Source Colossal   In the late 12th century, a nobleman named Count Gerard van Loon commissioned an abbey to serve as his final resting place. Over the next few decades, amid plenty of political tumult, Herkenrode Abbey in Hasselt, Belgium, was converted to the first Cistercian convent for women. It was a site of pilgrimage from…

Source Colossal   During the Victorian era, innovators made huge leaps with optical technologies. It was the period of the stereoscope and an early projector known as the magic lantern, not to mention one in which eyeglasses became more affordable and entering the mainstream. These advances also influenced scientific inquiry, making microscopes more powerful, and the…

Source Artsy Shark  Artist Mary Watkins shares a portfolio of luminous, layered oil paintings that capture fleeting moments of light and feeling. The post Featured Artist Mary Watkins appeared first on Artsy Shark.

Source Colossal   Kim Dacres gravitates toward renewal and care, transforming worn rubber into expressive sculptural portraits. The New York-based artist twists and braids tired treads into sleek buns and rows typical of Black hairstyles, which she embellishes with gear-like crowns and jewelry made of metal bike chains. Spray painting the material to mask marks, Dacres…

Source Design You Trust  Otto is a 22-year-old self-taught French painter who works in Paris and has exhibited at Very Art Gallery. His dark, minimalist expressionism features elongated ballerinas, contorted figures, and emotional abstraction on paper using ink, charcoal, and paint. Recurring motifs include addiction, memory, contrast, and choice (“No choice,” “Addiction,” “Souviens toi”), blending…

Source Design You Trust  Elliot Wair (born 2003) is a South East England-based contemporary painter working in acrylic on panel. Wair’s surrealism portrays complex emotional ideas through otherworldly concepts—floating figures, crab-roofed houses, dissolving forms, and shadow-collecting scenes (“Collecting My Shadow Before I Have Finished With It,” “I’m Scared Of Dissolving Into You”). He maintains childish…

Source Design You Trust  Ivana Belianska is a digital pixel artist who creates nostalgic, detail-rich illustrations blending retro gaming aesthetics with contemporary storytelling. Her work features pixel self-portraits, Spirited Away homages, post-apocalyptic Nintendo 64 scenes, and custom pixel portraits. Belianska holds a master’s in art and invests 10+ hours per piece, emphasizing tiny details and…

Source Colossal   Home might be a mutable concept, but some objects retain the aura of belonging and comfort even outside the walls we reside in. For Monica Rohan, those items are patterned fabrics and bentwood dining chairs, which venture outdoors in her vibrant oil paintings. The Brisbane-based artist has long depicted the supple folds and…