Becoming Caravaggio
Mass layoffs at the MFA Boston, the Newark Museum of Art gets a new director, and why we can never get enough of Caravaggio.
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AI ads are neither
Neither AI nor ads. The problem started with search, and was weaponized by Amazon. Display ads go back at least 100 years. A century ago, the idea was simple: Show up in a place where people are offering up attention and tell a story. The advertiser pays the media for the
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: inside a cyberscam compound, behind bars but ahead of the times, up into the beyond, away from home, and under the night sky.
How the Incas Performed Skull Surgery More Successfully Than U.S. Civil War Doctors
Granted access to a time machine, few of us would presumably opt first for the experience of skull surgery by the Incas. Yet our chances of survival would be better than if we underwent the same procedure 400 years later, at least if it took place on a Civil War battlefield. In
The Third Self: Mary Oliver on Time, Concentration, the Artist’s Task, and the Central Commitment of the Creative Life
"The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time."
The Baloney Detection Kit: Carl Sagan’s Rules for Bullshit-Busting and Critical Thinking
Necessary cognitive fortification against propaganda, pseudoscience, and general falsehood.
Drawn to Synbols, Michael McGrath Conjures Uncanny Narratives
Michael McGrath's mixed-media works are rife with uncanny pairings. 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 Drawn to Synbols, Michael McGrath Conjures
Art Movements: The Brooklyn Museum's New Top Contemporary Art Curator
Plus, the Newark Museum, Grey Art Museum, and the Clark Art Institute get new directors.
Michelle Segre’s Impermanent Worlds
By remaining open to time and its effects, Segre’s art defies the idea of permanence often associated with both sculpture and empire.
Museum of Fine Arts Boston Lays Off 33 Workers
A union representative said the unit is “deeply concerned” about the impact of the staff cuts on affected and remaining workers.
Required Reading
This week: an 18-year-old painter in Gaza, Zohran’s documentarian, anti-ICE art sleds in Minnesota, the brilliance of “Heated Rivalry,” hidden reggaetón history, and more.
Lisa Funderburke Tapped to Lead Newark Museum of Art
She’ll join New Jersey's largest fine art museum after nine years at the helm of the Artist Communities Alliance.
This guy built an autonomous flying umbrella (powered by drones) that automagically...
This guy built an autonomous flying umbrella (powered by drones) that automagically follows you around in the rain. (A possible counter to a personal raincloud ?)
Spurious Correlations
For his Spurious Correlations project , Tyler Vigen compares data sets that are the very definition of “correlation is not causation”. For instance, the number of Walmart stores worldwide correlates very strongly with the current distance between the Earth & Saturn. Or Google
Regina Silveira Pieces Together an Evolving Narrative of Latin America
'Latin American Puzzle' assembles sprawling visual narratives like jigsaws. 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 Regina Silveira Pieces Together an
Minnesota community leaders are calling for an “ICE Out” general strike and...
Minnesota community leaders are calling for an “ICE Out” general strike and protests on Friday, January 30 . “No work. No school. No shopping. Stop funding ICE.” KDO will be participating.
The Moment Caravaggio Became Caravaggio
What can an early painting tell us about an Old Master? We asked the Morgan Library’s curator to find out.
A huge collection of graphic design archives and resources, like The People’s...
A huge collection of graphic design archives and resources , like The People’s Graphic Design Archive , Book Cover Archive , and Letterform Archive . This is great!
A Winter Walk with Thoreau: The Transcendentalist Way of Finding Inner Warmth in the Cold Season
"Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary."
“There isn’t a lot of reliable information out there about how to...
“There isn’t a lot of reliable information out there about how to buy a gas mask, especially for the specific purpose of living under state repression. But hopefully after reading this guide you’ll feel equipped to make an educated decision.”
February 2026 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for Artists
Time to thaw out that C.V. 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 February 2026 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for Artists appeared
What I Learned on My First Cruise
"My boyfriend won a free cruise playing Tetris. I went along, fully expecting to hate it."
A View From the Easel
“I like seeing how my pieces change in the daylight versus the dawn.”
Prettifying Graffiti
For a project called Tag Clouds, street artist Mathieu Tremblin paints over graffiti tags and makes them more legible. The result looks like when Word says that the Hardkaze and Aerosol fonts are used in the document you’re trying to open but are missing from your computer
How to Be More Alive: Artist and Philosopher Rockwell Kent on Breaking the Trance of Near-living
The point, of course, is to make yourself alive — to feel the force of being in your sinew and your spirit, to tremble with the beauty and the terror of it all, to breathe lungfuls of life that gasp you awake from the trance of near-living induced by the system of waste and
Michael Faraday on Mental Discipline and How to Cure Our Propensity for Self-Deception
"That point of self-education which consists in teaching the mind to resist its desires and inclinations, until they are proved to be right, is the most important of all."
“AI skeptics need to update their priors: Plenty of cause for concern,...
“AI skeptics need to update their priors: Plenty of cause for concern, plenty of room to hit these companies for unethical behavior, resource demands, etc, but we are so, so far past the era of ‘stochastic parrots’ ”.
Vimeo was recently acquired by a private equity firm and you know...
Vimeo was recently acquired by a private equity firm and you know what comes next: Vimeo Lays Off ‘Most’ of Its Staff, Allegedly Includes ‘the Entire Video Team’ .
Your Friends Are Still Acting Like Everything is Normal in America. What...
Your Friends Are Still Acting Like Everything is Normal in America. What Do You Do? “The first obligation we all have is an epistemic one: It’s to know what kind of reality we are actually inhabiting.” (gift link)
Defund Science, Distort Culture, Mock Education. “We have a very focused and...
Defund Science, Distort Culture, Mock Education. “We have a very focused and intense effort across the board to set America back a generation, at least, for education, health, research, climate policy.”
Thing I did not know I was looking for (but totally was):...
Thing I did not know I was looking for (but totally was): a deep dive into ASCII rendering . Super interesting!