In surreal tableaux, mythological creatures interact with flora and fauna within dream-like realms. Insects, stars, metaphysical tendrils, and all-seeing eyes accompany human bodies with the heads of raptors. Rithika Merchant’s strange yet alluring symmetry contains what may be esoteric rituals or communions with the natural world. Each speculative, fable-like narrative taps into our collective anxiety about the environment and hope for healing.

Merchant’s vibrant new body of work centers on hybrid creatures and a sense of the sacred, comprising the Mumbai-based artist’s solo exhibition The Dreaming Realm at Galerie LJ. She harnesses elemental phenomena like the earth, plants, fire, water, and the stars to emphasize both volatility and strength. Amid scenes of floods and eruptions, individuals participate in enigmatic activities or ceremonies exemplifying cooperation and determination.

Merchant incorporates “theoretical, historical, and iconographic references, drawing notably on the notion of empirical experience based on sensory perception, the Greek concept of Kairos to question the subjectivity of time, as well as research on the Beguines of the Middle Ages,” the gallery says. The Beguines were a unique lay community of financially independent Christian women who occasionally practiced mysticism. Some communities in western Europe still exist today.

In The Dreaming Realm, the artist nods to symbols of consciousness and transformation. For example, the luna moth evokes the power of intuition and transitions, while ravens represent wisdom, foresight, and a bridge to other realms. Communality forms a conceptual nucleus of Merchant’s paintings, especially in her ongoing series Interspecies Care, which focuses “on social organization, interdependence, reciprocity between species, and knowledge sharing,” the gallery says.

The Dreaming Realm continues through November 21 in Paris. See more on Merchant’s Instagram.

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Combining elemental rhythms with human-made materials, DRIFT’s latest sculptural choreography invites visitors to consider their connection to nature in an interactive experience influenced by the planet’s intrinsic processes and systems. “Aeolus” is named for the ancient Greek deity of the wind and comprises an environment characterized by numerous glass rods with tiny lights inside. These are activated by visitors’ movements.

“Like wind itself, the work only fully exists through interaction,” say Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta, founders of the Amsterdam-based design studio in a statement. “It is both still and in motion, fixed yet constantly changing.” Light and glass were chosen to further represent ephemerality and transitions. Glass can be so light and clear it appears spectral, and light is immaterial like the wind: it may be here one moment and gone the next.

“Aeolus” remains on view through October 25 at Carpenters inside of Ladbroke Hall in London. The studio has also announced the forthcoming DRIFT Museum, an 8,000-square-meter space inside of the Van Gendt Hallen in Amsterdam slated to open in early 2027. Follow updates on DRIFT’s Instagram.

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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured some remarkable phenomena in space, from the Horsehead Nebula to the unbelievable “Pillars of Creation.” Things just got a little bit wilder with brilliant images of the Lion Nebula (NGC 2392) captured by the telescope’s NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid Infrared Instrument). The shape is formed by the remains of a dying star now at a phase known as a white dwarf, when a very dense stellar core remains as it sheds its outer layers. On NGC 2392, the bright center looks like a little nose.

“The central dying star is so hot that its radiation is ‘cooking’ everything from the inside and producing a bubble of ionized hydrogen gas as it does,” NASA says. “The gas bubble, which is the lion’s ‘face,’ features cavernous shells and rings with tendrils that are expanding and destroying dust upon encounter.” The lion’s “mane” is actually the inside of one of these shells, illuminated by the star’s core.

From the human perspective of time, nebulae such as this one don’t seem to change very quickly. “It’s taken several thousand years for the gas and dust to be shaped in this way, and it continues to change as the star drives away the material,” NASA says. The Lion Nebula is changing rather quickly in astronomical terms, however, and astronomers estimate that it will fully disperse in about 10,000 years. (via Kottke)

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A nude figure with frazzled hair lies in bed, the sickly colored linens draped across their upper body. Fingertips glowing red as if inflamed, the character grasps a navy phone and stares catatonically at the screen. A vibrant infinity symbol is superimposed on the scene, emerging as endless loops of energy and mesmerization from the device.

The all-too-relatable portrait is part of a suite of new works by Robin F. Williams capturing the omnipotent techno-dystopia we’re collectively barreling toward. Extrapolating on the ways humanity and machines merge, the Brooklyn-based artist presents a mystical vision of another world infused with pop culture and art history.

“The Merminator,” for example, combines two characters of the ’80s—a cyborg assassin and a Disney princess—to form a metallic bot perched on a stone as it, like Ariel, peers toward a world it presumably longs to be part of and yet won’t be accepted in.

There’s also “I Am Not a Robot,” a symmetric piece that takes cues in composition and color palette from the spiritualist abstractions of Hilma af Klint. The painting also draws from Boticelli’s “Madonna of the Pomegranate,” which presents the titular fruit as a visual metaphor for the human heart. In Williams’ iteration, though, the subject is the phone, radiating outward in place of the life-giving source.

Under the fitting title Act Natural, the body of work plunges into the uncanny without settling into the strange state of things. The too-sleek, frictionless world the artist portrays exudes the allure of technology alongside the immense horror it elicits.

P·P·O·W presents Act Natural as a pop-up at Frieze’s No. 9 Cork Street in London, where it’s on view through October 24. Explore more of Williams’ work on Instagram.

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Federico Veronesi received the top honor of the 2026 Wildlife Photographer of the Year for his poignant black-and-white image of a female elephant carrying her deceased calf. The portrait represents a rare insight into animals’ habits we have yet to fully understand and demonstrates the power of timing and persistence in photography.

Veronesi had been tracking elephants in the Huab River Valley of Namibia when he encountered some unusual drag marks on the earth. He eventually caught up with the family, and the adult emerged with the calf’s leg wedged between her trunk and tusk. “Behaviours centering on death have been observed in both Asian and African elephants, including vocalisations, guarding the dead, inspecting and handling bones, and carrying the deceased,” a statement says. “Some researchers suggest these behaviours could indicate an elephant’s journey to understanding death, while others interpret these actions as possible displays of grief.”

Additional winners include Kutub Uddin’s capture of elegant slime molds, Loren Elliott’s portfolio featuring the coyotes of San Francisco, and Amelie Davis’ portrait of a bee coming in for a landing on a flower in Surrey, England, in the 10 and Under category. “This year’s winning photographs demonstrate the extraordinary power of wildlife photography to help us see nature differently,” says Dr. Doug Gurr, Director of the Natural History Museum. “Together they remind us that every species plays a role in the complex web of life, and why understanding and protecting the natural world has never been more important.”

At 65,403 entries from photographers in 121 countries, this year’s competition saw the largest turnout of submissions in its 62-year history. Categories run the gamut of photojournalism, wetlands, plants and fungi, behavior, portfolios, youth categories, and more. The 100 top images from this year’s contest go on view tomorrow, October 16, at the Natural History Museum in London, where they’ll be exhibited through July 11, 2027.

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The imaginative, strange childhood dreams of twins Nikolai and Simon Haas materialize in a large-scale exhibition at Blanton Museum of Art. Working as the Haas Brothers, the siblings have been collaborating since 2010 and are widely known for their fantastical sculptures of flora and fauna with their signature cheeky, surreal twist. In Austin, the Los Angeles artists present a range of figurative furniture, plush cartoonish characters, and illuminated installations that showcase their idiosyncratic aesthetic.

Previously on view at Cranbrook Art Museum and the Museum of Art and Design in New York, Uncanny Valley is the first mid-career survey for the duo, presenting a range of their quirky, genre-defying works. The exhibition also nods to the brothers’ childhood in Austin, where they lived from age 3 to 19, a time when the unofficial city slogan “Keep Austin Weird” became a cultural ethos and early influence.

Interested in technology and its implications, the artists frequently engage with the strange intersection of the artificial and the natural. The duo’s brilliant and bizarre strawberry tree, for example, appears as if transplanted from another planet into the gallery. In a statement for the show, Simon elaborates:

The ‘uncanny valley’ generally refers to robotics, where empathy for a robot increases the more human you make it—up to a point. When the robot becomes too human, empathy switches to revulsion. The solution for this is to add cuteness: when a robot is humanoid with an extra dose of cuteness, empathy for the object skyrockets. Looking at our 15-year career from a bird’s-eye view, the ‘uncanny valley’ came into focus as a core theme.

Uncanny Valley is on view in Austin through January 17, when it will travel to its final location, Mint Museum in Charlotte. Find the accompanying monograph of the same name on Bookshop.

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For centuries, Navajo/Diné weavers have created intricate, geometrically patterned blankets and rugs on upright looms, powered only by the artisans’ bodies. More than a millennia ago in Mesoamerica, which encompassed much of what today is Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and parts of Central America, the Mayans produced ornate ceramics decorated with natural motifs like birds. Utilizing materials that could be foraged or cultivated in the landscape—the Diné have herded the distinctive Navajo-Churro sheep since the breed was introduced by Spaniards in the 16th century—the techniques, motifs, and cultural customs continue to influence artists today.

Through the lens of Indigenous interpretations of mathematics, science, and architecture, Radiant Geometries: Vectors of Knowledge from the Indigenous Americas at Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University invites us into a multi-media encounter with a wide range of cosmological perspectives and views on nature, narrative, and innovation.

Curated by Noor Alé, the exhibition’s scope embraces South, Central, and North America as a whole to explore how contemporary Indigenous artists channel ancestral and technological knowledge. A wide range of paintings, sculpture, video, sound, and more delve into realms of the mathematical, metaphysical, social, and environmental, tapping into the artists’ distinctive backgrounds and cultural heritage.

Melissa Cody, for example, begins with a foundation in Diné weaving, drawing upon the teachings of three generations of makers before her. The artist utilizes both a vertical Navajo loom and a mechanized Jaquard machine to create vibrant textiles merging traditional motifs and patterns with contemporary designs and messages.

Eamon Ore-Giron’s large-scale geometric abstractions are a dominant force in Radiant Geometries, nodding to a range of Indigenous motifs and symbols, such as Native American medicine wheels and tapestries from the Amazon Basin. Influence also arises from the 20th-century pictorial language of geometric abstraction, especially hard-edge painting.

In the gallery, Ore-Giron’s works are foregrounded by a series of vivid, freestanding sculptures by Natalia Montoya Lecaros titled Tótems de emergencia. She pulls a figurative aesthetic thread from the garments of the Aymara people of the Andes, who are known for their vibrant, handcrafted clothing combining Indigenous clothing traditions with elements introduced by Spanish colonizers. In Tótems de emergencia, four upright, mixed-media pieces stand on “feet,” installed in a circle as if performing a ceremonial dance or tribute in the center of the gallery.

Additional artists featured in the exhibition include Patricia Domínguez, Jordan Ann Craig, Nanibah Chacon, Patrick Martinez, and many others. “At its core, Radiant Geometries centers Indigenous ways of knowing that continueto shape relationships to territories, waterways, and interspecies care,” Alé says.

The show runs through December 19 in Houston. The museum is also hosting a large-scale vinyl installation by Sharmistha Ray, which opens on October 22 and will remain on view through January 29. Explore all exhibitions on the Moody Center’s website.

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“I find that when I work from my emotions and experiences, I make a more powerful image,” Ann Toebbe writes. Meditating on the connection between physical spaces and the feelings and memories bound within them is central to the Chicago artist’s practice.

In a review of Toebbe’s recent exhibition at Hyde Park Art Center, the writer Elisa Shoenberger teases out the distinction that grounds the artist’s work. “Space is the physical location, while place is the meaning we bring to it. It’s the difference between thinking about the physical location of your house (space) and the feelings, history and emotions tied up in your home (place),” Schoenberger writes. Rendering interiors and cross-cut buildings in impeccable detail, Toebbe concentrates on a particular sensation or mood and then constructs a series of architectural compositions that extrapolate on the theme.

Preliminary sketches and more elaborate drawings scaffold what becomes the final work on panel, which typically incorporates a mix of gouache, oil paint, paper collage, and colored pencil. Reference photos have their role, too, although each piece emerges with a manipulated layout and the artist’s signature skewed perspectives.

“I might extend a wall or include indoor and outdoor elements to make a layout snap together. I am always messing with how baseboards can divide and connect walls and floors. I might stack a composition or unfold it like a flattened box,” she says. “I love creating transitions with flow, and I try to avoid abrupt cropping.”

Toebbe’s stylized interiors typically mix reverse and parallel perspective, the former enlarging objects as they move farther away and the latter keeping objects the same size. This inventive approach plunges the viewer into an uncanny world in which the artist’s predilection toward pattern and texture reigns. “I like to change up working methods to give myself a new formal puzzle to solve,” she adds. “I usually have an idea of the materials I want to work with at the start, but everything is up for grabs as I work.”

If you’re in Chicago, you can see some of Toebbe’s works in a group exhibition on view through October 31 at Andrew Rafacz. Otherwise, find more from the artist on Instagram.

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At first glance, the structure resembles a kind of elongated igloo or a giant, white snail. One one hand, it’s an immersive, pop-up room with a futuristic, bubble-like texture. It’s also a giant, walk-in camera (there are 221 lenses to be exact).

Premiering late last month at MODE Festival, a celebration of global photography, “Compound Camera No.3” is the latest work by Pneuhaus, the Rhode Island-based studio known for its large-scale, architectural inflatables. Dozens of tiny cameras comprise the installation, which covers more than 700 square feet and invites visitors to walk around inside of a projection powered entirely by the sun. The images visible through the tiny apertures land on bulbous surfaces, and visitors can push on the soft material inside to distort what Pneuhaus describes as a “bug’s-eye view” of the sky and urban surroundings.

In our era of information, it’s impossible to describe Pneuhaus’ multi-lensed work without thinking about recent, crucial conversations about surveillance, especially when it comes to license plate readers and doorbell cameras that are tethered to enormous private data networks. In this case, though, the “information” is about being present. Nothing is recorded.

In “Compound Camera No.3,” visitors step inside of a luminous viewing room, but there are no LED screens here; the sunlight simply illuminates everyday scenes through an essential analog method. Lenses pointing upward portray the sky across dozens of interior facets not unlike the structure of an insect’s eye. Those directed sideways show trees, buildings, and other people walking around. Everything appears multiplied, encouraging us to slow down and examine details more closely than we might if we were seeing the same scene just outside.

See more on Pneuhaus’ Instagram.

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Around 1906, Hilma af Klint was living in Stockholm, where she kept a studio. Deeply engaged with Christian esotericism, she channeled her mystic visions into a series of otherworldly paintings that art historians acknowledge to be the first known abstract works in the canon, a paradigm shift in 20th-century art that had previously been credited to Wassily Kandinsky starting around 1910.

What continues to awe us today about af Klint’s works is she didn’t view her vibrant paintings strictly as artworks, but as a result of spiritual channeling. Their production also coincided with a period of incredible scientific discovery. Nikola Tesla had just developed the alternating current (AC) electricity system, plus generated the first radio transmissions, when he then used to create a remote control. And 1905 was Einstein’s “miracle year” with the publication of his seminal theory of relativity.

A major exhibition titled Arcana Borealis—Northern Women and Esotericism deep-dives into the history of modern art through the lens of women artists working at the intersection of spirituality and esotericism. Opening soon at the Ateneum Art Museum, part of the Finnish National Gallery, the show also explores the nature of artistic networks. In all, the exhibition gathers more than 200 works by 50 artists to broaden perspectives on women’s creative practices guided by belief systems, ecology, and the imagination.

Arcana Borealis features notable pieces by early 20th-century artists like af Klint and Anna Cassel alongside Anna-Eva Bergman, Maja Fjaestad, Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, and contemporary artist Outi Pieski. Visitors will encounter paintings, sculpture, textiles, stained glass, video, and much more that curators Dr. Nina Kokkinen and Dr. Marja Lahelma conceive as a challenge to “art historical narratives that have privileged the myth of the lone artistic genius,” the museum says. Instead, Arcana Borealis highlights how collaboration and spiritual communities shape the artists’ practices.

Cassel and af Klint worked together, for example, as part of what became known as The Five, a group of Stockholm-based women who explored spiritual realms through séances and meditation. Collaboration also comes to the fore in Pieski’s performance titled “Guhte gullá / Here to Hear.”

Pieski collaborated with dancers and choreographers Biret and Gáddjá Haarla Pieski, drawing on their Sámi heritage and incorporating vibrant clothing in a nod to traditional garments. The Sámi are an Indigenous people in predominantly the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, and Finland, and performance speaks to the trauma inflicted by state-sponsored assimilation programs and discrimination going back centuries.

The exhibition takes its title from the Latin arcana, meaning “hidden knowledge,” and borealis, meaning “the north.” The show “approaches ‘the North’ as a cross-border cultural and imaginative space shaped by mythology and spiritual traditions,” the museum says. “It traces how artists across Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Sápmi turned to esotericism, alternative cosmologies, meditation and mediumistic practices to explore questions of existence, creativity, and belonging.”

Arcana Borealis opens on October 23 and continues through February 28, 2027, in Helsinki. You might also enjoy navigating into the arcane through Taschen’s Tarot, part of the publisher’s Library of Esoterica series.

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