Art Photography

Uncanny Woven Portraits by Jason Chen Splice Two Moments in Time

Rather than capture a single moment, Jason Chen (previously) weaves together photographs taken just seconds apart, creating disjointed portraits that convey movement and the passage of time. The Philadelphia-based artist often splices snapshots of the same setting and subject with slight differences in the tilt of the head, gesture, or gaze. Laced into a grid or hypnotizing circle like a photographic tapestry, the resulting images are uncanny and disorienting, nodding to fragmented identities and skewed perceptions of the self and others.

In a note to Colossal, Chen shares that the process and outcome of each piece depend on the subject. “When I work with professionals, the initial photoshoots tend to be an exploration of movement whereas with my close friends, there is often an exploration of more subtle emotion in the process. Sometimes I’m most excited about the pieces that end up only having a subtle shift,” he says.

While Chen sometimes plans portraits, the weaving process is entirely intuitive. He often narrows his materials to two images, although he’s currently experimenting with adding more to the mix. “Unlike the initial act of photographing, the photoweaving process involves a lot of unknowns. I usually like to dive in without preplanning the effect the weaving is going to have on the two photos, and sometimes this leads to weavings that don’t quite work out, but it makes it that much more exciting when they do.”

Find more of Chen’s recent works at Paradigm Gallery + Studio in Philadelphia.

 

Photography

In a Neighborly Portrait Series, Ashraful Arefin Turns His Gaze Toward Four-Legged Passersby

In Animals from the streets, photographer Ashraful Arefin takes a moment to greet the furry creatures that join the hustle and bustle of the city. Taken during the last few years in cities like Kolkata, Delhi, Jaisalmer, Kathmandu, Dubai, and Dhaka, where Arefin is based, the portraits are dreamlike and neighborly, glimpsing the mundane goings on of cats, rhesus monkeys, and cows sunbathing or lumbering through small thoroughfares. Arefin takes a friendly approach to documenting his subjects, framing them like any other passerby wandering through the streets.

View the entire series on Behance, and follow Arefin on Instagram to keep up with his latest projects.

 

Sponsor

Sebastian Foster Announces 30 Artists for Their Eclectic Fall Print Set

Austin-based gallery Sebastian Foster continues its 2023 Fall Print Set, marking the 11th anniversary of the collection since it launched in 2012. The new release features 30 works by well-established illustrators, printmakers, and painters from across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Japan, and Europe. Half of the artists have worked with the gallery for years, while the other half are guests who joined just for this collection.

This set features 30 works all published as relatively small editions, hand-signed and numbered by the artists. Encompassing an eclectic array of mediums and themes, the collection showcases work from artists previously featured on Colossal, including Jeremy Miranda’s vibrant oil paintings, Jay Ryan’s playful illustrations, and Mia Bergeron’s dreamy dualism.

Now online-only, Sebastian Foster focuses on original works and prints, publishing over 1,000 editions since opening in the late 2000s. Whether you’re looking for the next piece to add to your collection or for meaningful holiday gifts, head to the gallery’s site to shop the Fall Print Set today.

 

Art Colossal Craft Design Photography

The Top Ten Colossal Stories Readers Loved Most in 2023

As we approach the end of 2023, we’re revisiting some of the top stories we wrote about this year. From enormous kinetic beach creatures to a trove of salvaged historic photographs, our readers’ most-loved projects illustrate a diverse array of mediums, ideas, and groundbreaking discoveries.

 

A Wind-Powered Herd of Beach Animals Merge Into a Storm Defense System in Theo Jansen’s Latest ‘Strandbeest’

An 18-meter-long Strandbeest scuttles across the sands of a beach in The Netherlands in a short video by Dutch artist Theo Jansen, who has been releasing his otherworldly creatures into the world each year since 1990.

 

More Than 10,000 Indigenous Earthworks Hidden in the Amazon Reveal Human Connections to the Forest Over Millennia

Researchers Vinicius Peripato and Luiz Aragão of Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research led surveys that identified 24 previously undocumented earthworks in the Amazon basin, with results suggesting that between 10,000 and 24,000 sites remain undiscovered across Amazonia’s 2.59 million square miles.

 

A Photo Preservationist Saved a Trove of 4,000 Glass Plate Negatives That Nearly Went Into the Trash

In 2019, Terri Cappucci, a photographer and preservationist based in Massachusetts, stumbled upon a veritable treasure trove of 4,000 glass plates spanning the 1860s to the 1930s that had been destined for the trash.

 

Azuma Makoto’s Temporary Sculptures Freeze Hundreds of Flowers on a Snow-Coated Lake

On a frozen lake in the Notsuke Peninsula, a tendril of land that juts out from Hokkaido’s east coast, acclaimed floral artist Azuma Makoto has constructed the third botanical sculpture in an ongoing series called Frozen Flowers.

 

A Wooden Artwork Miraculously Unfurls into a Functional Desk Designed by Robert van Embricqs

The surge in remote work during the last few years prompted Amsterdam-based designer Robert van Embricqs to rethink how conventional desks would impact a home’s atmosphere.

 

Laurent Ballesta’s Luminous Photographs Reveal the Astounding Diversity of Ocean Life

The earth’s oceans are mindbogglingly expansive, and less than 20 percent has been mapped, explored, or seen by humans. For Laurent Ballesta, the underwater world provides an endless stream of remarkable aquatic personalities.

 

In His Largest LEGO Work To Date, Ai Weiwei Recreates One of Claude Monet’s Most Famous Paintings

Ai Weiwei challenges our perceptions of natural beauty and reality, replacing brush strokes with plastic bricks redolent of digital pixels, using a more saturated color palette, and embedding shadows that evoke a hint of unease.

 

Photos of Everyday Activities Reveal the Humor of Perspective and Serendipitous Alignments

One of the joys of street photography is that it reveals just how often unexpected, serendipitous juxtapositions are happening around us. Whether in Tel Aviv, New York, or Athens, Anthimos Ntagkas has a keen eye for these everyday alignments as he captures strange and amusing sights during his travels.

 

A Major Exhibition Materializes Surrealist Artist Remedios Varo’s Alchemical Visions

More than 60 of Remedios Varo’s paintings, sketches, and sculptures went on view at a U.S. museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, for the first time in 23 years. The enchanting works evidence the artist’s esoteric affinities and are rife with unexpected magic.

 

Mikko Lagerstedt Photographs the Quiet Grandeur of Snowy Nordic Landscapes

Underneath soft light from the moon or the early morning sun, Finnish photographer Mikko Lagerstedt captures the quiet magic and mystery of Nordic landscapes.

Photography

In Luke Stephenson’s Bold Portraits of Show Birds, the Personality Is in the Plumage

From charming robins and spritely blackbirds to a canary with a suave, natural bowl cut, Luke Stephenson’s portraits capture the fine feathers and downy details of exquisite show birds (previously). Using a customized, portable box with a perch inside, the artist captures each species’ distinctive personality and plumage in front of a variety of colored backgrounds.

For more than a decade, Stephenson traveled across the U.K. and the Netherlands to make the portraits, and over time, he experimented with ways to make the birds more comfortable and achieve the most compelling compositions. “I keep adapting (the boxes) to work better; the latest version allows me to spin the perch without putting my hand in the box and bothering the birds,” he tells Colossal.

Stephenson recently compiled a second volume of his popular book An Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds, including all of the images that appeared in the first volume, plus 115 never-before-published portraits. Now based in Stockholm, he’s currently working on a project focused on Swedish traditions.

If you’re in California, you can spot a few of Stephenson’s birds in Still Life, a three-person show at Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla, through February 10. Find more on the artist’s website, and follow him on Instagram for updates.

 

Art

Joshua Smith Serves Up Slices of Main Street in Meticulously Detailed Miniature Buildings

Wheatpasted posters, spraypainted tags, and signs with missing letters are just a few of the hyperrealistic details on the facades of Joshua Smith’s extraordinary miniatures. “My work focuses on often neglected and abandoned buildings, which more often than not are covered in graffiti, rust, and grime,” the Adelaide, South Australia-based artist tells Colossal. Rendering corner stores, photo booths, and anonymous entryways with precision, he adds layers of lifelike details both inside and out, from stacks of boxes to checkout counters to racks of merchandise.

For his source imagery, Smith draws from visits around the U.S. and abroad, plus images he finds on Google Street View. Thanks to a popular Instagram account, if he can’t get to a particular location in person, sometimes his followers help out by visiting specific sites and snapping photos for reference. “I then break it down into different components, such as walls, windows, the ground, and other details,” he says. “Once the basic shape of the building has been made, I then apply the paint, signage, graffiti, and finally the weathering.” Using a variety of techniques, from 3D modeling to scratch-building with styrene, he creates every element himself.

Smith recently co-curated the group exhibition Miniature Worlds at the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery in Launceston, Tasmania, which continues through February 4. He will also exhibit as part of a group show next year with Outré Gallery in Melbourne, emphasizing signage and type. Small sculptures and accessories are often available in the artist’s online shop.