth of meritocracy is widespread, and Conteh rails against willful ignorance of privilege and power especially as it relates to wealth and access to opportunity. He explains:

Aspiration is a viewpoint that someone would have if they had the tools and the undergirding to be able to make an idea real, to make whatever they conceptualize a reality. That has not largely been available to African Americans as a whole, to aspire. Historically, legally, African Americans were enslaved, marginalized, segregated, red lined, ostracized, kept from wealth—the list goes on and on. So how can you honestly say “aspire to be something greater” when the policies and norms and mores of this country say no? It infantilizes people when we say things are gonna be alright.

It Is What It Is is on view through March 4, 2023. Find more from Conteh on Instagram.

 

Left: “Shampoo” (2022), acrylic and urethane plastic on canvas, 84 x 48 inches. Right: “IWB Shawty” (2022), acrylic, urethane plastic, and atomized steel dust on canvas, 84 x 48 inches

“Loretta (Ms. T)” (2022), acrylic and urethane plastic on canvas, 120 x 84 inches

Left: “Reesie” (2020), acrylic and urethane plastic on canvas, 48 x 36 x 3 inches. Right: “Reneé” (2020), acrylic and atomized steel dust on canvas, 48 x 36 x 3 inches

“Minnesota” (2022), acrylic and atomized steel dust on canvas, 25 x 25 inches

“Isiah (The Boxer, The Bouncer)” (2021), acrylic and atomized bronze dust on canvas, 60 x 60 inches

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Precise Geometry and Color Gradients Undulate in Anna Kruhelska’s Three-Dimensional Paper Sculptures

All images © Anna Kruhelska, shared with permission

In the meticulous folds of Anna Kuhelska’s paper sculptures, contrasts of light, shadow, and hue give the impression of undulating motion. An abiding interest in form, symmetry, and space developed from the Lodz-based artist’s work as an architect, combining precise engineering and design skills with and interest in geometry and origami. Reminiscent of the spatial explorations of Günther Oecker, humble materials form delicate patterns to create perception-bending, three-dimensional wall pieces.

Kruhelska’s earliest sculptures were constructed from white paper, which demonstrated how exact cuts and creases highlight the interplay between light and shade.  She then began to incorporate hued layers into the matrix-like surfaces. “I started mixing and combining contrasting colors to create an illusion of movement and to encourage viewers to view the work from different angles,” she tells Colossal. The works transform when they are viewed from various perspectives, revealing new colors and gradients.

You can see Kruhelska’s work in the Superspectra group exhibition at Laura Rathe Fine Art in Houston, which runs December 15, 2022, to January 12, 2023. You can find more of her work on her website and Instagram.

 

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