gradients
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Art Craft
Entwined Ceramic Sculptures by Claire Lindner Sprout like Roots and Plants

“Enchevetrement vertical” (2022), 120 x 100 centimeters. All images © Claire Lindner, shared with permission
Although fixed in glazed and fired ceramic, Claire Lindner’s voluptuous sculptures are primed for movement as they appear to crawl along walls or sprout upward like the leaves of a plant. Mimicking the spongy texture of living specimens like fungi, sea moss, and roots, the works embody several dualities from hard and soft to stasis and growth. The lively pieces also reference the relationship between biological processes and human intervention, as the artist (previously) sculpts organic forms and covers them with unnaturally bold gradients.
Lindner, who’s based in the countryside in Montpellier, has one work in Within + Without on view through April 6 at Unit London and will be included in the LOEWE Foundation group show scheduled for May at the Noguchi Museum in New York. She’s also in the midst of a residency with the European Institute of Ceramic Art, which will result in an exhibition slated for June at the Théodore Deck Museum. Keep up with the artist’s latest projects and chances to see the works in person on her site and Instagram.

“Red and blue untanglement n°3” (2022), 48 x 38 x 10 centimeters

Detail of “Enchevetrement vertical” (2022), 120 x 100 centimeters

“Waltx n°1” (2022), glazed stoneware, 39 x 36 x 32 centimeters

“Enchevetrement vertical n°2” (2022), 120 x 65 centimeters

“Red and blue untangled silhouette n°1” (2023), glazed stoneware, 116 x 46 x 13 centimeters
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Art Food Photography
Ubiquitous Items Are Organized Into Intricate and Colorful Compositions by Adam Hillman

“Skeleton Keys.” All images © Adam Hillman, shared with permission
Everyday objects are puzzled into meticulously organized compositions in the work of Adam Hillman, who has a knack for arranging items like coins, fruits and vegetables, toothpicks, and keys into vibrant flat-lays. Inspired by textures, color, and gradients, the artist responds to the tactile qualities of each material to form intricately woven straws, stacked pennies, and breakfast cereal into geometric forms. You can find more of Hillman’s work on Instagram, and purchase prints at Society6.

“Straws-hatching”

“Brick Work”

“Pickwheeling”

“Cubism”

Details of “Straws-hatching” and “Skeleton Keys”

“Balanced Budget”

“Break-Fast”
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Art Craft
Loops and Coils in Bright Gradients Grow from Claire Lindner’s Ceramic Sculptures

All images © Claire Lindner, shared with permission
Vine-like colorful coils of material overlap in Claire Lindner’s latest sculpture collection, which blurs the line between organic and human-made forms. Each piece has a vibrancy and motion designed to push the possibilities of the medium. “My ideas are guided by the evocation of the living,” she tells Colossal. “I try through movement and color to combine images of vegetation, the animal or the mineral world, the body as if everything was made of the same substance.”
Lindner plays on oppositions when designing her ceramics to “create a visual confusion that triggers our imagination.” She creates tensions between aesthetics and textures, including soft and hard, light and heavy, and attractive and repulsive.
Each piece is made from glazed stoneware, and before the artist starts working on a new sculpture, she envisions the “movements, flow, and colors” that make up its base and core. But as she works, she lets the material inform her choices. “Once in the making, I let myself be guided by the specificity of clay,” she explains. “I have to be attentive to its tensions, folds, and plasticity in order to make a form that will ‘flow’ and tell an interesting story.”
Lindner attended the Ecoles des Arts Décoratifs Strasbourg and developed an interest in clay from studying its organic and malleable characteristics. She compares her process to metamorphosis: how after time, one form changes into another. “Unlike glass, metal, wood, or 3D printing, working with clay felt like a prolongation of the body. It can be apprehended safely. It is soft and malleable,” she says. “It also has the ability in its process to keep all of the imprints of its manipulation, just like skin you can see the stretch marks, feel the tension, and play with the limits.”
In spring, Lindner will exhibit her work in a solo show at Maab Gallery in Milan and a group show at the MOCO La Panacée Museum in Montpellier. She is currently working on larger-scale pieces, which you can follow on her website or Instagram. (via Ceramics Now)

Photo by Anthony Girardi
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Art
Posed Women Rendered in Vibrant Gradients by Hanna Lee Joshi Embody Loss and Acceptance

“Alignment of Virtue.” All images © Hanna Lee Joshi, shared with permission
Twisting into subtle backbends or hunching into a cross-legged crouch, the faceless women that find themselves at the center of Hanna Lee Joshi’s practice all personify an aspect of the artist herself. Conveyed through vibrant gradients in gouache and colored pencil, the figures shown here are companions to those the Korean-Canadian artist created last year, although they plunge deeper into themes of loss, acceptance, and inclusivity. “The magic and mystery of life can seem very fleeting when you’re in the pits of depression. I wanted to reconnect with that spark of fire within,” she says, explaining:
I’m working on pieces that explore finding my identity and the nature of the self. Reconnecting with my Korean heritage and accepting all the things that make up who I am. In the end, I am just a piece of this earth having an experience of the self, and I’m trying to make a visual representation of some of it.
The introspective subjects have signature features like elongated torsos and limbs, dark, glossy locks, and large hands gesturing yogic mudras that further visualize emotion and feeling. The women are subversive in color and form, deviating from the skin tones and body shapes typically associated with nude figures.
Joshi, who’s based in Vancouver, is preparing for upcoming exhibitions at Spoke Art SF on August 7, at Thinkspace Projects in October, and later in fall at Hashimoto Contemporary. Prints are available in her shop, and you can see a few works-in-progress on Instagram.

“Wheel of Desire”

“Liberation”

“Pursuit of Prosperity”

“I’m a Little Shy But That’s Okay”

“Sun, Moon, and Fire”
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Art Craft
Innumerable Pieces of Dyed Clay Envelop Meditative Sculptures in Subtle Patterns and Gradients

“Clements Shade” (2020), porcelain ,29.5 x 16 x 43 centimetres. Photo by Mark Robson. All images © Alice Walton, shared with permission
Thin ribbons of porcelain ripple across the surfaces of Alice Walton’s abstract sculptures. Gently sloped domes and pillars are covered in countless individual strips, which vary in thickness and length and add irregular texture and depth to the finished pieces. “Every mark I make, whether this be a tool mark or a fingerprint, are preserved in the firing and are not covered or coated or inhibited by a glaze,” the artist writes. “I want the viewer to be able to look at my sculptures from afar and to have one perception of the surface (and) then want to explore closer. On a nearer inspection, the surface decoration reveals layers of multiple colours and time spent through process.”
Focusing on the meditative qualities of repetition, Walton combines pastels and vibrant Earth tones to evoke the sights of her surrounding environment and travels. “The vividly painted sun-bleached street walls and the monsoon-drenched temples, to me, instantly resembled the dry powdery palette of coloured clays,” she shares about a visit to Rajasthan, India. Her choices in pigment still revolve around what she sees on a daily basis—these range from old maps to the seasonal landscapes nearby her studio in Somerset, U.K.—that result in undulating stripes or bold gradients composed with more than 40 colors in “Clements Shade.”
At the 2019 British Ceramics Biennial, Walton was awarded a residency with Wedgwood, where she’s currently working on a new series of sculptural vessels made from the English company’s traditional Jasper clay. Those pieces will be shown at the 2021 biennial in September. She’ll also have work at London’s Chelsea Design Centre from June 22 to 29 and at MAKE Hauser & Wirth Somerset in November. Until then, explore more of her sculptures on her site and Instagram. (via Seth Rogan)

“Clements Shade” (2020), porcelain, 29.5 x 16 x 43 centimeters. Photo by Mark Robson

Detail of “Avonvale Mapping” (2020), colored porcelain. Photo by Alice Walton

“Avon Ribbons” (2020), colored porcelain, 30.5 x 28 x 28 centimeters. Photo by Alice Walton

Detail of “Janta Grove.” Photo by Sylvain Deleu

“Vale Ribbons” (2020), colored porcelain, 18.5 x 10.5 x 22 centimeters. Photo by Alice Walton

“Ley Line Pair” (2021), porcelain, 14 x 14 x 31 centimeters and 14 x 14 x 31 centimeters. Photo by Mark Robson

Detail of “Avonvale Mapping” (2020), colored porcelain. Photo by Alice Walton

“Avon Strata,” wall-mountable colored porcelain, 48.5 x 48.5 x 1.5 centimeters. Photo by Alice Walton
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Colossal Design
Round Up 216 Lizards in a Psychedelic Infinity Puzzle from Nervous System

All images © Nervous System, shared with permission
Can you tame the Lizard Infinity Puzzle? New from the brilliant designers at Nervous System is a vibrant gradient jigsaw made of 216 reptile pieces that tile in thousands of combinations. Because each individual lizard varies in shape and color and only pairs with specific mates, assembling even the wonkiest reptile shape is an impressive feat.
Try your hand at piecing together the cunning critter by picking up one of the puzzles from the Colossal Shop. We also have a few of Nervous System’s other infinity designs in stock, including a star-studded galaxy, lunar landscape, and sprawling world map. If you’re a Colossal Member, everything is 10% off. Just use the discount code in your account.
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Editor's Picks: Animation
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