The Painted Book Cover Is Back
The recent shift toward figuration on book covers may reflect a broader desire for physical presence — proof of the artist’s hand in the digital age.
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Cucumbers used to be called “cowcumbers” ....
Cucumbers used to be called “cowcumbers” . I’m sorry, what?!
From Two Tons of Celadon, Jean Shin Sculpts a Metaphor for the Korean Diaspora
Jean Shin's 'Celadon Landscape' presents large-scale vessels made of the lustrous green-blue material. 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 From Two
No reparations for Black Americans. No student loan...
No reparations for Black Americans. No student loan forgiveness. No UBI for average Americans. But reparations, treason forgiveness, and UBI for the Jan 6th insurrectionists & criminals who attacked Congress. Got it, got it, got it.
On the heels of turning Orwell’s Animal Farm into a...
On the heels of turning Orwell’s Animal Farm into a kids’ movie, Alexandra Petri imagines other dystopian source material for family flicks . “Andy Serkis’s Maus: Talking mice? Great. Talking mice and cats? Even better!”
The Black American Artists Who Dazzled Post-War Paris
An exhibition in Chicago celebrates the painters, writers, and performers who sought freedom in the city of light and left an indelible mark on its history.
“Somewhere between ‘Let’s catch up...
“Somewhere between ‘Let’s catch up soon’ and ‘Sorry, life has been hectic’, adult friendship became one of the most emotionally significant and least discussed losses of modern life .”
The fake courtesy machine is a wooden hand-cranked...
The fake courtesy machine is a wooden hand-cranked contraption that types “I hope this email finds you well” over and over again. Jacquard loom & player piano vibes.
Marcin Wichary on how to get more fun and utility from...
Marcin Wichary on how to get more fun and utility from your keyboard experience . “Break all the rules. You’re designing for the audience of one.”
Tugboat Printshop Marks 20 Years of Making Meticulously Crafted Woodblock Prints
When Valerie Lueth of Tugboat Printshop sets out to make a woodblock print, it's rare that she only uses a single block. 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
Seneca on Grief and the Key to Resilience in the Face of Loss: An Extraordinary Letter to His Mother
"All your sorrows have been wasted on you if you have not yet learned how to be wretched."
Comparisons as Predictable as the Sunrise . The Pudding...
Comparisons as Predictable as the Sunrise . The Pudding analyzed 200,000 similes from popular fiction. “The clichés are obvious, marked by a single tall spike that overshadows the others.”
Traversing the Mahjong Multiverse
"As mahjong grows in popularity, can the diverging fanbases come together?"
Gabrielle Goliath’s "Elegy" Comes to Venice
A review of the show that was censored by the South African government, Seattle Art Museum workers push for a union, and 12 art books to read this summer.
“Aren’t the Organs a Silver Lining?”
Complicating a "mixed blessing" of the opioid crisis: a rise in organ donations.
Maritime China
Far from turning its back on the sea, the fate of Qing China was tied as much to tides and storms as to cavalry and walls - by Ron Po Read on Aeon
Every Book of the Bible Explained in One Video
Whether we’re religious or not, we can all agree that the Bible isn’t just a book. In fact, it’s at least 66 of them, 39 Old Testament and 27 in the New, and that’s just in the Protestant tradition. Even if you’ve never read a single page of the Bible, you may well have a […]
The night clerk
At 2:30 in the morning, the night clerk at the hotel is a great help if you’ve locked yourself out of your room. But if you want to complain about the hours of the gym, the hotel’s environmental footprint or even their late check-in policy, you’re almost certainly wasting their
What Happens When a Musician Plays Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy” on a $25 Kids’ Guitar at Walmart
There’s a maxim that says, “It’s not the guitar, it’s the player.” And the video above bears it out. In this clip, musician Clay Shelburn and his pal Zac Stokes visit a Walmart at 3 a.m. and pick up a Disney Cars 2 toy guitar. Next, they proceed to play Stevie Ray Vaughan’s
Obsidian and the Birds: An Odyssey of Wonder from the Aztecs to the Quantum World
A recent visit to Teotihuacán — the ancient Mesoamerican city in present-day Mexico, built by earlier cultures around 600 BCE and later rediscovered by the Aztecs — left me wonder-smitten by the see-saw of our search for truth and our search for meaning, by a peculiar
bell hooks on the Power of Being in the Margins
Fifteen years into reading and writing in order to learn how to live, I looked back on these marginalia on the search for meaning and realized that the people whose lives and work have most moved me and fed me, consoled me and inspirited me, were people who existed in the
Our Summer Art Reading List
Whenever I’m stuck in a reading rut, I find that art books of any kind are the only ones that can rescue me. This time, it’s Kory Stamper’s True Color , a transfixing story about the man who originated Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s definitions for
“Little Prince” Author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry on Friendship
"Old friends cannot be created out of hand. Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions."
A Contemporary Art Haven Just a PATH Ride Away
More than a third of Mana Contemporary’s artists opened their spaces to the public for its spring open studios event, the largest participation number in years.
Martin Wong’s Brick Monument to Popeye
He repurposed bygone cartoon characters and gave them new life with a queer, magpie sensibility, which still pops two decades after his death.
“I have travelled all over the world in the last 30...
“I have travelled all over the world in the last 30 years, and have never seen anything like the density of assholes I just encountered in Japan , [i.e.] tourists being an unbearable menace specifically while on and around their phones.”
Seattle Art Museum Workers Move to Unionize
Over 100 employees are urging the museum to voluntarily recognize the union, citing unsustainable wages and subpar benefits.
Watching an Art Conservator Restore a Damaged Painting
There’s something so relaxing about watching art conservator Julian Baumgartner restore this damaged painting, a self-portrait by Italian painter Emma Gaggiotti Richards . I love how he paints tiny cracks in the damaged areas to match those in the rest of the painting. There
Who’s That Nude Lady on a Washing Machine Outside the New Museum?
Sarah Lucas’s new public sculpture “VENUS VICTORIA,” on view for the next two years, subverts the mostly male history of public monuments.
Who’s That Nude Figure on a Washing Machine Outside the New Museum?
Sarah Lucas’s new public sculpture “VENUS VICTORIA,” on view for the next two years, subverts the mostly male history of public monuments.
Thousands Decry Right-Wing “Smear Campaign” Against Misan Harriman
“Truth itself is on the line,” the Southbank Centre board chair told Hyperallergic, rejecting accusations of antisemitism leveled by conservative outlets.
