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.
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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.
2026-03-12 01:37:51
In mid-2025, the Trump administration rescinded $9 billion in public media funding and foreign aid, including $1.1 billion slated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CBP). CBP, in turn, was responsible for distributing funding to organizations like National Public Radio (NPR), Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and their member stations across the nation. The corporation was established following a 1967 law called the Public Broadcasting Act, but just like that, when the funds were no longer there, CBP voted to dissolve. What did NPR have to say about that? Its “mission will continue, unchanged.”
NPR aims “to create a more informed public—one challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas, and cultures.” While CBP-allocated funding amounted to only about one percent of the broadcaster’s annual funding, there’s a bit of a trickle-down effect. NPR relies heavily on fees from its member stations, plus endowments, cash contributions, and other revenues. And while one percent doesn’t seem like a lot, member stations—many of which are in rural areas—often depended on about 13 percent of their revenue from CBP, making them much more vulnerable to the cuts.
Reporting continues with vigor at NPR, despite some inevitable challenges, and the organization has doubled down on its mission to approach stories and news through the lens of curiosity and understanding. In collaboration with New York-based ad agency Mischief, a new campaign reimagines NPR’s logo into prompts aiming to ignite inquiry and investigation.
Mischief “creates work that makes a stir, because the riskiest thing a brand can do is be ignorable.” The campaign, titled For your right to be curious, is conceived as a way for NPR to “stand up for the public’s right to ask hard questions,” the agency says in a statement. Across a range of formats, from merchandise and the sign on NPR’s headquarters to billboards and ad screens on the New York City subway, the recognizable block letters transform into urgent and timely questions—many that listeners around the country are asking. “How does AI affect my electric bill?” “Why are groceries still so expensive?” “How is my farm going to survive?”
“Curiosity is the fuel of a functioning democracy,” says Mishka Pitter-Armand, NPR’s chief marketing officer. “NPR is essential civic infrastructure built to protect the right to inquiry. As a cornerstone of American life for over 50 years, this work is our pledge to the public: we will continue to provide the trusted context you need to explore the world, encouraging every American to keep listening and asking the hard questions.”
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2026-03-11 21:59:09
In the spectacular, lofty photos of Dani Guindo, heavy clouds and mercurial pools glow amid an Icelandic landscape. The Spanish artist, based in Reykjavík, seeks unique relationships between light, form, and atmosphere. In Iceland, the vicissitudes of the weather and the stark, glacial landscape continually stoke his interests.
Guindo typically uses drones to capture a wide range of angles, from panoramas of glaciers and mountains to vertical shots of silty streams that appear almost abstract. His latest series, Terminus, captures a glacier’s many rivulets amid a rocky landscape, along with a ghostly, rounded outline revealing evidence of the glacier’s earlier phases.
The glacier is Múlajökull, which falls into a category scientists call a “surge-type,” in which periods of ice flow are interspersed with periods of inactivity or retreat. A semi-circle pattern of drumlins—hills formed below flowing glaciers—are filled with a number of lakes with water in a range of blue-green hues.
“Múlajökull is a very isolated glacier outlet, surrounded by a chaotic maze of rivers and marshlands, making an approach on foot almost impossible,” Guindo says in a statement. “With the right wind conditions, I was able to fly my drone close to the glacier, managing to capture some of my favorite shots to date.”
Find more on Guindo’s Instagram and Behance.
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 Dani Guindo’s Dramatic Aerial Photos Reveal the Ghostly Outline of an Icelandic Glacier appeared first on Colossal.