Colossal art

At the Direktorenhaus Museum in Berlin this past week, a solo exhibition of detailed architectural drawings by Virginia-based artist Benjamin Sack (previously) opened to the public. Titled Labyrinths, the collection of new works features vast cityscapes comprised of impossible inner geometries. The maze-like urban maps reference musical compositions and various symbols found in cosmology. OftenContinue reading "Impossible Cityscapes by Benjamin Sack Draw Inspiration From Cartography and…

Japan-based artist Ayumi Shibata (previously) constructs intricate paper cities and natural landscapes that both fit in the palm of her hand and are expansive enough to pass through on foot. Using dozens of layers of paper for a single project, Shibata carves miniature houses, clouds, and tree-filled forests that eventually are illuminated in glass vessels,Continue reading "Sheets of White Paper Layered into Dense Cityscapes and Forests by Ayumi Shibata"

If Marija Tiurina’s latest watercolor appears to be a random mishmash of dreamy scenes, that’s because it is. The London-based illustrator (previously) recently completed “The Lockdown Project,” a dense composition inspired by dozens of submissions she collected during the first few weeks of quarantine. Complete with childhood memories, dreams, and colloquialisms, the illustration depicts a rich networkContinue reading "A Surreal Watercolor by Illustrator Marija Tiurina Captures a Miscellany…

The troupe of wild animals in Bruno Pontiroli’s paintings contort their bodies into backbends and handstands that would rival even the most accomplished gymnast. A wrinkly hippo balances on its tongue, a tiger arches its torso into a 90-degree angle, and a hyena rotates its hind legs in the air. The French artist (previously) notes that he begins the bizarre artworks with easily-recognized animals that he then shapes “like the way a child plays with modeling clay or a building set for…

With a wildly surreal imagination, artist Rustam QBic from Kazan, Russia creates fish adorned with houses and windows, elephants sprouting giant buildings, and a goose whose feathers are made from a ocean of angry waves. Almost every one of his creations, be it on paper or on a wall is brimming with wonderful ideas and often have to be viewed up close to appreciate their full detail. He most recently completed murals for the LGZ Festival and for Art-Ovrag 2013, and you can see many more…

Bangkok-based Korean artist, graphic designer and illustrator Sunga Park has been travelling the world lately. What’s new about that you ask? Well, she’s been creating soothing watercolor paintings of architecture that she admires during her stay in each country.These beautiful paintings seem to perfectly reflect the spirit of her journey – while the places that Park paints are hugely admired by her and depicted in their finest details, at the same time they slowly fade out like a memory or…

Brooklyn-based artist Guno Park evokes the tradition of memento mori with an exquisite new drawing highlighting the precarious line between life and death. Titled “Nature of Things,” the meticulously crosshatched piece rendered in graphite stands at a striking 85 inches, portraying the oversized human figure with botanicals winding around its spinal column and through its chest. “Putting the skeleton together with vine, leaves, and flowers represents for me the power of nature and its…

Illustrator Alice Lin uses watercolor and pigment on rice paper and silk to create intricately detailed worlds. Human and animal figures are enveloped in pastel-toned bursts of swirling flowers, mushrooms, oceans, and rock formations. Despite their storybook-like quality, many of Lin’s works are fairly large, with some spanning more than three feet wide. In an interview with Wow x Wow, Lin describes the intention behind her work: “It’s about exploring the internal and external, about the…

In Benjamin Sack’s imagined environments, it’s not uncommon to find angular mazes resembling dystopian structures, buildings packed so closely together it’s difficult to distinguish one from the next, and labyrinthine walkways that spiral like fractals. Working in pen and ink, the artist (previously) draws intricate black-and-white metropolises that waver between organization and chaos: He plays with geometry, angles, and dimension to render perplexing maps teeming with both traditional…

Longtime Colossal readers will recognize the surreal, fictionalized scenes illustrated by Marija Tiurina (previously). Whether a bizarre mishmash of thoughts from quarantine or a crowded parallel universe in North London, Tiurina’s works are a seemingly endless exploration of mystery, delight, and general chaos, themes the London-based illustrator continues in her new series Stereogramos—the title isContinue reading "Surreal Watercolor Illustrations Shake Back and Forth in Marija Tiurina’s…