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A Spectacular Staircase by Alex Chinneck Uncoils as It Scales a 25-Meter Building in Brighton

Part functional walkway and part dramatic sculpture, an outdoor staircase by Alex Chinneck unfurls into individual metallic ribbons as it climbs a brick building in Brighton. The latest work by the British artist, titled “A Spring in Your Step,” i

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year: A Stop-Motion Music Video Tells the Warm and Fuzzy Story of Woodland Friends

 Illustrator Phoebe Wahl and animator Andrea Love teamed up to gift us with a delightful stop-motion short full of cozy felted sweaters, wooly swirls of steam puffing from teacups, and (too much) snow just in time for the holidays. The whimsical animation

Contrasting Shades of Gray with Vibrant Color, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe Paints Bold, Subversive Portraits of Black Subjects

Ghanaian artist Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe has a proclivity for contrast. In his striking portraits of Black people, he gravitates toward shades of gray to render the skin tone of single figures or small groups, who sport patterned garments, hats of textured fabr

Wine Streams Through Sea Creatures in Playful Glass Decanters by Charlie Matz

In the sleek decanters designed by artist Charlie Matz, wine and other spirits trickle through a crab’s claws, a shark’s open jaws, and the belly of a branzino. The playful aeration vessels are handmade with borosilicate glass and position marine

A Montage of 64 Portraits Reveals the Wildly Diverse Characteristics of Foxes

Back in 2009, Dutch wildlife photographer Roeselien Raimond snapped a portrait of a fox that always seemed to be squinting her eyes in contemplation. That first image sparked a fascination with the creatures and their idiosyncratic expressions, an interest th

Felted Fibers Are Rolled into Adorable Bread Bugs, Pastry Snails, and Mushrooms with Legs

Atelier Hatena’s bread bugs are the only critters we’d gladly snuggle up with at night. The whimsical, fiber-rich characters are part of the Hiroshima-based artist’s growing troupe of felt creatures: there are four-legged rolls, tiny insects spr

Laser-Cut Paper Forms Tessellating Patterns in Ibbini Studio’s Ornate Sculptures

Ibbini Studio (previously) creates intricate paper sculptures meticulously crafted to appear as though they have been made in nature. Artist Julia Ibbini and computer scientist Stephane Noyer, who are behind the Abu Dhabi-based studio, spent the last year wor

Spectacular Footage Captures a NASA Probe as it Touches the Sun for the First Time

 NASA marked an impressive milestone when its Parker Solar Probe was the first ever to touch the sun and return earlier this year, and footage from its historic mission offers a stunning glimpse at the massive star’s upper atmosphere. The black-an

Comprised of Thin Panes of Glass, Illusory Sculptures Layer Fantastic Paintings into 3D-Forms

German artist Wilfried Grootens (previously) suspends vibrant, textured paintings evocative of minuscule organisms, bacteria, and other microscopic creatures within sleek sculptures made of glass. He renders lines and geometric shapes on dozens of thin panes

Exquisite Hairpieces by Sakae Recreate Flowers and Butterflies with Resin and Wire

From liquid resin and thin strips of wire, Tokyo-based designer Sakae (previously) crafts delicate hairpieces known as kanzashi. The ornamental forms are often worn for special occasions and are realistic in shape and texture, with lustrous petals and wings i

Waves of Engraved Lines Texture the Emotional Figures Sculpted by En Iwamura

From hunks of clay, artist En Iwamura (previously) sculpts minimal forms with wildly varied facial expressions that range from shock and surprise to moody contemplation. Etched across the surface of each character are neat pathways of parallel lines, which ev

Blip: A Minimal Animation about Screen Addictions Unleashes a Barrage of Pings and Notifications

 We’ve all been there: spending the entire day scrolling through social, responding to texts and DMs and email, descending into internet rabbit holes, and just generally escaping the world through our devices. A quirky, 2D animation titled “

Hyperrealistic Ceramic Sculptures by Christopher David White Mimic the Splintered Texture of Decaying Wood

In his Richmond studio, artist Christopher David White (previously) practices an alchemy of materials as he transforms slabs of clay into deceptive sculptures and functional objects that appear carved from hunks of decaying wood. His trompe l’oeil ceram

Snacks and Household Goods Are Fodder for Vanessa Mckeown’s Quirky Compositions

A scroll through Vanessa Mckeown’s Instagram reveals a bottomless trove of absurdity and the playfully unexpected: cooked spaghetti pours from a bronze tap, a tennis ball bounces off a tennis racket made of waffles, and a trio of donuts hangs from a toilet

Exceptionally Slow-Motion Footage Documents Tropical Butterflies Bursting from Their Chrysalises and Taking Flight

 In an extravagant display of evolutionary tricks and mating rituals, new footage by Adrian Smith of the wildly popular Ant Lab YouTube channel focuses on six tropical butterflies. The extremely slow-motion montage zeroes in on a trio of tropical creature

Foliage Sprouts from Four Imaginative Clay Illustrations by Irma Gruenholz

It’s easy to mistake Irma Gruenholz’s whimsical ceramic figures for two-dimensional illustrations. The Madrid-based artist (previously) is known for her sculptures and still lifes in clay that resemble flat graphics and drawings, although her works re

Concentric Vessels Nest Within Larger Forms in Matthew Chambers’ Perplexing Ceramic Sculptures

At once minimal and endlessly confounding, the elegant ceramic vessels that Matthew Chambers (previously) creates are precisely scaled iterations of the same shape. His hypnotic sculptures are comprised of individual, wheel-thrown pieces in varying sizes tha

Absurd Office Etiquette and Sincere Storytelling: Colossal’s Top Short Films of 2021

Suffice to say, 2021 has been an emotional rollercoaster, so it’s no surprise that the short films topping Colossal’s list span the gamut: there are uncomfortable situations of poor (and relatable) office etiquette, heartwrenching indictments of t

Sunlight Caps the Snowy Meili Mountain Range in a Majestic Photo Series

Soaring more than 22,000 feet above the landscape, the frigid Meili mountain range sits at the edge of Yunnan’s Deqin County in the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and borders the phenomenal “Three Parallel Rivers,” a UNESCO world herit

Ceramic Vessels Wrapped with Scored Ropes Evoke Traditional Basketry

Kent-based ceramicist Kate Malone mimics the plaited texture of a basket with her series of woven vessels. The wide-mouthed vases and small, covered boxes are wrapped in rolled strips of clay that the artist threads through small gashes in the surface of the

A New NFT Collection Gives Life to 6 Magical Entities, Each Representing an Ecological Concept

Estonian installation artist Katja Novitskova’s art career started with a collaboration—a curatorial project—so it’s fitting that she continues to excel in opportunities that involve working with other artists. Her latest project, a six-piece NFT seri

Butterflies and Moths Flutter Through J.C. Fontanive’s Automated Flipbooks

Illustrations of the elegant atlas moth and paper kite and orange-barred sulphur butterflies fly through a new trio of analog animations by J.C. Fontanive. The Cleveland-born artist created a sleek flipbook machine while he was a student at the Royal College

Absurdly Flexible Chicks Lunge, Twist, and Stretch into Perfect Yoga Poses

Calm, flexible, and undeniably adorable, Lucia Heffernan’s brood of chicks would likely be the star students of any yoga class. The fluffy creatures curl into backends, contort into triangles, and stretch their feathered little bodies into warriors and danc

An Astronaut Steers an Elaborately Constructed Paper Spaceship in a Window Display by Zim & Zou

Equipped with joysticks and panels of gauges and knobs, an intricately constructed spaceship built by Zim & Zou (previously) navigates through a starry expanse of whimsical planets and alien creatures. The pink-and-blue craft, which was designed as a wind

Pyrotechnic Posters Ignite a Spectacular Performance of Fire, Flares, and Sparks

With their most recent project Affiches Artifices, French designers Marion Pinaffo and Raphaël Pluvinage might have sparked a new poster trend with a little extra flare. The duo created a dozen geometric motifs that, at first glance, appear as simple glitter

Energetic Explosions of Color and Doodles Encircle the Subjects of Russ Mills’s Digital Portraits

Artist Russ Mills (previously) describes his chaotic, illustrated portraits as being ruled by the absurd. Bright bursts of color, paint splatters, and doodles scrawl across the canvas and surround single figures with a mishmash of markings. “I try to co

In ‘Boogey Men,’ Monumental New Works by Hugh Hayden Reflect on American Culture and Politics

An exhibition now on view at ICA Miami samples the recurring themes and motifs that are central to artist Hugh Hayden’s body of work: twisting flames spout from a wooden Adirondack chair and spindly twigs envelop a massive skeleton carved from bald Cyprus t

Colossal’s Favorite Books of 2021

Before we (eagerly) say goodbye to 2021, we’re taking a look back at the year, starting with the books we covered on Colossal. Throughout the past 12 months, we published dozens of articles centered on new artist monographs and tomes surveying broader t

Paper & Glue: A New Documentary Follows JR Through Some of His Most Iconic Projects

A new feature-length documentary goes behind the scenes with French artist JR to capture some of his most significant projects to date, including his poignant photographic work of a child peering over the U.S./Mexico border wall and pair of installations at

Extraordinarily Realistic Flowers, Mushrooms, and Fruit Recreate Intricate Details in Paper

Make sure you’re plenty caffeinated before snacking on one of Ann Wood’s blackberries. The Minneapolis-based artist, who is half of the creative team behind Woodlucker (previously), crafts a vast array of florals, fruits, and insects so realistic

A Rare Encounter with the Elusive Giant Phantom Jellyfish Captures Its 33-Foot Billowing Limbs

 Back in August, we shared news of a previously undiscovered jellyfish so vibrant that its brilliant red body was a stark contrast to its deepwater environment. Now thanks to researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, we can add another s

Parallel Fields of Color Align in Daniel Mullen’s Precise Mathematical Paintings

What are the visual impacts of converging planes of color? This question is central to Scottish artist Daniel Mullen’s most recent series of paintings, which displays stacks of thin, rectangular sheets in exacting, abstract structures. “I am looking m

A Massive Composite of 150,000 Images Reveals the Swirling, Feather-Like Details of the Sun

From dark spots and wispy flares to coronal loops that burst upward in brilliant arches, a giant new composite by Andrew McCarthy (previously) exposes the intricate, swirling patterns that cloak the sun’s surface. “Fire and Fusion” is a 300-

Celebrating Kenyan Culture, Bold Textile Patterns Disguise Subjects in Thandiwe Muriu’s Portraits

What began as a simple appreciation of fabrics printed with vibrant geometries and hypnotic motifs has morphed into a stunning celebration of African culture. Thandiwe Muriu’s ongoing Camo series cloaks models in arresting garments that disguise them in tex

Illuminated Dinosaurs Stalk Paris’s Jardin des Plantes in a Spectacular Journey Through Time

Trilobites, luminous flying raptors, and a T-Rex towering 27 meters above the ground are just a few of the otherworldly creatures currently haunting the grounds of the Jardin des Plantes. The massive organisms are the subjects of a fantastic exhibition now o

Inflatable Dinosaurs Stalk Paris’s Jardin des Plantes in a Spectacular Journey Through Time

Trilobites, luminous flying raptors, and a T-Rex towering 27 meters above the ground are just a few of the otherworldly creatures currently haunting the grounds of the Jardin des Plantes. The massive inflatable organisms are the subjects of a fantastic exhibi

A New Book Captures Roger A. Deakins’s Signature Cinematic Style Through Ironic Black-and-White Photos

Alongside his work with a host of renowned directors like the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes, and Denis Villeneuve, cinematographer Roger A. Deakins spent the last five decades quietly amassing a collection of photographs that capture his distinct sense of irony a

Cut from Found Feathers, Minuscule Silhouettes Become Intricate Symbolic Works

Equipped with surgical knives and scissors, artist Chris Maynard (previously) carefully slices exquisite silhouettes of birds, people, and tiny stars from individual feathers. He cuts the naturally shed materials, which come from private aviaries and zoos, in

Jane Goodall, Paul Nicklen, and 100 Photographers and Conservationists Join a Print Sale to Protect the Environment

A collaborative effort by 100 world-renowned photographers and conservationists is harnessing the power of an image to generate much-needed empathy and protect the environment. Helmed by the woman-led nonprofit Vital Impacts, an ongoing print sale captures th

Bars of Light Pierce a Dilapidated Sydney-Area Home in Ian Strange’s Illuminated Intervention

Tagged with graffiti and marred by a chipped facade, a stately Victorian home in a Sydney suburb is the site of a brilliant site-specific installation by artist Ian Strange. “Light Intersections II” uses angled beams of light to impale the derelic
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