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  • ✇Colossal
  • In Los Angeles, 70 Artists Transform a Vacant Hospital into a Sprawling Art Experience Grace Ebert
    A few miles northwest of Downtown Los Angeles and Skid Row, St. Vincent Medical Center is considered one of the city’s most historical hospitals, having supported Angelenos since the 19th century. Vacant since 2020, the center is slated to become a full-service campus aimed at supporting people with addiction, mental health concerns, housing insecurity, and more. This transformation will begin in the next few months with a final target opening date in 2028 and a wholesale takeover in the mean
     

In Los Angeles, 70 Artists Transform a Vacant Hospital into a Sprawling Art Experience

5 June 2026 at 15:28
In Los Angeles, 70 Artists Transform a Vacant Hospital into a Sprawling Art Experience

A few miles northwest of Downtown Los Angeles and Skid Row, St. Vincent Medical Center is considered one of the city’s most historical hospitals, having supported Angelenos since the 19th century. Vacant since 2020, the center is slated to become a full-service campus aimed at supporting people with addiction, mental health concerns, housing insecurity, and more. This transformation will begin in the next few months with a final target opening date in 2028 and a wholesale takeover in the meantime.

Through July 31, visitors experience an alternative vision for communal healing, all through the lens of 70 artists. Dubbed the Hospital of Emotions, the pop-up exhibition converts 80 rooms into temporary installations based on eight themes: joy, love, fear, anger, hope, sadness, compassion, and resilience. Among the participating artists are Lisa Waud, whose lush florals spill across an operating room, and Greg Corbino, who built a barren forest from cardboard.

a hospital room installation transformed by an enormous colorful teddy bear bursting through a wall
Ginger Pearson, “Compassion”

Whatever you might feel in a medical setting is cast in immersive, mixed-media artworks, creatively tapping into the strange, exhilarating, and terrifying experience of being human. “Hospital of Emotions begins with the space itself. A hospital is where we confront fear, but also recognize what matters. Here, the building becomes a journey through human emotion—shifting the focus from treating the body to experiencing and processing emotion,” say exhibition curators from the studio House of Art and Dreams.

More than 10,000 visitors explored the hospital opening weekend, and several weekends are already sold out. Get your tickets and learn more about the project on its website.

a hospital room installation transformed by lush installations of flowers
Lisa Waud, “Joy”
a hospital room installation transformed by figures with bird masks and a forest setting
Nap, “Compassion”
a hospital room installation transformed by black figurative line drawings on every surface
Maryam Trebeau, “Sadness”
a hospital room installation transformed by embedded lights and string structures emerging from beds and across floors
Kim Farbota, “Sadness”
a hospital room installation transformed by Twister dots and contorted figures
Javiera Estrada, “Joy”
a hospital room installation transformed by monster-like characters and vibrant paint
Dioz, “Fear”
a hospital room installation transformed with a red glowing neon bed
David Otis Johnson, “Resilience”
a hospital room installation transformed with a lustrous swirling light sculpture
Caratoes, “Sadness”
a hospital room installation transformed by pink walls and suspended plush arms and hands from the ceiling and on the bed
Auzepy Nathalie, “Compassion”
a hospital room installation transformed by pages of books on every surface
Alex Kemp, “Hope”
a hospital room installation transformed by lush growths of moss and flowers
Alison Rebar, “Resilience”
a hospital room installation transformed by pastel colored soft sculptures and jellyfish
Scene Shift Collective, “Compassion”

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 Los Angeles, 70 Artists Transform a Vacant Hospital into a Sprawling Art Experience appeared first on Colossal.

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  • Gijs Van Vaerenbergh Gracefully Reimagines a 16th-Century Belgian Abbey Church in Steel Kate Mothes
    In the late 12th century, a nobleman named Count Gerard van Loon commissioned an abbey to serve as his final resting place. Over the next few decades, amid plenty of political tumult, Herkenrode Abbey in Hasselt, Belgium, was converted to the first Cistercian convent for women. It was a site of pilgrimage from the 13th to the 15th centuries, and despite regional wars and economic uncertainty, it stayed the course. During the 16th century, it experienced its heyday thanks to the patronage of a
     

Gijs Van Vaerenbergh Gracefully Reimagines a 16th-Century Belgian Abbey Church in Steel

4 May 2026 at 17:00
Gijs Van Vaerenbergh Gracefully Reimagines a 16th-Century Belgian Abbey Church in Steel

In the late 12th century, a nobleman named Count Gerard van Loon commissioned an abbey to serve as his final resting place. Over the next few decades, amid plenty of political tumult, Herkenrode Abbey in Hasselt, Belgium, was converted to the first Cistercian convent for women. It was a site of pilgrimage from the 13th to the 15th centuries, and despite regional wars and economic uncertainty, it stayed the course. During the 16th century, it experienced its heyday thanks to the patronage of a figure named Prince Bishop Evrard van der Marck, seeing the addition of a Gothic church that brimmed with beautiful stained glass windows, textiles, paintings, and more.

The Eighty Years’ War paused Herkenrode’s prosperity, and once things stabilized again politically, the abbey experienced several decades of good fortune, although much of this wealth was spent on the abbesses’ own acquisitions of property and art in a show of their prestige. But the paradigm-shifting Liège Revolution, which coincided with the French Revolution, brought all of this crashing to a halt by 1796. The abbey complex was promptly sold and dismantled.

a large-scale steel installation outdoors in the shape of a church, modeled after Herkenrode Abbey

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Heckenrode went through many other uses, including factories and even a series of private homes, before it was again acquired by a religious organization in the 1970s. While the original 16th-century abbey church no longer exists due to a devastating fire in 1826, the site remains one of the region’s most culturally significant. And Herita has been working to restore it. As part of a phased regeneration of the landmark and its park, an ethereal, life-size sculpture of the abbey titled CLAUSURA by Gijs Van Vaerenbergh has risen from the building’s original footprint.

The studio, founded by Belgian designers Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenbergh, conceived of CLAUSURA as “an artistic vision for the vanished heart of Herkenrode.” True to scale, the structure is made of slender steel rods that rise from the ground in an airy framework. The installation revolves around the idea of memory and sensation: rather than rebuilding the abbey to try to mirror what it may have looked like hundreds of years ago, the work nods to its past with an airy elegance.

“The new volumes are transparent, allowing their silhouettes to blend seamlessly with the landscape in the background,” says a statement. “The intervention balances between reconstruction and abstraction, as the original structures are evoked through a refined play of suggestion. Iconic details such as windows, vaults, and towers enhance the sense of recognisability, although at times, these elements dissolve back into a chaos of lines.”

a large-scale steel installation outdoors in the shape of a church, modeled after Herkenrode Abbey

Gijs Van Vaerenbergh is known for its architectural interventions, often utilizing steel, stone, wood, and a wide range of other building materials to re-envision spaces as structural sculptures. “What unites their diverse output is a sustained focus on how space is experienced—visually, bodily and temporally,” a statement says.

CLAUSURA is being constructed in three phases. The first, which is also the most ambitious, is slated to open to the public on June 18. Visitors will be able to walk and reflect amid the installation. See more on Gijs Van Vaerenbergh’s Instagram, and learn about the restoration progress and how to visit on Herita’s website.

a large-scale steel installation outdoors in the shape of a church, modeled after Herkenrode Abbey
a large-scale steel installation outdoors in the shape of a church, modeled after Herkenrode Abbey

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 Gijs Van Vaerenbergh Gracefully Reimagines a 16th-Century Belgian Abbey Church in Steel appeared first on Colossal.

  • ✇Colossal
  • Get ‘Super/Natural’ Inside Judith Schaechter’s Stained Glass Sculpture Kate Mothes
    Like a miniature chapel with enough space for one person to stand comfortably, Judith Schaechter’s glowing installation, “Super/Natural,” invites viewers to reflect on nature. An exhibition of the same name just opened at Claire Oliver Gallery and pays homage to biophilia, a theory positing that humans seek connections with nature through an innate attraction. Schaechter celebrates this propensity with a cornucopia of florals, insects, birds, and other imaginative organic forms. “The verna
     

Get ‘Super/Natural’ Inside Judith Schaechter’s Stained Glass Sculpture

24 March 2026 at 20:23
Get ‘Super/Natural’ Inside Judith Schaechter’s Stained Glass Sculpture

Like a miniature chapel with enough space for one person to stand comfortably, Judith Schaechter’s glowing installation, “Super/Natural,” invites viewers to reflect on nature. An exhibition of the same name just opened at Claire Oliver Gallery and pays homage to biophilia, a theory positing that humans seek connections with nature through an innate attraction. Schaechter celebrates this propensity with a cornucopia of florals, insects, birds, and other imaginative organic forms.

“The vernacular of stained glass is one of worship and mythology,” Schaechter says. “Super/Natural turns this a bit on its head, creating a secular sanctuary for contemplating beauty, nature, and our relationship to it.” The sculpture, which comprises 65 panes and took nearly two years to complete, is topped with a small geodesic dome and stands about eight feet tall.

A view from inside a domed, stained glass sculpture by Judith Schaechter, looking up at images of flowers, birds, and other images

“Super/Natural” came about partly as a result of Schaechter’s residency at the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics, which focuses on a sub-discipline of cognitive neuroscience concerned with how the brain processes aesthetic experiences. The artist attended lab meetings with researchers and scientists and was influenced by explorations into the “relationships between art, beauty, morality, and the brain,” the gallery says.

“My goal is to invite viewers into a deeply personal, immersive experience that explores the connections between self, nature, and imagination,” Schaechter adds in a statement. “We are ultimately connected to—not just observing—nature.”

Super/Natural continues through May 23 in Harlem. Find more on the artist’s Instagram, along with insights into her research and process on her blog.

A view from inside a domed, stained glass sculpture by Judith Schaechter, looking out at panes with images of flowers, birds, and other images
The exterior a domed, stained glass and wood sculpture by Judith Schaechter
A view from inside a domed, stained glass sculpture by Judith Schaechter, looking up at images of flowers, birds, and other images
A view from inside a domed, stained glass sculpture by Judith Schaechter, looking up at images of flowers, birds, and other images

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 Get ‘Super/Natural’ Inside Judith Schaechter’s Stained Glass Sculpture appeared first on Colossal.

  • ✇Colossal
  • Amoako Boafo Weaves His Portraiture into an Architectural Replica of His Accra Studio Grace Ebert
    The expression “wherever you go, there you are” is often wielded to describe futile attempts to escape hangups, anxieties, and a variety of unwanted emotions. Although this truism is typically offered as a negative, it can also be read as a positive that provides comfort and stability amid new environments. In I Bring Home with Me, Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo recreates his Accra studio in an architectural reproduction within Roberts Projects’ Los Angeles gallery. Boafo is known for his st
     

Amoako Boafo Weaves His Portraiture into an Architectural Replica of His Accra Studio

10 February 2026 at 19:51
Amoako Boafo Weaves His Portraiture into an Architectural Replica of His Accra Studio

The expression “wherever you go, there you are” is often wielded to describe futile attempts to escape hangups, anxieties, and a variety of unwanted emotions. Although this truism is typically offered as a negative, it can also be read as a positive that provides comfort and stability amid new environments.

In I Bring Home with Me, Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo recreates his Accra studio in an architectural reproduction within Roberts Projects’ Los Angeles gallery. Boafo is known for his stylized portraiture of Black people, whose skin the artist renders in swirling gestures made with his fingers. This exhibition presents a collection of paintings embedded within the life-sized replica, created in collaboration with architect and designer Glenn DeRoche.

a portrait by Amoako Boafo of a Black woman with a floral shirt
“Floral Shirt” (2025), oil on canvas, 39.125 x 39.125 x 1 inches

According to a statement from the gallery, Boafo wanted to reflect both the “images, sounds, people, stories, and events that shape his sense of place” and how community gatherings in his studio are essential to his process. While some portraits depict imagined subjects, many portray friends, family, and public figures.

Monstera wallpaper, porous wall dividers, and floral seat covers add color and texture to the largely black, wooden structure and echo Boafo’s use of paper transfers, embroidered details, and thick impasto. Paired with his portraiture, these architectural details guide viewers through the space and capture how presence and memories shape our inner and outer environments.

I Bring Home with Me is on view through March 21. Find more on the artist’s Instagram.

a detail image of a floral garment in a portrait by Amoako Boafo
a portrait by Amoako Boafo of a Black woman in wedding dress
“Bouquet of White Roses” (2025), oil on canvas, 81 x 66 inches
an installation view of a dining table and chairs with a portrait by Amoako Boafo
Installation view of ‘I Bring Home with Me’
a portrait by Amoako Boafo of a Black man reclining on a chair
“Self Portrait – Ivy Leaf Sofa” (2025), oil and paper transfer on canvas, 65 x 59 inches
a portrait by Amoako Boafo of a Black man on a bike
“Black Cycle”
a portrait by Amoako Boafo of a Black woman with a white top
“Pink Dial” (2025), oil on canvas, 35.5 x 39.125 x 1 inches
a detail image of a portrait by Amoako Boafo of a Black man on a bike
Detail of “Black Cycle”
an installation view with portraits by Amoako Boafo
Installation view of ‘I Bring Home with Me’

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 Amoako Boafo Weaves His Portraiture into an Architectural Replica of His Accra Studio appeared first on Colossal.

  • ✇Colossal
  • ‘Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way’ Convenes 58 Artists to Survey Contemporary Latinx Painting Jackie Andres
    On the top floor of Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s Gundlach Building, a vast body of work from 58 artists comes together for Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way. The impressive ensemble is both a survey of contemporary Latinx painting and a lively dialogue between a spectrum of artists with diverse backgrounds, experiences, identities, languages, and creative mediums. Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way is a major exhibition that has slowly unfolded over the course of several years. Curator Andrea
     

‘Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way’ Convenes 58 Artists to Survey Contemporary Latinx Painting

20 March 2026 at 14:50
‘Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way’ Convenes 58 Artists to Survey Contemporary Latinx Painting

On the top floor of Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s Gundlach Building, a vast body of work from 58 artists comes together for Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way. The impressive ensemble is both a survey of contemporary Latinx painting and a lively dialogue between a spectrum of artists with diverse backgrounds, experiences, identities, languages, and creative mediums.

Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way is a major exhibition that has slowly unfolded over the course of several years. Curator Andrea Alvarez—the architect and driving force behind the project—has spent much of this time immersed in research and collaborating closely with each artist throughout the process, refining every detail of the show.

an abstract painting by Eamon Ore-Giron
Eamon Ore-Giron, “Talking Shit with Illapa (variation I)” (2023), mineral paint and Flashe on canvas, 72 inches × 96 1/8 inches. Photo by Brenda Bieger

The exhibition’s title alludes to former U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera’s titular poem. Oscillating between English and Spanish while employing lush imagery of flora and fauna, the poem itself—like the survey—is an exuberant celebration of community and cultural convergence. He writes:

cielo de calor and wisdom to meet us
where we toil siempre
in the garden of our struggle and joy
let us offer our hearts a saludar our águila rising
freedom

The show traces this poetic rhythm in its spatial design. Herrera’s stanzas greet visitors at each entrance and throughout its galleries, establishing tone and providing context for what lies ahead.

Although the exhibition is organized into seven themes, Alvarez highlights its intrinsically flowing nature, noting that even if the collection were rearranged, the show would still hold together. In a walkthrough, it became clear that space was central to the viewing experience, leaving room for visitors to engage with the works on their own terms, much like the exhibition’s overarching focus on gathering and bolstering free-flowing conversation.

a painting by Moises Salazar Tlatenchi depicting five brown figures sailing in a boat in ice waters with an American flag. The composition is made with glitter and sits inside a crocheted lavender frame.
Moises Salazar Tlatenchi, “Cruising Queens” (2024), oil on canvas, glitter, yarn, 35 x 45 inches

In Moises Salazar Tlatenchi’s “Cruising Queens,” a boat of five faceless figures and an American flag sail icy waters. Reminiscent of 18th-century America, the figures wear powdered wigs and tricorne hats. Finished with a dense layer of glitter and a daintily crocheted lavender frame, the artist’s glamorous materials—and the existence of brown figures in this context—subvert American history. “Cruising Queens” is placed within the exhibition’s New Histories section, which focuses on retelling personal, cultural, and global histories.

Colossal readers might also recognize Eamon Ore-Giron’s tessellated abstractions in “Talking Shit with Ilapa (variation I),” Guadalupe Maravilla’s mixed-media techniques in “Pupusa Retablo,” and Firelei Báez’s vibrant portraits bursting with floral motifs in “Mawu-Lisa (I build my language out of rocks).” Known for deconstructing colonial structures within her work, Báez turns toward the transatlantic slave trade, invoking deity Mawu-Lisa, a critical figure in the culture and religion of the Fon people in West Africa, who were brought to the Caribbean by force.

Bodies & Figures denotes another section of the show, highlighting “representations of and by marginalized people, considering the importance of the body, and who is or isn’t seen in an image,” the catalog says. One such work is Salomón Huerta’s triptych of untitled canvases. Through the absence of figurative human subjects within the paintings, visitors experience an intimate representation of the artist’s father.

“Huerta’s father protected the family in their home in Ramona Gardens, a violent housing project in East Los Angeles,” the museum label reads. “At night, he would set his .38-caliber revolver on the bedside table and ask Huerta to bring him a snack—often a concha or a glass of milk.” Disrupting expectations of traditional portraiture, the artist evokes something that feels deeply tender and human-centered—without the presence of a body.

a triptych by Salomón Huerta, each a still life depicting a revolver next to a snack on a table
Salomón Huerta, “Untitled” (2024), “Untitled (2025), “Untitled” (2024), oil on canvas, 14 x 16 inches. Photo by Jackie Andres

At the same time, Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way begs the question: how do identity and place shape each other? Los Angeles-based artist Alfonso Gonzalez Jr. turns to the rich visual language of signage. A meticulous technique passed down from his father’s professional career in commercial sign painting, Gonzalez has developed an enduring relationship with East Los Angeles’ emblematic advertisements and billboards, often reflecting Chicano culture. In “Abogados Tierra Caliente (Billboard),” the artist underscores the inherent connection between local landscapes and one’s selfhood, and an interesting relationship emerges between public commercial objects, personal portraits, and the museum itself.

Chicago-based Yvette Mayorga’s strikingly pink composition, “The Brunette Latinx Self Portrait After Francois Boucher’s “The Brunette Odalisque” c. 1745,” is affixed to a wall in the show’s cluster of Pinturx works, which are described as “contemporary Latinx approaches to traditional painting genres like still life and portraiture.” The artist’s distinctive technique of piping acrylic paint embodies themes of labor, femininity, and memory. Mayorga’s unconventional methods are an example of newer approaches to portraiture and complement the artist’s nods to Baroque and Rococo art.

Included in this grouping of nontraditional painting methods are other artists previously featured on Colossal, such as Sarah Zapata’s textile columns, made from handwoven cloth and various fibers. Installed leaning against a wall or protruding downward from the ceiling, her structures convey instability—a reflection of the current climate we find ourselves in. Narsiso Martinez also makes an appearance with “Checker Leading the Crowd,” made with charcoal on his distinctive cardboard produce box background, calling attention to labor.

In an anchoring room of the exhibition, “Promised Land” by Patrick Martinez spans 16 feet wide, redolent of a landscape’s sweeping view. Acrylic, neon, stucco, spray paint, and ceramic tile are just some of the layers that sit atop each other in the mixed-media work. Martinez ruminates on his native Los Angeles and the facade of “paradise” amid an ever-changing cultural landscape marked by gentrification and financial marginalization. Abstracted and washed-out structures, spray-paint marks inspired by graffiti, and an archival family photo collage represent the passage of time and the act of constantly rebuilding. “Promised Land” is part of the exhibition’s Land/tierra section, which highlights “Latinx approaches to landscape and the built environment, thinking about land and tierra and their rapid change.”

an installation image of "Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way" inside the Buffalo AKG Art Museum
“Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way” at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Photo by Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum

As a whole, the boundary-pushing exhibition comes together in a chorus of dialogues, mediums, backgrounds, and experiences. The Caribbean and Latin American diaspora is complex, and each artist remains distinct—resisting an external flattening into a monolithic identity. Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way is a celebration of contrasts and connections and a necessary counterbalance in the glaring face of division.

The exhibition is on view through September 6, when it will travel to the Des Moines Art Center, the Phoenix Art Museum, and the Frye Art Museum in Seattle. Public programming—workshops, artist talks, tours with poet Juan Felipe Herrera, and more—is slated to accompany the show’s run, so keep an eye out for events on the museum’s website.

an installation image of "Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way" inside the Buffalo AKG Art Museum
“Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way” at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Photo by Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum
a painting by Larry Madrigal of individuals of all ages jumping on a trampoline
Larry Madrigal, “Man on Trampoline” (2023), oil on linen, 90 x 76 inches. Photo by Yubo Dong, ofstudio photography, courtesy of the artist and Nicodim
an installation image of "Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way" inside the Buffalo AKG Art Museum
“Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way” at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Photo by Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum
a wide, oval-shaped composition by Yvette Mayorga in pink piped acrylic hues, depicting a woman lying down
Yvette Mayorga, “The Brunette Latinx Self Portrait After François Boucher’s “The Brunette Odalisque” c.1745″ (2022), acrylic nails, acrylic marker, false eyelashes, collage, plastic rings, plastic nail charms, rhinestones, car wrap vinyl, and acrylic piping on panel, overall 60 x 120 x 2 inches. Photo by Robert Chase Heishman, courtesy of the artist
an installation image of "Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way" inside the Buffalo AKG Art Museum
“Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way” at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Photo by Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum
an installation image of "Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way" inside the Buffalo AKG Art Museum
“Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way” at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Photo by Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum
an installation image of "Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way" inside the Buffalo AKG Art Museum
“Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way” at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Photo by Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum
an installation image of "Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way" inside the Buffalo AKG Art Museum
“Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way” at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Photo by Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum

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 ‘Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way’ Convenes 58 Artists to Survey Contemporary Latinx Painting appeared first on Colossal.

  • ✇Colossal
  • Roda Medhat Subverts Traditional Kurdish Narratives Into Modern Tactile Experiences Jackie Andres
    Toronto-based Kurdish artist Roda Medhat pushes the boundaries of fabric into the realm of sculpture, exploring the ways in which traditional West Asian textiles can be translated into various media. As digital fabrication and 3D scanning cross paths with memory and material, Medhat’s practice asks “how we carry our stories, and what happens when those stories are translated into new, synthetic languages?” The artist’s new solo exhibition, titled From the Loom, fills Toronto’s Abbozzo Gall
     

Roda Medhat Subverts Traditional Kurdish Narratives Into Modern Tactile Experiences

29 May 2026 at 20:00
Roda Medhat Subverts Traditional Kurdish Narratives Into Modern Tactile Experiences

Toronto-based Kurdish artist Roda Medhat pushes the boundaries of fabric into the realm of sculpture, exploring the ways in which traditional West Asian textiles can be translated into various media. As digital fabrication and 3D scanning cross paths with memory and material, Medhat’s practice asks “how we carry our stories, and what happens when those stories are translated into new, synthetic languages?”

The artist’s new solo exhibition, titled From the Loom, fills Toronto’s Abbozzo Gallery with large-scale sculptures in conversation with a new series of textile works. Known in part for his neon installations, the artist also presents several glowing light-based works encased within glass or acrylic, redolent of patterned Kurdish rugs.

a Jacquard weaving by Roda Medhat depicting a boy holding a circular object
“Def” (2026). Photo by Fraser Carr Moore

Several of Medhat’s images and symbols—most prominently young boys riding horses and interacting with nature—are sourced from Kurdish children’s books. These icons are woven directly into the surface of each textile by way of an electronic Jacquard machine, further accentuating the contrast between preserved cultural objects and contemporary reconstruction. In the exhibition’s statement, Medhat shares that his work “functions as a distillation of a wider body of research,” including the contemporary subversion of archival materials.

“The Sheep and the Chevrolet,” an anchoring work within the exhibition, reimagines François Balsan’s problematic 1947 ethnographic work of the same title. Pitting bucolic Kurdish life with Western modernism, Balsan’s off-key travelogue presented a stereotypical, highly subjective view of Kurdish culture. Medhat’s bold sculpture invokes 3D printing to construct a monumental sheep composedly sitting atop a small Chevrolet vehicle, offering a playful point of reconceptualization.

From the Loom is on view through May 26. You can find more from the artist on Instagram.

a sculpture by Roda Medhat of a pink sheep sitting atop a small Chevrolet car
“The Sheep and the Chevrolet” (2026). Photo by Darren Rigo
a neon sculpture by Roda Medhat depicting patterns reminiscent of traditional Kurdish rugs
Photo by Darren Rigo
a neon sculpture by Roda Medhat depicting patterns reminiscent of traditional Kurdish rugs
“A Rug Falls in Four Frames” (2025). Photo by Fraser Carr Moore
a neon sculpture by Roda Medhat depicting patterns reminiscent of traditional Kurdish rugs
Photo by Darren Rigo
a neon sculpture by Roda Medhat depicting patterns reminiscent of traditional Kurdish rugs
a Jacquard weaving by Roda Medhat depicting a boy on a bike playing outside
“Boy, Cat, Bike, Mother” (2026). Photo by Fraser Carr Moore
a Jacquard weaving by Roda Medhat depicting patterns reminiscent of traditional Kurdish rugs
“Jajim 1” (2026). Photo by Fraser Carr Moore
detail of a geometric Jacquard weaving by Roda Medhat
Detail of “Jajim 2” (2026). Photo by Fraser Carr Moore
a neon sculpture by Roda Medhat depicting a boy running
Photo by Darren Rigo
two a neon sculptures by Roda Medhat depicting patterns reminiscent of traditional Kurdish rugs
Photo by Darren Rigo
detail of a Jacquard weaving by Roda Medhat depicting a boy holding a circular object
Detail of “Def” (2026). Photo by Fraser Carr Moore

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 Roda Medhat Subverts Traditional Kurdish Narratives Into Modern Tactile Experiences appeared first on Colossal.

  • ✇Colossal
  • Lina Lapelytė Fills Hamburger Bahnhof with 400,000 Wood Blocks for Communal Building Grace Ebert
    Inside the cavernous former train station that now houses Hamburger Bahnhof, 400,000 wooden cubes stack and topple into piles. Conceived by Lithuanian artist Lina Lapelytė and commissioned by Chanel, “We Make Years Out of Hours” is a large-scale installation that invites the public to remake structures from these 10-centimeter blocks made of pine and spruce. Lapelytė often combines sound and performance and collaborates with both professionals and novices. This participatory work continues
     

Lina Lapelytė Fills Hamburger Bahnhof with 400,000 Wood Blocks for Communal Building

28 April 2026 at 21:35
Lina Lapelytė Fills Hamburger Bahnhof with 400,000 Wood Blocks for Communal Building

Inside the cavernous former train station that now houses Hamburger Bahnhof, 400,000 wooden cubes stack and topple into piles. Conceived by Lithuanian artist Lina Lapelytė and commissioned by Chanel, “We Make Years Out of Hours” is a large-scale installation that invites the public to remake structures from these 10-centimeter blocks made of pine and spruce.

Lapelytė often combines sound and performance and collaborates with both professionals and novices. This participatory work continues the artist’s interest in collective making and caretaking, particularly as it relates to shared authorship and how we might amend and reshape what currently exists.

people work on an installation of wooden blocks by Lina Lapelytė in a cavernous building

A trio of weekly performances on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays will feature a libretto with the words of 15 writers, including Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong, Lebanese-American painter Etel Adnan, Iranian filmmaker
Forugh Farrokhzad, and Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Centered around community, love, and loss, these songs create another dimension in the space to consider agency and hope.

“We Make Years Out of Hours” opens on May 1 and is on view through January 10, 2027, in Berlin. Explore more of Lapelytė’s multi-disciplinary works on her website and Instagram.

a man works on an installation of wooden blocks by Lina Lapelytė in a cavernous building
a woman works on an installation of wooden blocks by Lina Lapelytė in a cavernous building
an installation of wooden blocks by Lina Lapelytė in a cavernous building
people work on an installation of wooden blocks by Lina Lapelytė in a cavernous building
people work on an installation of wooden blocks by Lina Lapelytė in a cavernous building
a woman sits on an installation of wooden blocks by Lina Lapelytė in a cavernous building
the artist poses with an installation of wooden blocks by Lina Lapelytė in a cavernous building
Portrait of Lina Lapelytė

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  • An Interactive Archive Celebrates the Wide-Ranging Projects Inviting ‘Unruly Play’ Grace Ebert
    “Play is how we give permission,” says Vitor Freire, co-founder of the Amsterdam-based studio Imagination of Things. “Permission to challenge what’s fixed, rehearse what doesn’t exist yet, and close the distance between people who wouldn’t otherwise meet.” Freire and co-founder Monique Grimord take play seriously and, in a new project, their studio created a vast repository of 169 artworks, designs, games, and more that have offered an unexpected encounter with imagination and joy. From Ra
     

An Interactive Archive Celebrates the Wide-Ranging Projects Inviting ‘Unruly Play’

24 April 2026 at 16:50
An Interactive Archive Celebrates the Wide-Ranging Projects Inviting ‘Unruly Play’

“Play is how we give permission,” says Vitor Freire, co-founder of the Amsterdam-based studio Imagination of Things. “Permission to challenge what’s fixed, rehearse what doesn’t exist yet, and close the distance between people who wouldn’t otherwise meet.”

Freire and co-founder Monique Grimord take play seriously and, in a new project, their studio created a vast repository of 169 artworks, designs, games, and more that have offered an unexpected encounter with imagination and joy. From Rael San Fratello’s award-winning “Teeter-Totter Wall” to the healing Wind Phone project to a 12-foot puppet walking the world, Unruly Play is a multi-decade archive of participatory projects, public spaces, and digital creations that invite surprise and camaraderie.

“Our collaborators have always asked us where our ideas come from,” Gimrod says, “and the truth is that they come from references that rarely talk to each other—it can be a seesaw through a border wall or a phone booth connected to the dead… We wanted to create unusual dialogues and support new creative practices, and Unruly Play was our answer for that.”

Fully interactive, the project is searchable by theme or browsable through a shuffle feature. To dive deeper into the power of play, check out this compendium of artist-designed spaces.

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 An Interactive Archive Celebrates the Wide-Ranging Projects Inviting ‘Unruly Play’ appeared first on Colossal.

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  • Tavares Strachan’s First Monograph Surveys an Encyclopedic Practice Grace Ebert
    Tavares Strachan is an artist whose interests, references, and approaches to making stretch so broadly, it’s not surprising that one of his more well-known works is an encyclopedia. Created in 2018, the 2,400-page volume contains 15,000 entries on individuals, events, places, and more that are critical to understanding our shared history, and yet were omitted from the Encyclopedia Britannica. This inverse book-cum-sculpture is one of many pieces within Strachan’s oeuvre that question the narr
     

Tavares Strachan’s First Monograph Surveys an Encyclopedic Practice

5 June 2026 at 18:18
Tavares Strachan’s First Monograph Surveys an Encyclopedic Practice

Tavares Strachan is an artist whose interests, references, and approaches to making stretch so broadly, it’s not surprising that one of his more well-known works is an encyclopedia. Created in 2018, the 2,400-page volume contains 15,000 entries on individuals, events, places, and more that are critical to understanding our shared history, and yet were omitted from the Encyclopedia Britannica. This inverse book-cum-sculpture is one of many pieces within Strachan’s oeuvre that question the narratives we collectively disseminate.

Born in Nassau, the Bahamian artist is one of the leading conceptual artists working today, and his first monograph, out in July from Phaidon, peers into decades of his expansive practice.

a collage with images of owls, crosswords, jet magazine, queen elizabeth and more
“Every Tongue Shall Confess” (2023), oil, enamel, pigment, and acrylic on two panels, 213 x 213 centimeters

While much of Strachan’s work considers colonialism and historical erasure, the artist is deeply rooted in the present and future. Our changing climate and the push for space exploration figure prominently and even sparked the scientific research platform, Bahamas Aerospace and Sea Exploration Center (BASEC), which Strachan founded in 2018. That project launched a 3U satellite into space for a three-year orbit around the sun that same year, which shared the story of Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first African-American astronaut within any national space program.

The book’s release coincides with Strachan’s exhibition The Day Tomorrow Began at The Pizzuti, part of the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio, which runs through January 3. In true Strachan fashion, creating the monograph goes beyond simply gathering the various projects and shows within his practice. “When you make a book, you are participating in this very long historic lineage of bookmaking and sharing information,” he says, adding that there’s a strong spiritual connection between presenting work in person and on the page.

Get your copy from the Colossal Shop.

a black titled sculpture of a person riding a horse with a mirrored scene upside down
“In Praise of Midnight (Christophe × Napoleon)” (2025), resin and steel, 485 x 345 x 155 centimeters
an installation in a dark room of a barber shop
“The Barber Shop” (2025), performance, installation, dimensions variable. Installation view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
a ship with a black star on it
“Black Star” (2024), aluminum, fiberglass, steel, painted wood, 543 x 1210 x 200 centimeters. Installation view at Hayward Gallery, London
an aerial view of the artist's studio
a photo of the artist in his studio
Tavares Strachan, Isolated Labs, New York, 2025. Photo by Jason Schmidt
the cover of Tavares Strachan's monograph

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  • From Two Tons of Celadon, Jean Shin Sculpts a Metaphor for the Korean Diaspora Grace Ebert
    Incorporating nearly two tons of porcelain fragments, a monumental pair of vessels spills out into a pool of lustrous green. Shards of broken cups and saucers, pots, and other voluptuous forms blanket the gallery of the Green-House at Green-Wood for a new installation by Jean Shin. Celadon Landscape is one of the latest projects in which the artist transforms a singular material into a sprawling sculpture. Found objects that bear traces of their former purposes and users are prized possess
     

From Two Tons of Celadon, Jean Shin Sculpts a Metaphor for the Korean Diaspora

19 May 2026 at 17:46
From Two Tons of Celadon, Jean Shin Sculpts a Metaphor for the Korean Diaspora

Incorporating nearly two tons of porcelain fragments, a monumental pair of vessels spills out into a pool of lustrous green. Shards of broken cups and saucers, pots, and other voluptuous forms blanket the gallery of the Green-House at Green-Wood for a new installation by Jean Shin.

Celadon Landscape is one of the latest projects in which the artist transforms a singular material into a sprawling sculpture. Found objects that bear traces of their former purposes and users are prized possessions in Shin’s New York studio, as these often-discarded items are nested into dynamic works that consider the relationship between consumption, environmental care, and community.

detail of celadon mosaic

Green-Wood presents the second iteration of Celadon Landscape, which originated during the artist’s visits with ceramicists and makers in South Korea. Celadon production has a lengthy history in the region and dates back to at least the 10th century. As Shin encountered the heaps of imperfect pieces these artisans had cast aside, she found the pale green-blue material an apt metaphor for belonging, repair, and the diaspora.

“Celadon vases occupy a prized place in Korean cultural history—objects of reverence, painstakingly made and carefully preserved,” the artist says. “In Celadon Landscape, I shift the gaze to what is usually discarded: thousands of broken ceramic shards. I see in their imperfection not loss, but beauty—fragments that still pulse with the memory of Korea’s enduring legacy.”

With materials donated by studios in and near the city of Icheon, Shin conceived of two bulbous vessels cloaked in patterned, painted, stamped, and textured bits of pottery. Resting on their sides, the mosaic forms appear to emerge from the earth below, as if they’ve been uncovered in an archaeological dig. None of the vessels—the original pieces or the large-scale reconstructions—is presented whole and unblemished, suggesting a fragmentation that doesn’t disappear but rather is made anew.

Fabricated by Miotto Mosaics Art Studios, Inc., Celadon Landscape is on view through January 17 in New York, where Shin is based. Keep up with her projects on Instagram.

a vessel on the floor of mosaiced celadon fragments that cloak the form and spill out into a pool
two large vessels on the floor of mosaiced celadon fragments that cloak the forms and spill out into a pool
two large vessels on the floor of mosaiced celadon fragments that cloak the forms and spill out into a pool
detail of celadon mosaic
detail of celadon mosaic
two large vessels on the floor of mosaiced celadon fragments that cloak the forms and spill out into a pool
detail of celadon mosaic

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 From Two Tons of Celadon, Jean Shin Sculpts a Metaphor for the Korean Diaspora appeared first on Colossal.

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  • Faig Ahmed Weaves Mysticism, Science, Technology, and Craft into ‘The Attention’ Kate Mothes
    Faig Ahmed is known for his vibrant textile sculptures that take traditional Azerbaijani ornamental carpets as starting point, often appearing to melt, pool, or glitch. In his current solo presentation at the 61st Venice Biennale, where he is representing Azerbaijan, the Baku-based artist branches out into more conceptual territory, exploring science, alchemy, spirituality, and perceptions of self in a sprawling, maze-like installation called The Attention. Curated by Gwendolyn Collaço, th
     

Faig Ahmed Weaves Mysticism, Science, Technology, and Craft into ‘The Attention’

14 May 2026 at 13:42
Faig Ahmed Weaves Mysticism, Science, Technology, and Craft into ‘The Attention’

Faig Ahmed is known for his vibrant textile sculptures that take traditional Azerbaijani ornamental carpets as starting point, often appearing to melt, pool, or glitch. In his current solo presentation at the 61st Venice Biennale, where he is representing Azerbaijan, the Baku-based artist branches out into more conceptual territory, exploring science, alchemy, spirituality, and perceptions of self in a sprawling, maze-like installation called The Attention.

Curated by Gwendolyn Collaço, the exhibition expands upon Ahmed’s interest in the dialectic between digital processes and time-honored, hand-crafted techniques. The artist considers how advanced scientific inquiry, such as quantum physics and neuroscience, relates to how we “articulate cosmologies of belonging,” says a statement.

an installation view of Faig Ahmed's 'The Attention' at the 61st Venice Biennale, featuring an outdoor courtyard with a machine-woven rug spilling down the stairs and running into another room
“Garden of Awakening” (2026), directional audio system

Ornamental carpets continue as a through-line in The Attention, undulating, scrunching, distending, and balling up through a series of rooms. They even extend outdoors, creating a kind of continuous runner that spills out of doorways and stretches into long lines of color.

“Ahmed bridges the 15th-century Hurufi mystic tradition—which viewed the universe as a coded text—with modern information theory,” says a statement. “By channeling the ‘human energy’ of the weave, he uses this ancient textile paradigm to address our era’s information overload and collective grief.”

Ahmed taps into a theoretical framework coined by physicist John Wheeler that can be summed up, rather enigmatically, as “it from bit.” It’s a short way of describing an approach to information theory that string theorists and quantum mechanics researchers have tested. In other words, “…every it—every particle, every field of force, even the spacetime continuum itself—derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely—even if in some contexts indirectly—from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices, bits.”

In The Attention, the binaries of “it from bit” are not only present in the way digital methods and the physical labor of the loom converge but also in Ahmed’s interests.

a detail of a colorful, uniquely patterned wool carpet
Detail of “Ancestors”

“I have always been drawn to exploring consciousness for as far back as I can remember,” he says in a statement, continuing:

This search has guided my attention in two directions: on one hand, toward science—biology, physics, and mathematics—and on the other, toward spirituality, art, poetry, and creative expression. At first glance, these fields appear opposite, even contradictory. One form of knowledge is directed out-ward, toward what can be measured, calculated, observed, and verified. The other turns inward, toward the subjective, the unprovable, and the inexpressible. It is an experience that cannot be confirmed or fully shared with another, just as it is impossible to truly know what it feels like to be someone else.

Merging 15th-century Hurufi mysticism with science, digital interfaces with the analog, and introspective personal experiences with objective data, Ahmed’s carpets guide visitors through the immersive space. The largest one, a monumental machine-woven piece, is titled “I Can Contain Both Worlds But I Do Not Fit Into This One.” It forms what the artist describes as a “breathing body” that climbs the architecture, knots itself, collapses, and spills. “Ancestors,” a faintly anthropomorphic wall piece that glows psychedelically in black light is woven by hand. And a work called “Entropy Altar” uses a quantum random number generator to translate visitor presence into an evolving language.

The Attention remains on view through November 22 at Campo della Tana, Castello 2124/A–2125, Venice. See more on Ahmed’s Instagram and Vimeo.

an installation view of Faig Ahmed's 'The Attention' at the 61st Venice Biennale, featuring text on the left wall and a long carpet installation throughout the rooms
Installation view of ‘The Attention’
a handmade wool carpet illuminated by a black light on a wall with a symmetrical, undulating, psychedelic form in the middle
“Ancestors” (2026), handmade wool carpet, 170 x 385 centimeters
a ball of blue, machine-woven carpet in a corner
“The Knot” (2026), part of “I Can Contain Both Worlds But I Do Not Fit Into This One,” 200 centimeters in diameter
a detail of a colorful, patterned wool carpet where traditional designs appear "stretched" at the bottom
Detail of “I Can Contain Both Worlds But I Do Not Fit Into This One”
an installation view of Faig Ahmed's 'The Attention' at the 61st Venice Biennale, featuring a rug "spilling" out of a doorway
“I Can Contain Both Worlds But I Do Not Fit Into This One” (2026), site-specific machine-printed carpet spanning all seven rooms
artist Faig Ahmed stands in a doorway with his large-scale carpet installation on the ground, spilling out onto the street
Faig Ahmed at the entrance to ‘The Attention’

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 Faig Ahmed Weaves Mysticism, Science, Technology, and Craft into ‘The Attention’ appeared first on Colossal.

Photographers Are Livid About a Photo Festival’s Camera-Busting Rage Room

27 May 2026 at 19:49

A hammer is striking an old Praktica film camera, causing it to break apart with debris and small pieces flying, all shown with a red tint.

The Belfast Photo Festival is still over a week from starting in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but it has already instigated serious outrage among photographers. The Belfast Photo Festival will include a major interactive public exhibition that invites visitors to pick up a hammer and destroy "obsolete" cameras, and not everyone is on board.

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