Beer With a Painter: Tom Burckhardt
“My favorite phrase lately is ‘mouthfeel,’ which is used in relation to food and drink,” said the East Village artist. “I’m thinking about that textural quality as a parallel to the paintings.”
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The Search
"More than thirteen years ago, Araceli Salcedo Jiménez’s daughter, Rubí, was disappeared from a bar in Orizaba. Since then, Araceli has led an effort to dig up hundreds of clandestine graves looking for the victims of Mexico’s drug war. She is still digging."
Solar Eclipse From the Far Side of the Moon
This shot from Artemis II of the Moon eclipsing the Sun is one of the most breathtaking astronomical photos I’ve ever seen. Holy shit . Captured by the Artemis II crew during their lunar flyby on April 6, 2026, this image shows the Moon fully eclipsing the Sun. From the crew’s
Trump Threatens to Wipe Out Iranian Civilization
The president's threats to destroy the Islamic regime have escalated to include the entire population of Iran and the millennia of history and culture preceding it.
A Parade of Floating Artworks Honors Hieronymus Bosch in the Netherlands
From June 18 to 21, the Bosch Parade returns with an international fleet of artworks that will float down the Dommel. 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
I missed that author Tracy Kidder died a few weeks ago ....
I missed that author Tracy Kidder died a few weeks ago . Kidder wrote the excellent The Soul of a New Machine , which won a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize.
Hollywood, Ending is John Green’s forthcoming...
Hollywood, Ending is John Green’s forthcoming book, “a deeply observed novel about the tension between a public and a private life, and finding your safe someone to hold onto”.
Moffat Takadiwa’s Scrounged Sculptures Confront Africa’s ‘Colonial Hangover’
Takadiwa's sculptures made of "everyday consumer residue" are on view at Semiose in Paris through May 16. 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 Moffat
A Catalog of an Entire House/Life
In a period of four years, Belgian photographer Barbara Iweins took a photo of every single thing in her house, “from my daughters torn sock to my sons Lego, but also my vibrator, my anxiolytics… absolutely everything. 12,795 photos of 12,795 objects.” You can explore the
Teenager Michael Haskell “ buys abandoned storage...
Teenager Michael Haskell “ buys abandoned storage lockers at bargain prices …with the aim of selling their contents for profit”. But: “Two years into his pursuit, he knows all too well that every locker tells a story, many of them bleak.”
The Hypercurious Mind
"ADHD isn’t merely a dysfunction. It’s best understood as an impulsive motivational drive for novel information."
Shoe Pop Dream Gaze , a three-hour playlist from...
Shoe Pop Dream Gaze , a three-hour playlist from Christina Hendricks’ all-vinyl DJ set. (You may remember Hendricks as Joan on Mad Men.)
‘The Queen of the Ghetto’ Gave New York’s Immigrant Community a Voice. A Century Later, It’s Re-emerging
Anzia Yezierska wrote from experience then worked hard to make sure her work found an audience. Then a new audience found her
Retrofuturistic Figures Emerge from Wood in Playful Sculptures by Aleph Geddis
Geddis' organic sculptures teeter between abstraction and figuration like retrofuturistic icons. 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 Retrofuturistic
Dolores Huerta Is the GOAT
A show rewrites the narrative of the farmworkers' movement, a permanent home for Ruth Asawa in San Francisco, the museum reviving New York's downtown performance scene, and the discovery of a 7.9-inch Ancient Roman phallus.
Living without my self
Our culture valorises the big, coherent self: reading Robert Musil helps me embrace the beauty of my no-self existence - by Mette Leonard Høeg Read on Aeon
All the letters
Every writer has all of them. 26 in most Western languages. But no writer knows all the words. That’s the gap where creativity, effort and possibility lie–between the universal letters and the unlimited words. This is an analogy for arenas as diverse as sports and commerce.
John Cage’s Silent, Avant-Garde Piece 4′33″ Gets Covered by a Death Metal Band
When we think of silence, we think of meditative stretches of calm: hikes through deserted forest paths, an early morning sunset before the world awakes, a staycation at home with a good book. But we know other silences: awkward silences, ominous silences, and—in the case of
Discover Gadsby: The 50,000-Word Novel Written Without Using the Letter E (1939)
“If Youth, throughout all history, had had a champion to stand up for it; to show a doubting world that a child can think; and, possibly, do it practically; you wouldn’t constantly run across folks today who claim that ‘a child don’t know anything.’ ” Ranked alongside the other
Between the User and the Used: Zadie Smith on Instrumentalism
The great paradox, the great pain of human relationships is that they are so often not relational: two lonelinesses colliding without real contact, one or both orienting to the other not as a person but as a projection, mistaking for intimacy its myriad illusions — admiration,
“What caught my eye as a designer, as with most...
“What caught my eye as a designer, as with most industrial plants and control rooms of that time, besides the knobs, levers, and buttons, was the use of a very specific seafoam green …” It’s time for some color theory…
The Unbearable Strangeness of Being
In Cinga Samson’s haunted paintings, we do not know what we are looking at, or where we are.
Really interesting piece from Jodi Ettenberg about...
Really interesting piece from Jodi Ettenberg about microdosing a GLP-1 to manage her mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) . She’s noticed “way less pain” and can eat more foods without reactions (yoghurt, oats, mild curry pastes).
The Museum Breathing Life Into New York's Downtown Performance Scene
The Leslie-Lohman is figuring out how to collect art while connecting with the basic needs of the city's queer community.
Peep the Wildest Costumes of This Year’s Easter Bonnet Parade
The decorous fashion show has evolved into a rambunctious and all-inclusive pageant of New York’s crafters, artists, and street performers.
A Dedicated Ruth Asawa Space Is Coming to San Francisco
Complementing the artist’s various public works throughout the city, her family-run estate's forthcoming gallery comes on the centenary of the artist's birth year.
The Astor Place Riots of 1849 resulted in “the...
The Astor Place Riots of 1849 resulted in “the greatest loss of life in a civic insurrection in American history up to that time”. And they were incited over the “wrong” actor playing Macbeth .
50 Years of Chicano Photography
Art books we're reading this spring, a deep dive into Frank O'Hara's curatorial gig at MoMA, and more.
LA Artists Honor Dolores Huerta’s Defiant Spirit
In honor of the labor leader’s 96th birthday, over 30 Los Angeles artists pay homage to her lifelong fight for the rights and dignity of everyday people.
Dutch Museum Discovers 8-Inch Ancient Roman Phallus
The bone carving was found in a forgotten collection of 16,000 boxes containing various archaeological finds at the Valkhof Museum.
Transcription by Ben Lerner
I’ve been hearing nothing but good things about Ben Lerner’s new novel Transcription ( Amazon ) which comes out tomorrow. From the book’s description: What unfolds from this dreamlike circumstance is the unforgettable story of the triangle formed by Thomas, Max, and the
Hallucinated Citations Are Polluting the Scientific Literature. What Can Be Done?
“Tens of thousands of publications from 2025 might include invalid references generated by AI, a ‘Nature’ analysis suggests.”