Through vivid sculptural paintings, Los Angeles-based artist Estefania Ajcip peers in on the fractures families face when split apart. Ajcip spent much of her childhood in Guatemala, while her father worked in L.A. and missed pivotal moments of her youth. In a new body of work titled Folded Memories, the artist contends with this adolescent experience, extrapolating her recollections into poignant compositions filled with a longing for connection.

From birch plywood, papier mache, small LED lights, and acrylic, Ajcip constructs a surreal world in which childhood grief and dreams converge. She often works from family photos, pulling scenes and objects from her home and pushing them into a fantastical realm. “Momo 2012,” for example, depicts two adults grasping hands, while an opening in the wood reveals a forlorn girl and her paper train set.

Separations and fissures recur throughout the pieces, evoking the distance between Acjip and her father, while new details are revealed or concealed depending on the viewer’s perspective. In “Telephone game,” the artist appears with a paper phone and string held up to her ear, while her father stands at a public payphone that juts out from the two-dimensional canvas.

A similar perspective shift occurs in “Four paths/Two paths?” as a sculptural bus shuttling between L.A. and Guatemala. The latter’s national bird flutters at the vehicle’s front window, leading the way as a symbol of togetherness and hope. A statement adds that the piece most directly confronts “the familial unity that Ajcip so longed for throughout her childhood. Across the exhibition, Ajcip makes clear again and again how the longing that defined her youth now fuels her art, a powerful reminder that strength often grows in adversity.”

Folded Memories is on view through August 22 at Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles. You also might be interested in the architectural portraits of Arghavan Khosravi.

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At ICD Brookfield Place in Dubai, a vibrant collection of smiling inflatables sprouts from a vaulted ceiling, creating a suspended pool party of colorful forms. The spirited installation is titled “Under the Sun” and the latest project by duo Craig & Karl.

“We wanted to capture the warmth, vibrancy, and joy of summer—distilled into one space and experienced from within the expansive summer garden atrium. A way to bring the season indoors,” the pair write about the project. Included in the installation are hot-weather staples like flowers, beach balls, inner tubes, and of course, a radiant sun.

The immersive work is a new installment in Craig & Karl’s Mateys universe, populated by a vivid array of inflatable characters. Whether springing up on a bridge or dangling from the ceiling as in Dubai, the expressive forms infuse oft-overlooked architecture with play and whimsy.

Although the duo live in different cities—Craig in New York and Karl in London—they continue to collaborate across continents, allowing projects to “unfold as a two-way conversation from the initial idea through to completion, with each of us throwing things out, building on the other’s ideas, and knowing when something feels right.” This collaboration works, in part, because the artists met while in college and spent a considerable time in the same studio, securing a bond and trust in another that’s indelible to their current practice.

Keep up with Craig & Karl and their globe-trotting projects on Instagram.

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Enter The Magician’s Room, and you’ll encounter a brawny horse with a serpent coiled on its back, a flock of headless birds diving into a central star, and a fluffy white rabbit framed by an unblinking circle of eyes. This surreal, liminal space is the setting for a new body of work by Paris-based Lou Benesch.

On view through August 22 at Hashimoto Contemporary, the solo exhibition takes the tarot’s Magician card as a starting point. Known as a trickster-wizard who connects the heavens and earth, the mysterious figure is primed for movement and change. Benesch translates the Magician’s inclination for action and mysticism into a collection of dreamy works on found and antique materials.

Vintage board games and chalkboards become the aged frames for the artist’s energetic mixed-media compositions, while antique paper holds bold two-dimensional depictions of hybrid creatures and otherworldly happenings. The Magician’s Room melds past and present and spiritual and physical into a fantastic alternate word where dreams and manifestation rule.

If you’re in San Francisco, stop by Hashimoto Contemporary to see the exhibition before it closes on August 22. Otherwise, keep up with Benesch on Instagram.

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From the late 18th century through the end of the Civil War, the Underground Railroad was a network of safe houses where freedom-seekers from the South could find safety and shelter as they traveled north, sometimes all the way to Canada to escape capture and prosecution. It’s possible that there may have even been a secret code in the shapes of quilt blocks, which when arranged or displayed in a certain way could have helped direct people to stops along the route. This has never been confirmed with solid evidence, but even if it’s a thing of legend, the folk narrative is a powerful instrument for meaning in the oft-erased history of African American experience.

From 18th-century hand-appliqué cotton bedcovers to contemporary narrative textile works and an elaborate array in between, Black quilts tell innumerable stories. For instance, Viola Burla Leak’s “Watts Riot” (2021) taps into the violent uprising in Los Angeles’ Watts neighborhood in August 1965, a response to racist abuse and prejudice by the Los Angeles Police Department in addition to poverty and employment discrimination. And in 1934, Ruth Clement Bond incorporated an enduring symbol of Black power and autonomy with a representation of a fist holding a red lightning bolt, flanked by the American flag and the blazing sun.

Leak and Bond’s creations are just two examples amid a veritable wealth of stitched history in Stories in the Seams: A People’s History of Black Quilts and Their Makers, forthcoming from Chronicle Books. Thoroughly researched by Sharbreon Plummer, the richly illustrated volume delves into the centuries-old practice, illuminating the societal shifts and technological advances that contributed to ways of making and a culture that evolved around textiles.

One of the most crucial themes in Stories in the Seams touches on quilting’s roots in the cotton industry and slavery, especially in the American South during the 18th and 19th centuries. Enslaved women often hand-sewed bedspreads and other items for plantation homes, but following Emancipation, when Black individuals “were no longer bound by the laws of chattel slavery, they entered Reconstruction with the promise of freedom but little material support to build new lives,” Plummer writes in an introductory chapter titled “Homecoming.” “Faced with the uncertainties of labor, land, and citizenship, they relied on their quiltmaking and textile work to generate resources.”

In addition to vibrant images of a huge variety of projects from narrative compositions to incredibly meticulous geometric works, readers discover archival photos of individuals who have defined the tradition. Plummer guides us through centuries of meticulous making and innovation, exploring historical and contemporary methods, materials, and symbolism. Pieces by the Quilters of Gee’s Bend are complemented by 21st-century works by artists like Bisa Butler, Basil Kincaid, and Faith Ringgold, whose practices expand how we think of the craft.

Stories in the Seams is slated for release on October 6. Pre-order your copy on Bookshop.

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We all have one, or at least some version of it: the junk drawer. Mine is a jumble of charging cables, old nails, a lanyard, matchbooks, a few key rings, scissors, an expired bottle of vitamins, every Allen wrench from every IKEA shelf I ever assembled, a few rubber bands, and frankly, who knows what else at this point. For artist Grace Baldwin, the junk drawer is a repository of memories and nostalgia, where common items end up in a place that’s simultaneously accessible and out-of-sight, out-of-mind. Lately, she’s been constructing a lifelike one at a monumental scale, drawer and all.

“I typically create giant nostalgic but functional pieces, mostly through woodworking,” Baldwin tells Colossal. “I’ve been trying to branch out and utilize other materials more often and expand my creative ability. This project has given me the ability to do exactly that.” A Pink Pearl eraser is suitably smudged, a Blockbuster Video membership card sits in a plastic sleeve, and a half-used roll of Tums rolls around amid a slew of other realistic objects.

Baldwin began with inspiration from her own junk drawer. As she shared her progress on social media, viewers began sharing random objects hiding in theirs, and it morphed into something of a virtual collaboration. “A lot of the suggestions overlapped with my original list, which was a fun reminder that junk drawers are surprisingly universal.”

The first object Baldwin created was a giant pair of corded earbuds, and she began adding a few items each day. The relatability of the concept really speaks to her, not only because the objects are common and recognizable but because they are so lifelike, even at a blown-up scale. The artist credits the project with changing her outlook on making, material experimentation, and the power of detail. “At this point, I plan to keep adding things until it feels right,” she says.

In addition to working on some larger objects to add so that the remaining space can be filled with more small items, she’s thinking about what comes next. “I really am hoping to find somewhere to display it once it is finished,” she says. “Maybe even leaving the possibility of the items remaining loose in it so that they can be rummaged through. I think there will be so many fun details to find hidden in the layers of ‘junk.'”

Follow Baldwin’s piece-by-piece progress on Instagram.

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For many artists, designers, and writers, the daily project is a fruitful, if not invigorating, exercise. Whether it emerges in the form of a morning sketch or collection of objects gathered during walks, disciplined creativity has a certain allure, and many of us long for a regimen that pushes through blocks, demanding that we make even in the most uninspiring conditions.

This is true for Damien Hoar de Galvan, who embarked on a daily sculpture project at the beginning of 2024 from his home studio in Milton, just outside of Boston. He decided that, for the next 12 months, he would fashion a small wood assemblage each day. “I thought it would be a good way to change up how I was making things, new materials, work faster, etc.,” the artist writes, adding that he had been challenged by raising a teenage daughter during COVID and making and selling work through it all. The habit might bring the joy and play back into his process, and if one piece wasn’t his favorite, he could try again the next day.

At the beginning, Hoar de Galvan didn’t plan to exhibit the works but rather focused on leaning into his intuition and pushing himself in a new direction. “I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to stick to the whole year and had no plan as to what to do with all the sculptures or how to show them all,” the artist says.

Rarely sketching a composition before gluing and painting scraps of reclaimed wood, he would begin by selecting a shape or color that interested him and progress from there. “There might be a feeling or impulse that pushes me in a general direction when starting a new one… I’m usually surprised along the way as they inevitably start dictating what they want to be,” he adds.

A trip to Barcelona waylaid the project for a few days, and at the end of 2024, Hoar de Galvan had amassed 362 sculptures, just four short of the leap year total. It wasn’t until ICA Boston curator Tessa Bachi Haas asked for a studio visit that Hoar de Galvan began to think about showing the works, and he later received the 2025 James and Audrey Foster Prize, a biannual award that includes an exhibition at the museum.

Titled I don’t think I’m ever gonna figure it out after the Elliot Smith song, the complete collection appeared atop five long shelves. Presented together, the individual works appear diverse yet cohesive, featuring vibrant fragments of reclaimed wood fanned into pointed geometries, unusual comb-esque shapes fitted together like a puzzle, or radial lines that sweep outward like a starburst.

Standing just a few inches tall, each piece is a sort of record of a moment, while together, they capture a year of devotion and experimentation. “Thinking back to the sculpture a day, I made so many that sometimes an idea would pop up, and I knew there wasn’t time to change what I was working on for that day, but I would try it at some other point. There were some invisible connections running through them all,” Hoar de Galvan shares.

Currently, the artist is working toward exhibitions at Tokyo’s Gallery Side2 and Gallery Naga, where he’s represented. Keep up with his latest pieces on Instagram.

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From nearly 4,000 entries submitted by 1,338 photographers around the world, a striking selection has been shortlisted for the Winston Taylor Photo Portrait Prize 2026. The handpicked images represent some of the finest photographic portrait work being made today, from intimate settings in which figures meet the viewer’s eye to candid scenes on city streets and rural expanses alike.

Open to professionals and amateurs alike, the competition will select one winner to receives a £15,000 award plus a commission to be added to the collection of London’s National Portrait Gallery. An exhibition of the best entries will also be shown at the museum from November 5 to January 17, and the winner will be announced on November 3.

The four shortlisted images include Max Pattenden’s tender “Havannah, Lee Moor,” James Clifford Kent’s “Neisser, Pinar del Río, Cuba,” Marcie Docherty’s “PE,” and Katie Hitchcock-Smith’s dusky “Moroccan (Amazigh) Cowboys.” Learn more and plan your visit on the museum’s website.

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In Brussels’ iconic Grand-Place, a summer tradition literally blossoms in monumental style. The city’s Flower Carpet event, which this year celebrated its 24th edition, celebrates art, community, and diplomacy in the heart of Belgium’s capital, which is also the hub of the European Union. From August 13 to 16, the event marked 160 years of friendship between the nation and Japan, inviting artist Hiro Sugiyama to design a city square-sized composition, which he conceived as a tribute to ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai.

Titled “Neo Hokusai,” the monumental arrangement comprised more than 750,000 fresh dahlias, covering nearly 14,000 square feet. Framed with ornate patterns, the reimagining of the famous woodblock print “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa,” from Hokusai’s series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (1830-1832), glows in bright magenta, vermilion, and yellow. Flowers covered about 80 percent of the entire design.

Dahlias aren’t the only species artists choose to use for the carpet, although the 2024 edition also incorporated the voluminous blossoms. In 2018, a design highlighting the central Mexican region of Guanajuato grew out of one million begonias and was captured in an aerial timelapse by Joerg Daiber.

This year, the dahlias are sourced in partnership with Bloemencorso Loenhout, a giant flower parade that has been running for three quarters of a century in the northern city of Loenhout. This year, the event kicks off on September 12.

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Alejandro Aguilar Canela finds profound value in what may be seen as some of our bleakest emotions. Delving into subject matters such as depression, anger, abandonment, fear, individuality, sexuality, and more, Canela strives to understand the multitudes within each, and how their shadowy paths have the ability lead us somewhere brighter.

Though occasionally venturing into sculpture, the Austin, Texas-based artist specializes in drawing. His works range in size, with many of his compositions spanning two to four feet wide on both traditional paper and vellum. Canela largely employs graphite and fine line mechanical pencil, welcoming “mistakes” or inadvertent motifs—such as smudges and unplanned marks—that mirror his personal philosophy of embracing adverse emotions.

“There is another side to our own darkness, one that can reveal new perspectives and accelerate personal transformation,” the artist says. “It’s more about not discarding what might be considered unwanted, but instead finding some use for it.” As a result, these innermost feelings often manifest through unique characters, as Canela creates human-like forms to give them shape.

Several of Canela’s works are included in this year’s Critic’s Choice exhibition at Ki Smith Gallery in New York, which is on view through September 6. Find more from the artist on Instagram.

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“For me, paintings represent an attempt (sometimes more successful, sometimes less so) to grasp a ‘something’ that for some reason deeply moves me, agitates me,” says Turin-based artist Francesco Pirazzi. In atmospheric, dreamlike paintings, deceptively simple architecture, trees, walkways, and other features of the landscape glow amid uncanny lighting.

“What drives my research is the feeling that something in reality is slightly off, that before my eyes lies an indecipherable enigma,” Pirazzi says, adding that he enjoys the way painting can encompass both reality and the “unknowable world,” and the ways they irresistibly converge. Deep shadows, minimalist archways, luminescent clouds, and exaggerated perspective combine in bold chromatic tableaux. “The subjects are recurring: trees, street lamps, houses, windows, hedges, and a few others that I feel I use as actors on a stage, each aware of their role,” Pirazzi says.

Light plays a unique role, establishing the mood and drawing our attention to what the artist describes as “the hierarchies between elements and the relationships that intertwine them, the things we must pay attention immediately to and those that need to emerge very slowly.” Illumination also reveals absence, which Pirazzi centers as much as the structures, plants, fences, and other objects. He’s interested in the unseen on the same level as what is visible, drawing us to these obscure and mysterious details.

Starting October 28, the artist’s work will be on view at Luce Gallery in Turin. See more on Pirazzi’s Instagram.

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