In the Oscar-winning film American Fiction, the irritable protagonist Thelonious “Monk” Ellison describes his work as follows: “I just invent little people in my mind and make them have conversations with each other.” The film, which director Cord Jefferson adapted from Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, grapples with stereotypes and the ways we’re asked to perform our identities. For Monk, this turns into a satirical quest to write a “Black” book under a pen name, which plunges him into an outlandish world of tropes.

American Fiction layers farce upon farce and is one of the more searing considerations of the contemporary impulse to leverage identity for nefarious (and capitalist) purposes. In Monk’s world, “inventing little people” becomes a meta exercise that leads to more and more absurdity.

The artist Ronald Jackson extrapolates the narrative further in his solo presentation opening this week at Galerie Myrtis. Known for his vibrant portraiture, Jackson creates a sort of casting list for an imagined screenplay that titles the exhibition: An American Fiction.

Through a suite of new oil paintings, the artist playfully envisions a troupe of figures, their names, and their roles. A portrait of a Black man with dreadlocks and red handkerchief tied around his neck, for example, is titled “Pervis Brown: The Apprentice of Oddly Uncommon Trades, played by Cornelius Dunston in AN AMERICAN FICTION.” All of the works are named in this vein, seeding the viewer’s understanding of the imaginary screenplay.

Jackson is familiar with this witty, cross-disciplinary approach. In an earlier body of work, he invented Johnnie Mae King, a recurring character for whom the artist invited the public to imagine a backstory through flash fiction and other writings. This figure also donned Jackson’s signature mask, which frequently appears in An American Fiction, too. He writes about the motif:

I use the mask not to conceal but to signal that a rich, un-excavated narrative exists beneath the surface. It asks the viewer to consider what lies beyond the visible role, prompting a question central to performance: are we admiring the superficial? Do we distinguish between the performer and the character being played? Do we recognize that there is likely a very different reality than the one being presented to us?

A playful, innovative approach to some of the most pressing questions in today’s culture, An American Fiction runs from September 5 to October 3 in Baltimore. Find more from Jackson on Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article In ‘An American Fiction,’ Ronald Jackson Casts an Imagined Screenplay appeared first on Colossal.

Headquartered in Stockton, California, Blackwing is about finding the joy in analog creative tools at a time when digital devices consume our attention. The manufacturer produces its signature pencils in a series of specialized factories in Japan, where the graphite cores are meticulously processed before being sent to a wood shop. In a behind-the-scenes video, the company shares how that process works, followed by how the utensils begin to take shape.

Sandwiched between slats of wood, individual pencils are then sliced and trimmed to their characteristic hexagonal shape. Yet another factory takes care of the painting and labeling, where depending on the style, the pencils can receive up to 10 coats of lacquer to achieve the final color and feel. And for the final step, the instruments journey to Stockton, where a proprietary machine attaches each eraser, and they’re inspected by hand before being boxed by the dozen.

Shop Blackwing in the Colossal Shop.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Go Behind the Scenes of Blackwing Pencils’ Ode to Analog Creativity appeared first on Colossal.

In his essay “The Passing Wisdom of Birds,” environmentalist and writer Barry Lopez rued how scientific methodology doesn’t take into consideration our senses or perception, how data is divorced from the experience of nature. “Biology should borrow here from quantum physics, which accepts the premise that, under certain circumstances, the observer can be deceived,” he wrote. “Quantum physics, with its ambiguous particles and ten-dimensional universes, is a branch of science that has in fact returned us to a state of awe with nature, without threatening our intellectual capacity to analyze complex events.”

Such is the fascination that grounds the book Inploration: Art Exploring Space to Understand Earth, forthcoming from Delmonico Books. The volume is the result of years of work by Grammy award-winning creative director and curator Lawrence Azerrad and artist Richelle Ellis, who co-founded the platform Inploration. Ellis also founded Supercollider and has spent the past decade investigating what she describes as “the intersection of art and aerospace.” Both authors are drawn to the way our questioning of the universe can revive a sense of wonder for our planet and prompt us to consider how we value and care for it.

“We coined ‘inploration’ as a counterpart to exploration,” Ellis says. “Rather than looking outward in search of discovery, inploration turns inward, using our relationship to the greater cosmos as a way to better understand ourselves and the planet we inhabit.” The book compiles a wide range of studies, works of art, experiments, and insights from nearly 100 artists, scientists, astronauts, futurists, and others.

Colossal readers will recognize work by Cannupa Hanska Luger, Tavares Strachan, Wangechi Mutu, and more. From Cai Guo-Qiang’s 500-meter fiery ladder to James Turrell’s monumental earthwork in the Painted Desert with its skyward aperture, the book challenges us to think about our relationship to not only the earth but everything that exists in the incomprehensible beyond. The authors say:

Inploration is as much about charting a shift in perspective as it is about putting forward what this new vantage point means in terms of how we relate to our planet and our shared future. Throughout the ages, imagination and curiosity have driven the most consequential changes to how humanity understands and navigates across – and beyond – our planet. In the same manner, as we face the challenges and opportunities of a truly global culture, we aim to harness the power of wonder as something that is not naive, but absolutely necessary.

Inploration will be released at the end of October, and you can pre-order your copy on Bookshop.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article ‘Inploration’ Highlights Dozens of Artists Who Explore Space to Understand Earth appeared first on Colossal.

Whether it’s scenes from the subway, streets, or Times Square, visions of New York City are often hectic and crowded. For Erin Milez, the hustle and bustle, but moreover the cramped spaces and tightness, characterize a new body of work going on view this month in Everything the Light Touches at Monya Rowe Gallery.

Milez recently moved from New York to Seattle, and she began to examine the nature of human connection, or the lack thereof, in urban spaces. Her expressive paintings draw on the visual language and subject matter of artists like George Tooker and Jacob Lawrence, who approached the theme of urban life through distinctive, figurative compositions. There’s also an unmistakable nod to the blocky, social realist style of Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals, which were often installed in civic spaces like post offices and libraries. For Milez, a similar dynamism informs her detailed, textural paintings, underscored by a very 21st-century sense of detachment.

There is a sense of closeness and intensity in Milez’s compositions that’s simultaneously meditative, as the artist renders light in golden hues and hints at symmetry. Characters are often squeezed into confined spaces or obscured by foliage and infrastructure, wedged together and yet almost completely self-concerned. A pair stopped beneath blossoming branches in “A Giving Tree,” for instance, find themselves in a situation that would be intimate were it not for their inwardness or reticency to say hello.

Other examples include a woman curled up on a crowded beach in “Pick Your Plot” and numerous passengers in “Subway” who are all individually tuned into their own electronic devices. Despite the crowded scenario, no one speaks to one another, and everyone appears calm. “I was surprised to find how many of the figures are cropped, particularly in their facial features,” Milez says of her own work. “This was my subconscious designing these people who are experiencing some sensory limitations, not using their full self to be attentive to the world.”

Everything the Light Touches runs from September 10 to October 24 in New York. See more on Milez’s Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Denizens of a Crowded City Populate Erin Milez’s Dense Paintings appeared first on Colossal.

Before the iPhone essentially turned all of us into documentarians, the Super 8 camera offered a more democratic approach to filmmaking. Kodak introduced the analog format in 1965 with an eye toward amateurs and hobbyists interested in capturing the world around them, and today it remains a stalwart of the discipline, particularly for those drawn to the grainy, nostalgic qualities of shooting on film.

Ed Sayers, director and founder of the annual Super 8 competition and community called straight 8, tapped into the camera’s equalizing legacy for his latest project. Bringing together 40 collaborators in 25 countries across five continents, Super Nature is a collective ode to our planet. Rather than travel the world capturing the sights and sounds of far-flung locales, Sayers subverts the traditional documentarian approach by stitching together stories of people and creatures directly from their homes.

Participants include lauded photographers Gideon Mendel and Ami Vitale, who also founded Vital Impacts, alongside communities like the Enawene Nawe tribe in Brazil. Sayers invited several filmmakers from straight 8, and Greenpeace introduced his team to folks in the organization’s network, too. “I wanted them to feel very free. I made sure they were tuned into the spirit of what the film was trying to achieve, putting precious intimate moments and thoughts on a pedestal,” he tells Colossal. “Many had never used Super 8 before so we sent them cameras and taught them how to use them on video calls.”

Because the prompt had few guardrails, the difficulty came in making the final film appear cohesive and intentional. This meant finding where disparate segments fit together and which might offer an interesting and suitable segue to the next. “It was important that as an ensemble the stories came across as more than the sum of their parts,” Sayers says. “In the end, you’re watching one immersive story made and voiced by a chorus of people whom you meet and see in the film, captured on Super 8 just like all the animals and environments in the whole film.”

Alongside cinematic shots underwater, in air, and on land, Sayers also asked for glimpses of the filmmakers themselves, alongside narration that situates each frame into a larger portrait. He attributes the intimacy of Super Nature to this impulse as it showcases a sense of vulnerability and connection both in front of and behind the camera. Eleven languages and dozens of accents appear throughout, emphasizing the rootedness of each filmmaker.

In an age of AI and frictionless digital technologies, analog approaches to creation are ever more radical. Part of what continues to draw Sayers to film is that it requires more planning, intention, and an innate sense of when it’s time to act. “With Super 8 film, the roll only lasts a couple of minutes before it runs out, and there’s a cost to it. So suddenly you’re studying your subject and waiting for what you think it is a great moment, with the right light, before pulling the trigger,” he says. “Looking at your subject—be it a grasshopper or a glacier—with the eye or through an old camera with vintage glass is very different to whipping out your iPhone and taking 20 shots.”

This sentiment echoes the trailer’s opening line from one of the filmmakers, too: “It’s like it resets something in your brain. You feel part of things again.”

Released by BFI Distribution, Super Nature is screening in the U.K. and Ireland this month, with several London showtimes. Find one in your area on the film’s website.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article 40 Filmmakers in 25 Countries Team Up for an Ode to Nature Shot Entirely on Super 8 Cameras appeared first on Colossal.

Created from bamboo and printed Japanese paper, Jacob Hashimoto’s elaborate installations cascade from the ceiling to create a vibrant “cloud canopy.” In his latest exhibition titled Giant Arc, ripples of color and pattern stretch from wall to wall as the nearly 75,000 kite-like elements cluster, repeat, and tease the floor. The monumental work, which just went on view at SFMOMA, marks the largest piece the artist has created to date.

As sun streams through the museum’s large windows and mixes with the light of the gallery, the feel of the installation changes throughout the day. Hashimoto conceives of the experience as a conduit to wonder for visitors of all ages, focusing on formal compositional elements like contrast, hue, and repetition to evoke the joy of the present.

“The gravity of Giant Arc is its universality,” Hashimoto says in a statement. “This essential nature allows people to find what they might need in the work—mysteries if people want them, stories if people desire them, narratives to spin and twist, experimental maps and aerial geographies to explore.”

Giant Arc will be on view through mid-2028 in the museum’s ground floor gallery. Find more on the Hashimoto’s Instagram, and revisit our interview with the artist from 2022.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article 75,000 Patterned Paper Kites Cascade in Jacob Hashimoto’s Largest-Ever Installation appeared first on Colossal.

From the stillness of a lily-specked pond to a nostalgic carousel perched on top of a spindly stand, Hans Op de Beeck’s latest works delve further into a realm of meditation and solitude. His forthcoming solo exhibition, Vanishing Point at Almine Rech, highlights his characteristically monochromatic sculptures, which he often coats in matte gray. Many are life-size, inviting viewers to stand quietly near a calm figure seated on a chaise lounge beside a fawn or peer into a framed seascape in which definition is only wrought by contrasts in light and shadow.

Scale, lifelike detail, and an array of objects, figures, and animals in different settings lend Op de Beeck’s sculptures a kind of wünderkammer quality when displayed together. Individually, the pieces read like muted curiosities or components of an unusual puzzle. There’s a sense that at any moment, especially in works like “Orrery (Loss),” the scene may whir into motion and transform into the full vibrancy of reality (one might recall the effect in The Wizard of Oz).

Without color, we’re drawn to the dimensionality and textures of reliefs and in-the-round objects, although the tableaux themselves remain enigmatic. We recognize familiar elements, but they seem out of place or in uncanny relationships. Op de Beeck prompts us to imagine how the scenes may have come to be and how they relate to the surroundings, including us. “His art does not explain—it suggests,” the gallery says.

The title of the show is derived from the artistic term “vanishing point,” which describes the effect where all lines converge in a perspective drawing and elements disappear into the distance. A statement says, “Op de Beeck uses it as a metaphor for those moments when the concrete and rational give way to something less tangible—memory, imagination, introspection, or the feeling of briefly slipping outside time.”

Vanishing Point opens on September 10 and continues through November 7 in Brussels. See more on the artist’s Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Hans Op de Beeck Taps into Memory, Time, and Enigma in ‘Vanishing Point’ appeared first on Colossal.

Major expeditions, numerous attempts, and strokes of luck characterize how many of the top images in the 2026 Audubon Photography Awards came to be. Francisco Castro Escobar, for example, was surprised to see a rare lesser horned owl, sometimes referred to as “the ghost of the desert,” perched on a cactus in northern Chile during a dawn hike. “The largest owl in Chile gets this nickname because seeing one is so rare that it’s like an apparition,” Escobar says. The image also took the grand prize for the Chile/Colombia contest.

Audubon Photography Awards runs two parallel opportunities, one for photographers in the U.S. and Canada and the other for those based in Chile and Colombia. This year, the grand prize for North American entrants went to Jacqueline Burke for her bold capture of a bathing roseate spoonbill illuminated against the shadowed interior of a cove in Florida. Additional prize categories include Birds Without Borders, Plants for Birds, Youth, Conservation, and others.

The array of images capture the daily behaviors and habits of birds around the world, from hunting raptors to nectar-seeking woodpeckers. In addition to dramatic, sometimes humorous shots of avians in flight, eating, swimming, and more, we also discover some of the ways human activities put the animals at risk. Josh Galicki’s photo of nesting northern gannets in Shetland reveal how jettisoned old fishing nets have been scavenged for nests on a cliff face, but the same material poses a constant risk to the animals’ safety.

Across the board, the winning photographs illuminate the world’s immense avian diversity, from diminutive, jewel-like hummingbirds to seabirds that dive like torpedos to catch their prey. “Hours, days, or sometimes even years of patience and effort go into creating a scenario in which a photographer is in the right place, at the right time, to capture a fleeting moment,” Audubon says.

See all the winners and honorable mentions, including videos, on the contest’s website.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Avian Beauties and Rarities Top the 2026 Audubon Photography Awards appeared first on Colossal.

Clio Sze To paints in the same way she walks around her home in Paris. Setting out with an open agenda and allowing her route to evolve organically, the artist meanders through the city with an eye toward the patterns and textures that comprise the landscape. When she returns to the studio, the sights transform into impressionistic pieces that capture the feeling of a contemplative hour spent on foot.

In her forthcoming solo exhibition Échos, Sze To presents a suite of oil paintings based on photos she captures on her walks, which become fodder for her stylized composites. Passersby appear in several scenes, although the changing seasons and time of day are a central focus for the artist. The shifting light of dusk, the hazy glow of street lamps, and the dance of shadows as the sun filters through a tree’s canopy are dynamic influences on the urban landscape.

Bulles, or bubbles, was the first title Sze To settled on for this body of work because of the way the thin, translucent membrane can capture and reflect light as a chromatic prism. “Échos, by contrast, implies an outside: something that travels outward, rebounds, and returns to us transformed, rather than a space sealed in upon itself,” a statement says.

Échos is on view from September 4 to October 10 at Crèvecœur in Paris. Find more from the artist on the gallery’s website.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Dappled Light and Hazy Shadows Characterize Clio Sze To’s Dynamic Paintings appeared first on Colossal.

In Ashley Percival’s world, a leopard can, in fact, change its spots. The Cornwall-based illustrator is behind a fanciful menagerie in which poodles, rotund birds, and boot-wearing insects try on a vast array of vibrant costumes. Using a mix of colored pencil, pen, paint, and digital tools, he dreams up cheeky patterns and palettes for common animals, presenting collections of the same species in endlessly alluring grids.

Percival recently spent three months in Spain and France immersed in nature, which inspired his latest flocks of birds. “I don’t think about the colors I use. It’s all free flow. I sometimes look at an animal once to get an idea and then draw from my imagination,” he tells Colossal.

In addition to his personal projects, Percival frequently collaborates with brands like Ikea and Gucci, among others. Follow his work on Instagram and purchase prints on Etsy.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Playful Patterns Adorn Ashley Percival’s Collections of Creatures appeared first on Colossal.