In Organic Harmony, curious, hybrid insects and wide-eyed furry creatures populate a world of natural textures and surreal intrigue. Vorja Sánchez (previously) has been dreaming up the fanciful series for the last year and a half, which he debuts at Beinart Gallery later this month.
Inspired by the diversity of the forest and the vivid drawings of German biologist Ernst Haeckel, Sánchez imagines a vast ecosystem. He’s particularly drawn to patterns and employs similar motifs to create cohesion across multiple pieces. Soft, fluffy fur, slender leaves with curled tips, and gleaming eyes attached to unexpected body parts appear in several of his works.
“Ancient Tales”
Sánchez shares that by studying recurring patterns in nature, he’s learned to identify the biological purpose of many shapes and forms, which influence how he selects a particular characteristic for a single creature. The artist adds:
There’s a harmony in what might seem like randomness, and above all, nature doesn’t care about scale or importance—everything exists on the same level and is balanced. It’s a concept that fascinates me and serves as a profound metaphor for life.
A mix of graphite, ink, watercolor, gouache, spray paint, and more layer together in this sprawling collection to create what Sánchez calls “a fluid dialogue” between the materials and motifs. “There were moments when the creative process for each piece was like trying to remember a dream,” he says. “When you attempt to complete these hazy images, your memory transforms into something more intricate and elusive.” Rather than impose an aesthetic direction on the creatures, the artist prefers to let the blotting, drippy nature of the materials prevail.
Organic Harmony runs from April 26 to May 18 in Brunswick. Find more on Instagram.
“Insect Dialogue”Detail of “Insect Dialogue”“The Sound of Cotton”Detail of “The Sound of Cotton”“Organic Findings”“Late At Night”Detail of “Organic Findings”“Elixir”“Hazy Memories of Nocturnal Visitors”
Meaning “perfection” or “attainment,” the Sanskrit word siddhi describes a kind of powerful spiritual energy attained through meditation and mindfulness. To be a siddha is to be accomplished—to achieve a level of optimum spiritual wellbeing. For vanessa german (previously), making sculpture is a spiritual practice with the power to confront systemic social issues and conjure a sense of community.
In GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul, german’s solo exhibition at Kasmin, “the siddhi of the soul,” for example, lists rose quartz, wood, plaster, and marble tile along with “…the way that clouds are creative, a loosing against old ways of power, a healing song sung just of breath and now-ness…”
“the emergence, or, on considering the transformative nature of the dragon fly as told by Richard Rudd.” (2025), we dance here don’t we bend out our bones and loose our spirts free in an agreement of birth and suffering, wood, plaster, plaster gauze, lapis, sodalite, blue kyanite, quartz, rose quartz, dyed howlite, turquoise, bottles, blue things at the bottom of the sea, languishing, morganite, blue amber eye bee—for seeing the unseen inside of your own self, the deep grief of it all , the light from the wound, blue pigments, a white snake for transformation, a solid fearlessness, grace, onyx, obsidian, rhinestones, cut glass, a host of possibilities, magic and loving that keeps making itself new, over and over again., 64 x 40 x 38 inches
german’s monumental new series of sculptural heads are conceived as “cosmic maps, proposing a cartography for a sacred place that embraces the full creative potential of all people,” says an exhibition statement. Drawing inspiration from ancient Mesoamerican Olmec heads, which were carved from basalt and measure, in some cases, more than 11 feet tall, the artist channels heft and gravitas.
The descriptions of her pieces are a far cry from standardized lists of raw materials; combining lyrical and autobiographical references, the accompanying texts complement each work’s inspiration, process, and inherent energy.
Beads, glass, ceramics, wood, recycling, astroturf, found objects, and more are complemented by myriad emotions and memories like “joy,” “languishing,” and “the way that black girls—in my youth—could speak their own language by chewing and popping gum.” She incorporates minerals and stones like quartz, onyx, and obsidian, transmitting their metaphysical healing properties.
The exhibition is organized into two complementary presentations, including the mixed-media heads and a series of fallen figures. The latter strike poses that reflect vogue dancers’ “death drops” in ballroom competitions, in which they fall to the floor as if mimicking death, then use one leg to bounce back up.
“sweet love, or THE HUNGER OF IT ALL IS EATING ME UP, or, ACIM lesson #28 and #31, respectively: Above all else, I want to see things differently. I am not a victim of the world I see.” (2025), a wondrous muse of light, wood, doll parts, cloth, twine, how it feels to be swallowed whole and then to come out the other end wet and brand new, the spice of life, wire, beads, beaded glass trim, spray paint, strange pot metal black figure with a mouth open wide in a wail or an attempt to swallow the universe, porcelain figurine being swallowed whole, the tension of the having or not having or being had, the way that n it even greed can thwart death, pyrite phallus, chain, rhinestone, the blackness, 37 1/2 x 24 x 14 1/8 inches
The fallen figures’ heads are replaced with porcelain racist caricatures, “reclaiming power from their white counterparts,” says a statement. Mirroring the voguing technique, each dancer emphatically rebounds from not only the illusion of death but from bigotry, systematic oppression, and violence toward the LGBTQ+ community and those who interrogate social norms.
GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul continues through May 10 across two of Kasmin’s Chelsea locations in New York City. Explore more on german’s Instagram.
Detail of “the emergence, or, on considering the transformative nature of the dragon fly as told by
Richard Rudd.”“lover, lover, lover boi” (2025), arm trans women, existence cannot be non-existence, get over it, love, love, love, wood, plaster, plaster gauze, bottle cap chain, forgiveness, clear quartz, cut glass, titanium dyed geodes, onyx, obsidian, shungite, Smokey quartz, beaded glass trim, the grief always, the opposite of self loathing, a Native American beaded hat from a trading post near what we now call, “the Grand Canyon.” Heat, starlight, the dance of all ages, kissing and fucking for the peace and joy of it all, anatomical heart model, mammy note pad body with original pencil, cut glass ring holder, quartz points from the land we now call, “Arkansas”, cowboy salt shaker, a snake for the bite and shrugging off of the passage of time., 77 x 31 x 34 inches“you own soul is a true magic” (2025), wood, marble tile, love, red glass beads, rose quartz, onyx, obsidian, shungite, Smokey quartz, lapis, agate, candelabras, joy, a found wooden foot, ceramic birds, pyrite, sodalite, emerald with quartz, black beaded text, sitting down in the soul for a made-up song, mirror, amethyst, beaded key chains from guatamala, astroturf, agate, morganite, creativity as antidote, silence, dancing, forgiveness., 70 x 43 x 36 1/4 inchesDetail of “you own soul is a true magic”“George—at the precipice of the fall” (2025), George Washington doll head, the sound of remorse coming up from out of the ground, the end of nostalgia as political mandate, wood, plaster, plaster gauze, rhinestone appliqués, jewelry pieces, gemstone owl, beaded glass trim, a found racist horror of two black faces emerging from over-large ceramic feet, the joy of dancing and knowing that you are free and alive and whole, spray paint, heat and the feeling of hatred, the becoming medicine of the soul, an open imagination, small African mask found in Brooklyn right near the bridge, this game is still very challenging isn’t it, the obviousness of this old grief, how it is to run away from yourself and never get caught, a dancing queen, a penis where one wants a gun, the clearest shape of freedom is being loosed open at this very moment and this artwork is but a glimpse into a new doorway., 31 x 15 3/4 x 12 inches“GUMBALL, or, Gloriously Underestimated Magical Bounty As Living Love. Or, An Invitation to Contemplation at the pace of One’s own Divine Soul.” (2025), gemstones and minerals: tigers eye, onyx, obsidian, rose quartz, morganite, lapis, aragonite, citrine, agate, dyed jade, titanium heated geode, spirit quartz. Cut glass crystal, fish key chains, a love song to the Soul of it all, a house in which to grow wise in a manner with allows no violation to the being, wood, hand blown glass gumball, ceramic figurine, pink prayer beads, prayers of grace and the intimacy of loneliness giving into the knowing of deep and true wholeness, light, astroturf, joyous angelic presence, the levity of the Buddha—HA HA. Love, memories of my grandmother, plaster, plaster guaze, cardboard, obsidian lucky foot, 3-4 bags of my/the artist’s recycling, a laying on of hands and a release into the grace of being held outside of one’s own mind, joy, ceramic butterflies, the way that black girls—in my youth—could speak their own language by chewing and popping gum, beaded flowers, hope, newness, porcelain tile, slow down, it’s going to be ok., 87 x 47 1/2 x 43 1/2 inchesDetail of “GUMBALL, or, Gloriously Underestimated Magical Bounty As Living Love. Or, An Invitation to Contemplation at the pace of One’s own Divine Soul.”
Hiragana is one of three components of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana and kanji. As a phonetic syllabary, each of the 46 characters represents a sound, and for the most part, each sound in the Japanese language—known specifically as mora—corresponds to one character.
For illustrator and fiber artist Tomoko Kubo, the lettering system sparked an ongoing series of embroideries that also function as playful linguistic learning tools.
う, representing “u”
Kubo embeds imagery into the form of each character. Pictured above, for example, is the character う, which is used for the syllable “u.” The artist’s composition visualizes words that begin with that character: a horse (うま), a rabbit (うさぎ), and a beach (うみべ).
Kubo began the series after participating in an exhibition in late 2021 in which a group of artists collectively created a picture book, with each person responsible for designing one page. “I embroidered the hiragana character ‘y’ (よ), and it turned out beautifully,” Kubo tells Colossal. “That experience sparked the idea to start embroidering hiragana characters.”
Starting with syllables from her own name, the first characters the artist embroidered were “to” (と) and “mo” (も). Kubo was spurred by an overwhelmingly positive reception on social media, and she plans to complete the entire hiragana series between other illustration and craft projects.
From pliable lengths of sustainably sourced Somerset willow, Laura Ellen Bacon (previously) weaves elegant, meandering sculptures. Whether installed on a wall, streaming from windows, or curled up on a plinth, her works invite us to wander through installations that appear alive and moving.
Bacon’s latest solo exhibition, Into Being, just opened at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The Derbyshire-based artist created pieces for the park’s 18th-century chapel, centering around an eponymous piece that extends six meters into the nave and reaches three meters high. Mirroring shapes from nature like seed pods, burrows, and cocoons, the undulating form welcomes visitors to step inside a kind of gentle, organic embrace.
The artist with “Into Being”
Joining a continuum of artists like Andy Goldsworthy—who has four works permanently on display ay YSP—Nicola Turner, and Kate MccGwire who utilize natural materials to create enigmatic in situ installations, Bacon’s site-specific works respond directly to their surroundings. She constructed “Into Being” on location at YSP over the course of eight weeks, re-interpreting the space by “drawing” with willow. About 80 bundles of Dicky Meadow, a variety known for its slender and straight stem, wind their way through the gallery
In Britain, people have been weaving with willow for upwards of 10,000 years, primarily using the material for creating baskets. The thin stems are soft, flexible, and lightweight, making them easy to handle and bend. Bacon has developed her own methods during the past two decades, experimenting with relationships between curves and lines, tightness and looseness, and knots and twists to create contemporary, abstract compositions.
Branches that have naturally fallen from beech trees at YSP form part of the sculpture’s supporting structure, which, “through its material and form, conjures up a primal instinct to nest and reconnect with the natural world,” says a statement. When the installation is dismantled later this year, the material will be repurposed on the YSP grounds to create wildlife habitats.
Into Being continues through September 7 in West Bretton, England. Find more on Bacon’s website and Instagram.
“Contact”Detail of “Contact”“Into Being”Detail of “Into Being”Detail of “Into Being”“Confidant”Detail of “Into Being”Detail of “Into Being”
On candy-colored paper, Rhea Mack draws a world in which all misfits are welcome. The Massachusetts-based artist lovingly renders curious characters with three heads, flowers growing from their palms, or a penchant for plump, strawberry hats.
Mack has a soft spot for these strange oddballs who develop organically, often springing from her Sunday morning sessions seemingly on their own accord. “I usually start drawing, and they just kind of develop over a few hours. I sometimes have a certain feeling or pose in mind, but mostly I am just making it up as I go,” she says.
This intuitive, accommodating attitude influences much of her process, including the decision to draw on pink paper simply “because it made sense,” she says. Mack chooses other materials similarly. “The colored pencil pinks I use in my drawings are very buttery and just feel nice to draw with,” she adds.
As if emerging from a favorite fairytale—creating a children’s book is on Mack’s mind—the drawings twist common plants and animals like dogs and daisies into surreal fantasies. Each is packed with small moments of intrigue and playful patterns like stripes and dots.
In one work, for example, a full human skeleton and dozens of single eyes float from a figure’s gaze, while a pink pup leaps overhead. Another features a quintet bound by a rainbow dress, their bulbous, beige coifs fused together like the clouds above.
Mack’s solo exhibition Massachusetts Dreaming opens next week at Kyst Gallery in Dragor, Denmark, and is on view through May 8. Find prints in her shop, and follow her work on Instagram. (via WePresent)
When most hikers are headed off the trail, Jonathan Knight is just getting started. The Denver-based artist prefers to photograph about 45 minutes after sunset, during “the last few minutes the sky has any blue hue in it and the last few minutes you can see without an external light source,” he shares. Once deep in the forest, Knight captures majestic waterfalls that cascade from rocky cliffs, their mist casting an ethereal haze across the scene.
“I had many nights of walking back two, three, four miles to the car alone with just a camera on my back and headlamp on my head,” he shares. “There was nothing more spooky than seeing the telltale glow of eyes within the beam of the headlamp. Lucky for me it was only ever our friends like elk or deer.”
“Waterfall XVI,” (South Mineral Creek, CO
Throughout 2022, Knight scouted waterfalls across California, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. He documented each in his signature minimal style, using low contrast to accentuate the natural beauty of his subject matter. “This project is really about the figure of the waterfall against negative space. The shape of the water becomes the subject,” he adds.
Knight offers prints of the Waterfalls series on his website, where you can view the entire collection. Follow his work on Instagram.
“Waterfall IV,” North Clear Creek Falls, CO“Waterfall VII,” Multnomah Falls, OR“Waterfall VI,” Nellie Creek, CO“Waterfall I,” South Falls, OR“Waterfall XIV,” Snoqualmie Falls, WA“Waterfall VIII,” Latourell Falls, OR“Waterfall II,” Vernal Falls, CA“Waterfall VIII,” Latourell Falls, OR
For Anna Ortiz, the borderlands are a rich source for the uncanny. The Mexican-American artist (previously) was raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, but visited her family in Guadalajara often. There, she was immersed in her ancestral landscape and introduced to her family’s history as artists—her grandfather painted portraits, while her aunt was a professional sculptor.
These formative experiences offered a contrast to her life in the Northeast and the dichotomous relationship between the two continues to influence her thinking and practice today.
“Al Otro Lado de Texcoco” (2025), oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches
For her upcoming solo exhibition at Mindy Solomon Gallery, Ortiz conjures a surreal borderland that suspends time. Awash in saturated color palettes of pink, blue, and green, the paintings in Prophecy Here and Gone reference Aztec histories and how their influence continues to shape the landscape.
In the diptych “Al Otro Lado de Texcoco,” for example, a gleaming lake peeks through dense clusters of cacti. Nested at the base of the volcano La Malinche, the body of water greeted the Aztecs when they moved to what’s now known as Mexico City. When the Spanish arrived, they drained the lake in a failed attempt to farm the land.
Ortiz tells Colossal that she frequently paints pairs as a way to consider unfulfilled destinies and paths not chosen. Twin agaves appear in “Pareja,” while “Tula” depicts a couple of totemic sculptures that appear to be standing guard. Flat butterflies grace their chests, a reference to the statues found at the capital of the Aztecs’ ancestors, the Toltecs. The artist similarly incorporates doubling through reflections, as a majestic jaguar is mirrored in the aquatic foregrounds of several paintings.
World-building and offering an entry point into ancient prophecies is key to this body of work. Interested in the ways civilization and the landscape interact and shape one another, Ortiz shares that “loss is a central theme…I was once very close to my Mexican heritage, and I lost it. I grew up fluent in Spanish but because of family strife, I lost that fluency.”
“Tula” (2025), oil on canvas, 28 x 22 inches
Ortiz’s paintings both honor the ancient peoples and cultures that once occupied the land and present an alternative universe in which their myths and prophecies had different outcomes. Vibrant and uncanny, the works portray the “lives we were unable to live but (that) happened without us,” she adds.
Prophecy Here and Gone is on view from April 5 to May 10 in Miami. Find more from Ortiz on her website and Instagram.
“Agaves Bailando” (2024), oil on canvas, 38 x 32 inches“Reflejada” (2025), oil on canvas, 40 x 48 inches“Sacrificio” (2023), oil on canvas, 48 x 40 inches“Pareja” (2025), oil on canvas, 30 x 34 inches“Gemelos Amaranto” (2025), oil on canvas, 38 x 32 inches“En Orbita” (2025), oil on canvas, 22 x 28 inches“Cihuacoatl” (2025), oil on canvas, 28 x 22 inches“Nahual” (2025), oil on canvas, 38 x 32 inches
Foregrounding vibrant patterns, swathed in bright fabrics, and illuminated by the sun, the figures in Cameroonian artist Marc Padeu’s paintings are imbued with beguiling gravitas. His large-scale works stem from a fascination with the power of narrative, connecting the Western art historical canon—especially Renaissance titans like Caravaggio—with contemporary experiences of life in Cameroon.
Padeu was trained by the church as a fresco painter. He draws on dramatic biblical stories to juxtapose momentous religious and spiritual accounts with quotidian moments that emphasize Black joy, leisure, family, and fraternity.
“Au baptême 2” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 200 x 300 centimeters
Through the immediacy of acrylic, Padeu renders figures in everyday yet memorable scenes, whether gathered outdoors to relax, witnessing a baptism, or solemnly coexisting amid vivid surroundings.
Many of Padeu’s paintings take inspiration from Renaissance compositions, like “La réunion syndicale,” which bears hints of da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” (1495-1498) or Caravaggio’s “The Supper at Emmaus” (1601). Portrayed nearly life-size, the artist’s tableaux immerse us in rites of passage and moments of togetherness.
“La réunion syndicale” (2021), acrylic on canvas, 200 x 280 centimeters“La bague de Roxane” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 200 x 280 centimeters“All the light on me” (2021), acrylic on canvas, 200 x 338 centimeters“La Balançoire 2” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 200 x 230 centimeters“Au pique-nique” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 220 x 200 centimeters
From geometric, white panels riveted together into an undulating sphere, Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY’s newest public installation invites visitors to immerse themselves in a luminous experience on Google’s Charleston East Campus in California.
Designed as a physical embodiment of innovation and creativity, “The Orb” invites us into a 10-meter-tall, 26-meter-wide labyrinthine form made of ultra-thin aluminum. “Edged yet edgeless, surfaces curve, branch, split, rejoin, and split again,” the studio (previously) says. “This extreme curvature—achieved through cutting-edge computational design—enables the surfaces to be entirely self-supporting despite being just three millimeters thick.”
“The Orb” comprises 6,441 individual components connected with more than 217,000 rivets. During the day, a pattern of holes speckles sunlight across the pavilion and onto the ground. At night, the structure is illuminated, casting deep shadows that contrast the bright details.
Fornes’ mission, hybridizing elements of art and architecture, is to spark “the joy wandering, the joy of marveling.”
In his ongoing “quest to articulate the ineffable,” Arizona-based artist Daniel Martin Diaz (previously) creates large-scale works that merge metaphysical, scientific, and technological phenomena into vibrant geometric compositions.
Diaz’s current solo exhibition, UNIVERSAL CODES at the Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science, and Art, presents recent work drawing on a wide range of influences, from Mexican religious iconography and arcane religious sigils to Early Netherlandish painters and Gothic decorative motifs.
“Cross Species Interface”
Diaz’s work often investigates concepts of death and religion “as he seeks to pose questions but not answer them,” says an exhibition statement. Juxtaposing esoteric symbols and messages with scientific diagrams and spiritual iconography, the artist explores the surreality of cosmic forces.
UNIVERSAL CODES continues through April 27 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Find more on Diaz’s Instagram, and peruse a range of prints, apparel, and home accessories in his shop.
“Temporal Soul”“Chrono”“Beyond the Self”“Astral Projection”“Conscious Universe”“Codex”
