2026-03-14 02:25:00
At Windsor Castle, a one-of-a-kind architectural marvel isn’t a structural part of the building itself or even a full-size feature. Here, you’ll find Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, widely regarded as the largest and most famous in the world. Designed by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, the house was built between 1921 and 1924 and contains items and furnishings conceived of by hundreds of the leading craftspeople and artisans of the day.
Queen Mary, consort to King George V between 1910 and 1936, was an enthusiast of all things miniature. Her dolls’ house even contains scale versions of nearly 600 real books in its library, including works by literary giants like A.A. Milne and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Commissioned from publishers around the U.K. and farther afield, many of these books are also held in the collections of the V&A, where they have been on long-term loan since 1916.
A recent video produced by the museum glimpses some of these tiny treasures with the expert guidance of National Art Library Assistant Librarian Amy McMullan and Catherine Yvard, Curator of National Art Library Collections. Examples include a red leather-bound Bible published in 1896 by Glasgow-based David Bryce & Son, in addition to a Quran, a collection of poems by Robert Burns, and more.
The National Art Library is housed within the V&A, and more than a million publications related to art, design, and performance comprise an archive that spans the 8th century to today.
Many more miniature books comprise the museum’s holdings, in addition to Queen Mary’s collection. Little almanacs in their embellished folios were published annually and included notable dates, such as sunrises and sunset times, holidays, and other practical information. Many of the titles sport gilt edges, marbled papers, and even metal cases that double as lockets so that they could be worn.
The collection includes diminutive dictionaries, a souvenir of The Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park, and children’s books—including a number of tunnel books, or paper peep-shows. These accordion-style tomes look at first glance like any other publication, but they expand into long tunnels through which viewers can take in a layered, dimensional scene.
The oldest object in the V&A’s collection is an early 1700s silver-bound miniature prayerbook in French that’s embellished with the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli. And the tiniest is fittingly called The Smallest Book in the World, published in 2002 and measuring 2.4 by 2.9 millimeters. It was designed by a German typographer and is so tiny that it’s accompanied by a small pamphlet showing what you would see if you could page through the book. As McMullen explains, the physical size of the book begs an interesting question: “Is it really a book if you can’t read it?”
Visitors are welcome to peruse the online catalogue and interact with items in the collection in person in the V&A East Storehouse’s reading rooms. Explore more on the museum’s YouTube channel.
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 You’ll Need a Magnifying Glass to Read Some of the World’s Smallest Books at the V&A appeared first on Colossal.
2026-03-14 00:01:00
Joy Machine is pleased to present Life Forms, a solo exhibition by Janny Baek, on view from March 20 to May 9, 2026.
How do we conceive of change? With fear, excitement, or uncertainty? As Janny Baek builds sculptural ceramics of speculative beings and imagined landscapes, she grapples with these questions. The work follows its own dream logic, one that accepts incongruity and dissonance as necessary to play and experimentation. Marbling hunks of colored clay, coiling bases, and molding a singular material into something new is part of an exploratory practice that embraces transformation and its often strange outcomes.
Life Forms emerges from this dual meaning, invoking both the act of creation and the fantastical works it produces. Neither wholly abstract nor representational, Baek’s sculptures draw on natural structures and processes and invite us to question how we interpret the world around us. Recognizable forms like open blossoms, birds, and creatures are met with the unexpected. These lively components make even the more abstract works appear animate, like ambiguous organisms that might decide to scuttle away. They evoke something primordial and yet are exhilaratingly new.
Baek paints in the way she sketches, as a means of developing ideas and visualizing their potential. For her ceramics, she incorporates hand building alongside the Japanese pottery technique known as nerikomi, which involves splicing and designing patterns with strips of colored clay. “My material choices are a way of thinking about natural processes: color gradients as the continuous nature of change, a multitude of colors as potential, abundance, and vitality, and patterns as signals and communications,” she says.
Hovering between worlds, Baek’s work populates a speculative environment in which beings morph, mutate, and blossom, their individual features forming an otherworldly lineage that’s recognizable but not identical. While “temporarily and imperfectly captured in a moment of many possible transformations,” the works beckon us into a world in which change is not only inevitable but also the most alluring proposition.
Life Forms is Baek’s Chicago debut. An opening reception will be held on March 20, and the artist will be present. See more from Baek previously on Colossal.
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 ‘Life Forms,’ Janny Baek Imagines a Speculative Landscape appeared first on Colossal.
2026-03-13 21:14:38
What is a web to the spider? A home, a tool, simply something they cling to? Tomás Saraceno presents these questions in a new segment from Art21, in which filmmakers visit his Berlin studio and examine the machinations of his collaborative practice, extending from a team of people to the tiny critters beneath our feet.
Saraceno continually considers how humans occupy space and how such environments inform the ways we connect with the world around us. This short documentary, which is part of the “Realms of the Real” episode, reviews several of the artist’s projects, from his suspended installations to his more participatory community projects.
Several artworks presented in the film have been previously featured on Colossal, and the film offers insight into the evolution of Saraceno’s thinking over several years. Much of his work strives for connection and empathy building, which he explains through the structure of the web. “It’s really trying to extend the ability of understanding who is our family, right? Who is our brothers, sisters, and grandfathers?” he says. “By allowing others to admire these incredible webs, they will become more empathetic.”
Find more Art21 films on YouTube, along with some of our favorites previously on Colossal.
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 A Visit to Tomás Saraceno’s Berlin Studio Delves into a Deeply Empathetic Practice appeared first on Colossal.
2026-03-13 06:48:12
Leipzig, Germany-based artist Alexander Endrullat has traded traditional Intaglio printing plates for discarded laptops. His ongoing series titled Off the Grid emerged from a familiar yet annoying scenario: owning an older device that can no longer be updated, rendering it practically unusable. Endrullat’s frustration led him to a moment of impulsivity as he pushed his device through a printing press, coincidentally discovering the distinctive technique.
“One of the most interesting aspects of the process is how clearly the progressive destruction of the devices becomes visible after each print,” the artist explains. With each pass through the device becomes increasingly altered, revealing details about its internal structures and their previous owners—worn keys that must have been used the most, traces of sticker residue, or remnants of webcam covers. Wiping off ink in between prints also becomes more challenging throughout the process, as glass screens and touchpads begin to crack.
The artist’s studio printing press is just about one hundred years old, introducing a fascinating contrast between the longevity of tools—both robust and enduring or short-lived, perhaps even reminiscent of planned obsolescence. “The series reflects on materiality, consumption, and the hidden architectures of
digital devices,” he says. “Although I might also simply enjoy the sound a laptop makes the first time it runs through the press.”
Endrullat hopes to experiment with printing entire computer setups, complete with mice, keyboards, monitors, and more, which would eventually call for a different type of press. Take a peek at the artist’s process and find more work on his Instagram.
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 Longevity and Obsoletion Impress Upon Alexander Endrullat’s Intaglio Prints appeared first on Colossal.
2026-03-12 23:52:00
In the practices of Beverly Price and Gordon Parks, photography operates on a continuum. Images, for them, are both dynamic and archival, documenting a singular moment that continues to communicate with the viewer long after that time has passed. A Language We Share, opening this month at the Center for Art and Advocacy, probes these expansive and evolving interpretations of the practice by putting Price and Parks in direct conversation.
One of the most lauded photographers of his time, Parks (1912-2006) embedded himself in American life from the 1940s onward, creating distinctive images for magazines like Ebony and Glamour and embarking on projects rooted in civil rights and social justice. He considered his work not only a way to capture the realities of what was happening in homes, offices, and the streets from New York to Washington D.C. to Chicago but also an urgent means of advocacy. “I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs,” he said. “I knew at that point I had to have a camera.”
When Parks died in 2006, Price was just being released after being incarcerated and wouldn’t pick up a camera for another decade. But when she did, she entered into a dialogue with the late photographer. Price, who was a 2023 fellow at the center, similarly considers her practice advocacy for those who might not otherwise be heard, particularly focusing on prevention and the children most affected by the same issues Parks had grappled with.
As Price began to create images around her Washington D.C. neighborhood of Southeast Anacostia, a geographical overlap developed between the two photographers. In A Language We Share, we witness the affinities between Price and Parks in a presentation that explores how these particular social and cultural landscapes have evolved and the people most affected by their realities.
One throughline is that both photographers frequently focus on children. In an Anacostia housing project, Parks captures an adorable troupe of young dancers and their synchronized movements. Price, too, homes in on a moment of joy and reverie in an image of two drenched boys enjoying an open fire hydrant on a presumably scorching day. Childhood, in their works, is both sacred and vulnerable, and compounding forces like police violence, poverty, and discrimination threaten its sanctity.
The wide-reaching impacts of the carceral system also permeate throughout the exhibition. In an image from 1963 Harlem, Parks captures a young boy casually leaning up against a temporary barricade, while another photo from that time documents a protest against the police state. There’s also his striking look into a Chicago jail in which a man rests his hand through the steel bars, his shadow framed by the cage on the wall nearby.
Price, too, nods to policing with a tightly cropped photo of someone showing off an Air Jordan, an electronic monitor fastened just above the sneaker. “Photography, for me, is a powerful tool for social justice—a means to document truth, challenge perceptions, and advocate for change,” Price says in her artist statement. “It is my hope that through my work, viewers will gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of the black experience and join in the collective effort to create a more just and equitable world.”
A Language We Share runs from March 20 to June 19 in Brooklyn.
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 ‘A Language We Share’ Traces a Photographic Lineage Between Gordon Parks and Beverly Price appeared first on Colossal.
2026-03-12 20:19:45
From unassuming hunks of Carrara marble and limestone, Matthew Simmonds carves realistic, miniature gothic cathedral arches, stairwells, and colonnades. Often based on architectural details of real places, such as cities around Tuscany and Germany’s Bamberg Cathedral, the sculptures portray intimate details of corners, vaulted ceilings, arcades, and stairwells that can sometimes be peeked through additional apertures. The artist’s meticulously carved marble and limestone forms reveal smooth, ornate interiors while highlighting the natural quality of the stone.
Lately, Simmonds has been working consistently on a range of commissions, and he’s taking advantage of a current quiet period to return to experimentation in the studio. He tells Colossal, “I am interested in clarifying what I want to say with various themes in the work, in particular the role space and light play and how this can express a sense of the sacred in the inner world of the sculpture.”
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 Historic Architecture Emerges from Stone in Matthew Simmonds Ethereal Sculptures appeared first on Colossal.