From materials we normally discard like padded packaging or the mesh sleeves that protect fruit from bruising, Suzanne Jongmans summons elegant and dreamlike Renaissance portraits.

The artist drapes models in lush velvet fabrics and typically positions them against deep backgrounds in the vein of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Lady with an Ermine” (1489-91) or Antonello da Messina’s “Portrait of a Young Man” (c. 1470). The settings and the addition of fine garments contrast found plastic detritus with hints of refinement and the figures’ dignified postures, mirroring the solemn, pious expressions of individuals in Renaissance portraiture. Recently, she has also incorporated copper coils extracted from the electric motors of disused household appliances and fuses.

Jongmans infuses her works with nods to gender roles and issues that still raise the hackles of “polite society,” such as breastfeeding in public. The artist seamlessly ties a centuries-old aesthetic to salient contemporary concerns, exploring femininity, individuality, and the nature of concealment. Through the latter especially, she delves into the human capacity for wonder and its significance at a time when technology, the gears of so-called progress, and revisionism endanger our connections to the natural world, our histories, and one another.

The artist describes her approach as an exploration of the space between the material and the immaterial world, one where society, eras, emotions, and cosmic forces converge. “Since the Enlightenment, reason has been glorified and the Western tendency towards a drive for modernization and mechanization has increased,” Jongmans says in a statement. “The significance of myths and imagination in our daily lives seems to have been lost or at least faded into the background.”

By exploring the past, Jongmans creates exquisitely contemporary compositions, prompting us to consider the meaning of value and how it is assigned. The works are also sensitive, introspective meditations on human feeling, and she has even occasionally turned the camera on herself. “In the Midst of It All,” for example, is a self-portrait taken during the pandemic that serves as a reminder to slow down, rest, and reconnect not only with the surrounding environment but with oneself.

See more on Jongmans’ Instagram.

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Scientists have long studied how magnetic energy powers solar activity. The constant motion of plasma particles and the sun’s rotation are major contributors to its cycles and events, such as flares and coronal mass ejections, which lob huge quantities of plasma and gas into space.

Sometimes these explosions reach the earth’s magnetic field and cause geomagnetic storms, which are when we see some of the most brilliant auroras. But they also disrupt or damage our communications systems, power grids, GPS, and satellites, and researchers want to further understand how the sun builds up its magnetic energy so we better know how to guard against its massive fits of activity. They’ve also been trying to figure out why the sun’s corona, or atmosphere, is millions of degrees hotter than its surface.

Thanks to the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, which has pride of place at the National Solar Observatory on Maui, Hawaii, the highest-resolution image of the sun ever captured has revealed unique features that may give solar scientists some insight into how this magnetic energy builds.

Rippling forms that physicists call Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI) demonstrate the effect of two fluids flowing past each other at different velocities. It’s a phenomenon named for the two scientists who observed it for the first time around 1870, and it can be seen in clouds, ocean waves, and the atmospheres of gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn.

The Inouye telescope, the most powerful of its kind, was able to capture features smaller than 12 miles across, providing insights that remained hidden in earlier photos. The details may illuminate part of a solar process that scientists refer to as “flux braiding,” because the way the sun’s magnetic field lines move around one another result in a plaited effect. But the tension builds and builds before eventually breaking, which is when we see flares and similar events. The swirls of KHI may have something to do with how these twists happen in the first place.

“This could solve this biggest mystery of the last half a century for solar physics and astrophysics,” team scientist Dr. David Kuridze told The Guardian. “When you have this instability in the system, it is very easy to cascade the energy into smaller scales. And at some point, it just dissipates as a heat. This could make hot coronas, hot outer atmospheres of the sun and similar stars.”

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Like many kids, I struggled with bedtime. I was a naturally anxious child with a vast imagination and siblings who loved to watch scary movies, leaving me capable of generating an endless array of terrifying things that could happen once the lights went out. To remedy this problem, my mother designated a particular stuffed bear as my guardian, and before retreating to her own room, she would grab its squishy body and infuse it with her protective “power” should I need some comfort and safety during the night. For a time at least, this plush toy was enough to get me to sleep.

For Seoul-born, Chicago-based artist Sungho Bae, the meaning and emotion we ascribe to our childhood possessions gets flipped inside out. Bae gathers once-beloved toys from shops and disposal sites, which he then deconstructs and reconfigures atop a figurative armature. What emerges are uncanny sculptures and reliefs made of a vibrant, fleshy patchwork that resembles organs, tissue, muscle, and more.

In his exhibition Apotropaia, Bae presents a suite of new works likened to charms, amulets, and other magical forms that ward off evil. The title references the ancient Greek belief in mystical powers and nods to the ways in which humankind has long found meaning in objects, rituals, and materials. Why were these presumably cherished toys discarded? And how might their former significance be reshaped?

One of the less abstract and fantastical works is “Dansu,” a head and cross-cut neck with taxidermy eyes and feathers standing in for hair. The piece references a state in the Korean game of Go in which there’s only one move left before capture. Presented atop a weathered game board, the figure embodies the tension between natural and artificial and spirit and death, as he stares with vacant glass eyes originally designed to replicate life in a mounted animal.

Additional wall works, each titled “Gut,” are more amorphous. With wispy hair encircling an edge and bits of clay embedding into the mishmash of color and texture, the strange pieces revel in their ambiguity, inviting the viewer in for a closer look.

Apotropaia is on view through September 6 at 4th Ward Project Space. Keep up with Bae on Instagram.

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Described by its anonymous creators as “the largest search engine for museum art,” The Last Museum is a veritable trove of the the world’s great works. It currently includes pieces by more than 290,000 artists, which are held across 4,903 museums and represent 304 cultures and nationalities. A lot of the works are in the public domain, such as a 19th-century beaded bag attributed to the Lakota, thousands of ancient Etruscan artifacts, and objects spanning thousands of years in places like Germany, Spain, India, and Egypt.

Clicking on any artifact will any available information about the artist, title, and date, plus a link to the museum collection it belongs to. If there’s copyright attached to the images, they’re available in accordance with fair use, which means they’re available at a low resolution for browsing online but not reproducing, and they’re shared strictly for educational and non-commercial purposes. “We currently have around five million artworks indexed, and strive to eventually index all museum art in the world,” the creators say.

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In elegant, meditative paintings by Meghann Stephenson, the inner lives of women are illuminated through subtle symbolism. The Los Angeles-based artist is known for her figurative paintings and still-lifes emphasizing repetition, reflection, and mystery. Often, we encounter a puzzle-like quality to her work in the form of knots, mazes, or duplicates. Next month, a show of nine paintings at Half Gallery continues her exploration of the relationship between inner states and societal constraints.

Queen of the Neighborhood! will include a suite of new paintings that correspond to the nine circles of Hell in Dante’s Inferno, the 14th-century narrative poem in which each concentric level of the underworld is reached by committing a sin greater than the last. Each composition represents a specific wrongdoing, observed through a feminine lens, “where anger, violence, vanity, desire, and inaccessibility take quieter, more intimate form,” the gallery says.

Stephenson’s approach to actions considered taboo or even evil is nuanced and poetic, portraying women in nightgowns against deep backgrounds in a stark contrast of light and dark, innocence and treachery. The artist plumbs the psychology of “acceptable behavior” expected of women and gender roles that pervade the social fabric of Western society.

In “Are You Looking Up?” for instance, a woman’s legs are encircled by a picket fence, an all-American symbol of prosperity and safety. Here, it is also an unassuming suburban cage, nodding to the pervasive patriarchal expectation that women’s sole allegiance should be to home and family, granting them little agency.

Instead of literal depictions of sins, Stephenson’s works “consider the subtle behaviors, desires, and expressions through which women have historically been perceived to transgress, positioning both subjects and viewers within shifting roles of judgment and complicity.” At a time when politicians and religious fundamentalists have been given a platform to challenge women’s right to vote, Stephenson’s pared-down study of women’s emotions and mental states taps into a pervasive tension and fatigue. All the same, these women appear calm, collected, and pensive as we catch them in what may be the the very moment that precedes action.

Queen of the Neighborhood! runs from September 9 to October 8 in New York. See more on the artist’s Instagram.

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For Copenhagen-based illustrator and designer Radhika Chitalia, an interest in memories, psychology, and emotions drives a practice centered around connections. From imbuing product design with a bit of humanity to using natural pigments and motifs inspired by Indian folk traditions, she’s drawn to the dynamics of community and relationships. One particular bond stands out in a recent personal project.

“After my father passed away, his expired passport remained tucked away for years,” the artist says. “Rather than throwing it away, I began painting every page with gouache—working over visas, immigration stamps, and empty pages as a way to not just cope with the grief but fill up the pages that he never got to fill.”

Chitalia recalls that her father “loved to travel and had planned to spend his retirement exploring the world with my mother, but passed away before he got the chance.” Still, he filled a lot of pages in his passport. And as adhered paper visas and inked stamps increasingly become a thing of the past, the document serves as both a personal time capsule and an artifact of the way we once traveled.

The artist saw potential in its worn spreads and bureaucratic insertions for another story, one that could be layered vibrantly on top of the existing document to celebrate her father’s life and adventures in a kind of posthumous father-daughter tribute. “What started spontaneously became a way of exploring grief, memory, and the journeys that never happened,” she says. “The passport became more than a surface—it was an object already carrying his history, and the paintings slowly became a way of filling its pages with new stories.”

Chitalia has also been painting on other found documents that belonged to her father, and she often shares her progress on Instagram. Find more of the artist’s work on Behance. You might also enjoy Pep Carrio’s thousands of datebook drawings.

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Unlike the coasts, Midwestern culture is synonymous with the manual labor of blue-collar jobs, resilience necessary in harsh winters, and a certain friendliness that lends itself to a deep-rooted sense of community. These humble tenets grounded Melissa Joseph’s childhood in Saint Marys, a small, rural city in Pennsylvania, where she was born to a mother with Irish heritage and a father from Kerala, India. The melange of biracial life, Midwestern niceties, and gendered fiber art traditions are woven through Joseph’s artistic practice, which translates family photos into tender needle-felted scenes.

In her forthcoming solo exhibition, Casserole Culture, the New York-based artist echoes the warmth and mundanity present in these snapshots of life through soft layers of wool. An upturned hat on a wooden dresser, the bright orange flowers of dining room wallpaper, and even the titular hot dish all appear in hazy fiber, nodding to the fuzziness of memory.

Alongside two-dimensional works, Joseph also incorporates found objects like worn tires, salvaged boxes, frames, and industrial materials into her more sculptural pieces. In this body of work, a felted fire roars inside a hulking model hearth, for example, while another embeds a fragment of a fork inside a metal-and-wood form.

The artist’s mother died in 2024, and she’s found it difficult to depict her family in the wake of such profound grief, instead focusing on their possessions and the places where cherished moments occurred. “Even if the people themselves may elude the artist’s hand, she captures the spaces they enliven, the unremarkable yet prized moments that shape our lives,” says a statement about the exhibition.

Casserole Culture will be on view from September 9 to October 17 at Charles Moffett in New York. Until then, explore more of Joseph’s work on Instagram.

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Discover world-class museums, public art, sculpture gardens, local dining, and unforgettable cultural experiences, all within one vibrant, walkable city during the Milwaukee Art Escape. The limited-time promotion runs from August 21 through October 6, 2026, and invites you to explore some of Cream City’s best public art, cultural collections, and creative spaces.

Wander the exhibitions of the Milwaukee Art Museum, Haggerty Museum of Art, MIAD Galleries, Lynden Sculpture Garden, Villa Terrace Museum & Gardens, Charles Allis Art Museum, and more. You can even join a guided tour with Sculpture Milwaukee or ride a Bublr Bike to Lion’s Tooth Books. And don’t forget to shop for souvenirs from Urban Milwaukee: The Store and Historic Milwaukee, Inc.

How does it work? It’s completely free, but one way to participate is to book the Milwaukee Art Escape package at Saint Kate — The Arts Hotel. Upon arrival you’ll receive a printed Milwaukee Art Escape Passport, plus a $25 food and beverage credit for qualifying stays, free access to the hotel galleries, and easy walkability to many participating destinations. The passport contains all of the promotions, discount codes, and visitor information you’ll need throughout your stay.

If you’re traveling from Chicagoland, Milwaukee Art Escape participants receive 15 percent off their Amtrak fare during the promotion. Driving is also a great option, or fly into Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, where you can rent a car or hope in a ride share and reach downtown in 20 minutes or less. Explore itineraries for a weekend getaway or even just a day.

Starting August 17, register to participate at MilwaukeeArtEscape.com and unlock exclusive offers from participating Milwaukee Art Escape partners that will be available between August 21 and October 6. Registration is optional, but it’ll add you to the mailing list for special updates. We welcome you to discover Milwaukee’s many unforgettable and colorful experiences as you explore our internationally recognized museums, outdoor sculptures, lakefront parks, charming historic neighborhoods, and award-winning restaurants.

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In our era of screens and proliferous imagery, it strains the imagination to comprehend a time before photography. Two centuries ago, an inventor named Nicéphore Niépce took the very first picture of his courtyard in France by fitting a pewter plate into a camera obscura. A few years later, a professional scene painter named Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre conceived of the aptly named daguerreotype, in which the image could be permanently fixed. He and Niépce both sold their technologies to the French government, which then published a how-to guide and facilitated the global spread of the process. In 1939, the first daguerrotypes were created in the U.S.

As they say, the rest is history. Except, we often only see a part of the whole story. Because the technology was expensive, and therefore having your photograph taken (let alone owning the equipment) was costly, the visual record of the 19th century in this medium is heavily skewed toward affluent, white individuals and families who could afford it. Due to the long exposure time required to capture the images, we also don’t see candid shots, as carefully posed scenes were required for clarity and fidelity.

Photography was invented decades before the Civil War and the end of slavery in the U.S., yet so rarely do we glimpse real faces that “illuminate the complexities of race, freedom, and agency before, during, and after the Civil War,” says the National Gallery of Art, which presents Remember Me: Picturing African Americans in Early Photography later this year. The exhibition brings forward dozens of images taken of and by Black Americans, showcasing a wide variety of lived experiences in one place.

Fashion, family, and social status are on full display in a range of gelatin silver prints, daguerrotypes, tintypes, and ambrotypes, some of which are colorized. Because many of the earliest formats were very fragile, they were often displayed in ornate folding cases. Several of these will be included with their images, plus cabinet cards and portraits by pioneering Black artists like James Van Der Zee, who ran a prominent studio in Harlem in the early 20th century.

The exhibition will highlight around 70 pieces in the museum’s collection that center self-expression and the entrepreneurial spirit of African American individuals. Remember Me is slated to open on November 7 and will continue through March 14 in Washington, D.C. Learn more and plan your visit on the museum’s website.

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Known for her lush assemblages of flameworked glass, Amber Cowan reimagines a ubiquitous yet fragile medium. Flowers, filigree, and colorful baubles cluster into dense compositions that invoke fairytale narratives and whimsical nature scenes. Cowan typically works with industrial scraps, antiques, and other offcasts, which allows her to draw on products and colorways that are no longer in production.

Currently leaning into cloche and coupe sculptures alongside her wall-based works, the Philadelphia-based artist is preparing for several upcoming exhibitions, including at San Francisco’s Museum of Craft and Design in September and Design Miami in December. Her work is on view now in The Passion of Collecting at The Baker Museum in Naples, Florida, and you can find more on Instagram.

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