Matzah Is the Medium
Remembering Melvin Edwards, art shows to see in LA and New York, and lessons from Houston’s Project Row Houses.
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When trauma becomes trope
Humanitarian journalism is a moral calling to document human suffering. But in practice, it’s an ethically murky undertaking - by Cathy Otten Read on Aeon
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Highlighting excellent stories by Charles Bethea, Mahmoud Mushtaha, Geoffrey Gray, Luke Ottenhof, and Matthew Shaer.
“There is no alternative”
TINA! This is what Margaret Thatcher said about her draconian free market policies. It’s an easy thing to tell ourselves about compliance to any dominant system. But it’s incomplete. The complete sentence is, “There is no alternative unless we’re prepared to endure short-term
Watch the Titanic and Lusitania Sink in Real Time: One Fast, One Slow
Asked to name famous shipwrecks at a bar trivia night, a fair few participants might think immediately of Pearl Harbor, whether or not they can recall that it was the USS Arizona bombed there. More firmly within living memory sits the SS Andrea Doria, though she’s hardly the
“If Artemis II is successful, the astronauts will...
“If Artemis II is successful, the astronauts will be the first humans to reach the moon’s orbit in more than 50 years , and their path around its far side will take them farther into the universe than any human being has previously traveled.”
Michael Rosen’s Sad Book: A Beautiful Anatomy of Loss, Illustrated by Quentin Blake
"Sometimes I'm sad and I don’t know why. It's just a cloud that comes along and covers me up."
15 Shows to See in New York City This April
Margaret Curtis’s deconstruction of American myth, quotidian objects by Marsden Hartley, and Wendy Red Star’s bead-inspired installation are among our picks.
An Artist Embraces the Metaphorical Cracks of Matzah
“ The fractures in these images reflect how disconnected a lot of Jewish people feel from each other right now,” Emily Drew Miller told Hyperallergic.
10 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles This April
David Alekhuogie’s defiant collage, Hannah Tishkoff’s visual poetry, an iconic Angeleno printmaking studio, portraits of Palestinian journalists, and more.
Art Movements: Frieze Partners With ... the Whitney?
Also, the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts director retires, the Speed Museum's newest residents, and "peep" this art!
Is There Life After Smartphones?
"This year, I set out to better understand what was driving this shift — what was causing so many young people to feel fed up with their phones."
Required Reading
This week: Calida Rawles paints Blackness and water, the artists who shaped Fire Island, translating literature during the Tehran blackout, why weather apps suck, and more.
A Line of Mural Wallpapers from Astek Celebrates ‘Eterna Nouveau’
Art Nouveau style is reimagined in bold, otherworldly custom wallpapers. 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 Line of Mural Wallpapers from Astek
How Everything in a Medieval Castle Worked, from Its Moats to Its Dungeons
Very few of us have ever set foot near a genuine medieval castle, especially if we don’t happen to live in Europe. Yet practically all of us still, here in the twenty-first century, refer with some frequency to their components in our everyday speech. When we invoke moats,
Nine Lessons on My Path From Engagement to Leadership
My career has been defined by a steady effort to collapse silos: between curatorial and educational work, between institutions and communities, between what museums have been and what they might yet become.
Melvin Edwards, Who Sculpted a New Vocabulary for Political Art, Dies at 88
His innovative abstractions evoked both the art historical canon and the haunting afterlives of Atlantic slavery.
Open Thread #3
Well, I’m back from my west coast trip, but I came home totally sick, the SSL cert for KDO wasn’t automatically renewed 1 so the site was down for several hours this morning, and my car has decided it’s suddenly out of brake fluid? Oh and I haven’t even seen Project Hail Mary
Yamamoto Masao’s Otherworldly Portraits Introduce Us to Expressive Owls
The Japanese artist's gelatin silver prints evoke dreamlike archival footage. 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 Yamamoto Masao’s Otherworldly
Summer Marathons in Painting and Drawing at the New York Studio School
Join an immersive, two-week session and transform your studio practice. Online or in-person.
“ ICE Tours VT provides guided bus tours to many...
“ ICE Tours VT provides guided bus tours to many of these facilities, where you will learn about the scope, scale, and history of DHS in Vermont. Think Hollywood star tours, but instead of celebrity mansions you get federal surveillance infrastructure.”
The Wild Iris: Nobel Laureate Louise Glück on the Door at the End of Your Suffering
"Whatever returns from oblivion returns to find a voice."
Opportunities in April 2026
Residencies, fellowships, grants, and open calls from Banff Centre, the Vilcek Foundation, and more in our monthly list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers.
Symbiotic Communion Flourishes in Laura Berger’s Expansive Paintings
Berger's monumental works layer limbs and landscapes, as nude bodies merge with waves, flowers, and sun-strewn clouds. 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