A Vintage Watch Broke Auction Records. Then the Rumours Started.
"As demand for luxury watches has rocketed, the business has become beset by skulduggery."
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Palestinian Embroidery Today
Perspectives of Venezuela and Cuba from exile, an exhibition of artwork made by children in Gaza, and remembering Colombian artist Beatriz González.
“Leave yourself an out”
This is the first rule of safe driving. Don’t hurtle your car into a jam where you have no options. But the first rule of management and human interaction is to leave other people an out. When you give people a chance to take action that helps them get to where they’re going,
By All Measures
Our problems are too vast, our distance from them too great. How do we navigate our derangement of scale?
Stream 4,000+ Public Domain Movies on WikiFlix: Silent Classics, Academy Award-Winners, Hitchcock Films & More
Humanity was already enjoying motion pictures a century ago. But the ability to do so at home still lay a few decades in the future, and the ability to pull up a movie on demand through a streaming service much further still. Young people in the twenty-twenties may be unable to
Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Sleep Plan: He Slept Two Hours a Day for Two Years & Felt “Vigorous” and “Alert”
One potential drawback of genius, it seems, is restlessness, a mind perpetually on the move. Of course, this is what makes many celebrated thinkers and artists so productive. That and the extra hours some gain by sacrificing sleep. Voltaire reportedly drank up to 50 cups of
Beatriz González, Colombian Painter of Collective Memory, Dies at 93
While often associated with Pop Art, her practice was rooted in the specificities of local visual culture, depicting political events, violence, and loss.
“I feel stuck and sad and I don’t know what else to...
“I feel stuck and sad and I don’t know what else to do.” Yeah, same.
Ms. Rachel Sells Artworks by Children From Gaza
The works are part of a new benefit exhibition organized by the global early childhood education star, a vocal supporter of Palestinian children.
A Video Game Lets You Take Back Looted Artifacts
An indie game studio in South Africa has developed a heist adventure that reframes play, memory, and repatriation.
An Optical Compass Inspired by Bee Vision
Bees use polarized sunlight scattered by the atmosphere in order to navigate; they always know where the sun is, even if it’s cloudy or behind a mountain. Then they waggle dance to inform their hive-mates about food source locations. So if a bee wants to fly straight towards
The Nightmares Beneath the Surface of "Dreamworlds"
The traumas of war and genocide and the fascist leanings of Salvador Dalí are among the subjects that this sprawling exhibition leaves out.
David Wojnarowicz in the Age of Surveillance
Books on the living tradition of Palestinian embroidery, the women artists whose legacies Picasso eclipsed, and more to kick off 2026.
Through Tender Paintings and Carvings, Hilda Palafox Revels in Care and Communion
Hilda Palafox considers the connection between women and nature in her exhibition 'De Tierra y Susurros.' 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 Through
Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzle Collection. “This page contains a collection of small...
Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzle Collection . “This page contains a collection of small computer programs which implement one-player puzzle games.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Mitchell Johnson: Two San Francisco Exhibitions of Large-Scale Paintings
The Bay Area artist opens 2026 with “Large New England Landscapes (Selected Paintings 2008-2025)” and “Giant Abstract and Landscape Works (Selected Paintings 2012-2025).”
The Contemporary Relevance of Palestinian Tatreez
“When people wear Palestinian embroidery, it’s not just decorative. It's beautiful, of course, but it is saying something,” says author Joanna Barakat.
Out of the 1000 most-discussed books on Hacker News, it looks like...
Out of the 1000 most-discussed books on Hacker News , it looks like around 50 of them were written by women.
Apply for IDSVA’s Low-Residency PhD in Visual Arts: Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Theory
The Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts is accepting applications for September 2026.
Valerie Hammond’s ‘Waking Dreams’ Explores Surreal Visions of Nature at the Cusp of Sleep
Hammond plumbs the liminal state between sleeping and waking. 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 Valerie Hammond’s ‘Waking Dreams’ Explores Surreal
George Saunders Says Ditching These Three Delusions Can Save You
"He’s as flawed a human being as anyone else, one who’s still wrestling with questions about how best to move through life with a modicum of grace and compassion."
A Logistical Matter
Just wanted to drop a quick note to say that kottke.org moved servers over the weekend. You shouldn’t have noticed anything, except perhaps that the site is faster now. There was a small issue with the RSS feed after the migration, but that’s been resolved. If you notice
Train Wreck
A wreck on the Lehigh Valley trackage in South Somerville, NJ circa 1918. (via shorpy ) Tags: this is a metaphor for something · trains
Visions of Venezuela and Cuba From Exile
An exhibition near Washington, DC, offers an immersive reclamation of memory and identity in all their fluidity and impermanence.
I loved watching this quick video recap of how Penguin designer Elisha...
I loved watching this quick video recap of how Penguin designer Elisha Zepeda made the book covers for 10 books that came out in 2025. Zepeda has a much longer look at his process on YT . 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Using lidar, scientists discovered a 400-foot-long wall composed of “60 massive granite...
Using lidar, scientists discovered a 400-foot-long wall composed of “60 massive granite monoliths, set directly onto the bedrock in pairs at regular intervals”. The wall is 30 feet underwater and was built 7000+ years ago. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Check Out Colossal’s New Image Slideshow Feature
We've added an interactive way to see images in the articles we publish. 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 Check Out Colossal’s New Image Slideshow