This mural by Argentinian artist Franco Fasoli is located in Gainesville, Florida. It was part of The Gainesville Urban Art Project / 352walls, started in 2015 by the city.
Jun 272025
Jun 242025
When the Sun is Up, the Moon is Absent! was created by Bryan Beyung and James Lee Chiahan for the 2023 edition of SHINE Mural Festival in St. Pete, Florida.
From the artists about the mural-
In 1987, the Kien family stood on a red dirt road in a refugee camp called Site 2 somewhere along the border of Cambodia and Thailand. With their loved ones scattered, their home displaced, and their country suffused in violence, they place their hopes on a vague future. Absurd events become strangely, sadly common. Fate, or luck, or kindness brings them safe passage across the sea to Boston, MA; Montréal, QC; and finally, Bradenton, FL, a few minutes away from where this wall stands.
The youngest of the four depicted is our friend Anhdi. Today, he lives in Bradenton with his wife and three kids, who we invited to help paint and add to their family’s story directly. It’s a story with many secret turns and memories that shape their specific experience, but it’s also one that’s universal to so many who have had to flee their homes amidst conflict in the search of a new beginning. It’s a story of survival and the human spirit, and we feel so lucky to have been able to try and express it.
Jun 202025
The hand carved wood sculptures above were created from 2020-2022 by Pittsburgh artist Thaddeus Mosley and were on view at Karma in NYC in 2023.
From the gallery’s press release-
In a recent photograph taken in his studio, Thaddeus Mosley peers between the soaring columns of his sculptures. They are gallant constructions of wood, each hand-carved and formed out of unique sections from three to four logs. With his chisel, Mosley exalts the warm tones and woodgrain which lay beneath the outer tree bark. His dimensions vary, ranging from monumental to modest, rounded to angular, vaulted to hovering just above the ground. Their presence is determined by Mosley’s negotiation between natural materials and an exploration of weight and space. A feat of balance, his sculptures exist in a constant state of suspension: heavy sections seem to float above the delicately-carved pieces that support them.
Mosley began creating wooden sculptures in the 1950s while working at the United States Postal Service, which enabled him to both provide for his family and develop his craft in his free time. At 96 years old, Mosley continues his life’s work as an artist in his Pittsburgh studio near the Allegheny River. A strong influence in his practice can be traced to his encounter with a photograph of African American grave markers in Georgia. According to Mosley, their slender, soaring forms called to mind Constantin Brâncuși’s Bird in Space (1923). He explains that “in each of them I saw a similar spirit, a similar approach to clean fluid shapes coming from people working close to the earth and trying to fuse the earth and human spirituality into a single form.”
Mosley allows the natural forms of wood to guide him toward a conceptual and aesthetic meeting point, where European modernism meets the abstract and interpretive traditions of West African mask-making, and the movement of his chisel captures the rhythmic improvisations of a Jazz soloist. Mosley’s process bears traces of Isamu Noguchi’s own navigation of natural materials, providing new meaning to the late sculptor’s adage that “it is weight which provides meaning to weightlessness.”
Working primarily in hardwoods such as walnut, cherry, and chestnut, Mosley reveres the surfaces he uncovers with his chisel: deep lustres, arcs of bright coloration, growth rings, and the shadowy depth within deep cuts. Panoramic Quarter (2021) brings together inverted forms, in which recessed spirals and connected logs create a dramatic inflection. Horizontality is emphasized in Phase of a Phrase (2022), while Path of Pendulum (2020) delights in the vertical movement of arching forms, which are composed in a gravity-defying embrace. His work dances with viewers as they encircle it. Mosley’s dynamic forms encourage deep looking, whether it is in Id (2021), a low, conical carving, or Southwestern Suite (2021), in which monumental sections seem to vanish when viewed at specific angles. In Elegiac Stanza for Sam Gilliam (2022), Mosley honors the life of the abstract painter and close friend through a lyrical intersection of walnut, varying between hewn and smooth surfaces.
On rare occasions, Mosley has incorporated salvaged metals into particular pieces of hardwood. In the case of Industrial Collage (2022), a curved cut of steel is affixed to a base of walnut, from which Mosley has balanced two pieces of chestnut, adorned with pounded metal that has been grounded off from the steel section. Mosley salvaged the steel piece from an abandoned industrial building, where it was previously used as a support beam for an industrial fan. It stayed with him in his studio for fourteen years while Mosley waited, searching for the right slab of wood. Each piece of wood, every material for Mosley is subject to this process of aesthetic consideration: a three-dimensional call-and-response.
His work can currently be seen in City Hall Park in NYC for the exhibition Touching the Earth, on view until 11/16/2025. The eight bronzes included were cast from wood sculptures he made between 1996 and 2021.
For more information on the artist- this ARTNews article is an interesting read.
Jun 202025
Founded in Brooklyn in 2011, Photoville is a free annual photography festival that includes over eighty exhibitions of local and international photography. The main exhibitions take place in shipping containers and on banners and cubes in Brooklyn Bridge Park- although there are other locations around the city. The festival also includes free events, demonstrations and talks.
The work above is from artist Cinthya Santos-Briones‘ series Herbolario Migrante (Migrant Herbalism). For these pieces she embroidered over cyanotypes and lumens of various medicinal herbs on fabric and also embroidered illustrations from the Cruz-Badiano Codex.
More information from Photoville–
Migrant Herbalism is a project that examines the belief system of traditional and popular medicine—Afro-indigenous—of Latin America and how their knowledge, healing practices, and rituals have migrated with forced displacement to the United States.
Through alternative techniques of cameraless photography, visual documentation, ancient codices, oral history, community workshops, and embroidery, I document and share ritual knowledge to heal physically and spiritually, with herbs and therapies offered by traditional healers, among communities of immigrants, in response to racial and economic disparities in health care access in New York City – where most of the “undocumented” immigrants do not have health insurance.
Inspired by Anna Atkins’ photographs of algae, I create photograms: cyanotypes and lumens on fabrics embroidered with illustrations from the Cruz-Badiano Codex – the oldest book on medicinal plants in the Americas, written in Nahuatl by the Aztecs in the 16th century – and medicinal herbs, barks, and seeds that have migrated with us and are found in botanicas in New York City. Through community workshops, migrant women collaborate in this project by writing ancestral knowledge about herbalism, with which I create hand-made artisanal books challenging Western beliefs about health.
This is the second and last weekend of the festival and as part of this year’s event programming, Santos-Briones is teaching a cyanotype workshop. Botanical Photography: Memory Printed in Light. Cyanotypes and Herbalism: Art from Nature will take place tomorrow 6/21/25 from 12-2pm.
Jun 122025
This mural was created in 2019 by Tomokazu “Matzu” Matsuyama as a commission for The Houston Bowery Wall in NYC.
Matsuyama recently completed the painting Morning Sun Dance, inspired by Edward Hopper’s 1952 painting, Morning Sun. An exhibition of his paintings and works on paper centered around this new work opens at Edward Hopper House Museum in Nyack, New York, on Friday, 6/20/25.
From the museum about the exhibition-
The exhibition centers around Matsu’s new large-scale painting Morning Sun Dance. Of the work that inspired his painting, Matsu says, “While Hopper’s Morning Sun captures a moment of introspective stillness within the psychological landscape of mid-century urban life, his treatment of solitude, light, and constructed space continues to influence my own approach to thinking about isolation as well as my approach to painting.”
In Morning Sun, Hopper depicts a woman sitting on her bed in the sun, alone in an empty room, wearing a plain orange dress and a simple, contemplative expression. In Morning Sun Dance, Matsu paints a solitary woman with a similarly meditative demeanor. However, her environment is far more richly layered: the room is filled with personal artifacts—dogs, magazines, and a luxurious couch—reflecting contemporary material life. Notably, the presence of dogs, while suggesting companionship, also references historical depictions such as Toutou, le bien aimé by Rosa Bonheur (1885) and A Nurse and a Child in an Elegant Foyer by Jacob Ochtervelt (1663), in which dogs symbolized wealth and ownership. In Matsu’s work, these animals subtly underscore solitude rather than alleviate it—suggesting not connection, but the heightened self-awareness of being alone.
Her clothing fuses Western and Japanese motifs—a William Morris textile layered with traditional patterns—while a Sports Illustrated poster of Muhammad Ali nods to her alignment with diversity, strength, and modern identity. In contrast to Hopper’s figure, who gazes outward toward the cityscape, Matsu’s subject turns inward, facing her domestic space. This shift in gaze implies a broader narrative: solitude, once externalized and meditative, is now negotiated through personal space and cultural consumption.
The exhibition will also feature Matsu’s process drawings, which reveal how the artist engaged with Hopper’s use of light, figuration, and abstraction. Two additional smaller paintings by Matsu also reinterpret Hopper’s iconic figure in the orange dress—one from Hopper’s original perspective, and the other from an external vantage point, as if observing the figure from the outside.
“This exhibition offers a fascinating dialogue between two artists from different eras, both grappling with the complexities of modern life and the experience of solitude,” says Kathleen Motes Bennewitz, Executive Director of the Edward Hopper House Museum. “Matsu’s vibrant and layered response to Hopper’s work invites us to reconsider themes of isolation and introspection through a contemporary lens, highlighting the enduring relevance of Hopper’s vision while embracing new perspectives.”
Jun 062025
Breaking Free by Rhys Meatyard for the 2023 edition of SHINE Mural Festival in St. Pete, Florida.
From the artist about the mural-
For my mural, I wanted to do something hopeful and bright, and the color palette reflects that intent. I took inspiration primarily from classical art and 70s prog rock album covers. I am a big fan of Roger Dean – the artist behind covers for bands such as Yes and Uriah Heep – and borrowed some of his themes for this piece. In the foreground, you see two statues in a colonnade, and as your eye moves across the piece into the mid and background, you become aware that the land and temple are breaking apart, with parts floating off into the sun. The furthest statue has awakened and is stepping off of her base, gazing into the sun. Although the context – the solid ground she has been standing upon is breaking apart – should be frightening, she is looking into the light and moving towards her new existence. This is a metaphor for the process of being reborn in the breaking we all face in our lives, for waking up to the beautiful and terrifying reality of self, and becoming another thing and venturing into the unknown.
Spatially, the piece unfolds for you as you round the corner approaching it. Your first view is of the static statues, and as you come closer, the rays of sunlight draw you in to the rest of the scene. There is not much room to stand back from the piece, so you are forced to confront its magnitude up-close, pulling you into the world in which it exists.
Jun 042025
Currently on view on the High Line in NYC is Teresa Solar-Abboud‘s colorful sculpture, Birth of Islands.
From the High Line’s website about the commission-
Teresa Solar-Abboud creates sculptures, drawings, and videos characterized by an interest in fiction, storytelling, natural history, ecology, and anatomy. In her work, she alludes to material entities in states of transformation and the tension between the organic and synthetic, interior and exterior, gestation and birth, and embryonic and advanced. Solar-Abboud wields these tensions as a tool, not to draw binary juxtapositions, but rather to suggest that they co-exist in a quantum world, in a constant flow state of evolution. This is articulated in her work through an interest in and re-imagination of life’s diverse and sophisticated networks—cultural, geological, industrial, and anatomical—and how these systems overlap or sometimes clash.
For the High Line, Solar-Abboud presents Birth of Islands, a new sculpture in her series of zoomorphic shapes inspired by animals and prehistoric life forms. Birth of Islands, is composed of slick, blade-like foam-coated resin elements that emanate outward from the pores of a muddy, gray ceramic stump. When visiting New York, Solar-Abboud was struck by the landscape—building after building rising from the soil in a fight for prominence, just as vegetation in the forest combats for sunlight in order to survive. Birth of Islands refers to this competitive ecosystem, while also evoking human anatomy: two yellow, tongue-like emanations have seemingly tunneled their way from underground onto the High Line. The forms are spoon-like in their appearance, concave or convex, depending on one’s vantage point. The result appears simultaneously post-human and primordial, sophisticated and elementary—a representation of our own unending transformation alongside nature’s ever-evolving state.
This sculpture will be on view through July 2025.
May 092025
The Creation of the Creatures of Day and Night by Rosana Paulino was recently commissioned by the High Line in New York and is on view until December 2025.
From the High Line’s website about the artist and the work-
Rosana Paulino’s practice spans drawing, painting, suture, printmaking, collage, sculpture, and installation. Her work foregrounds social, ethnic, and gender issues, taking particular care to explore the lasting legacy of slavery and the history of both racial and gender-based violence in Brazil. The artist weaves personal, scientific, and historical archives throughout her work, using these materials to demonstrate and then deconstruct violent colonial structures, particularly as they relate to Afro-Brazilian women. Taking into account the impact these archives and memories have on collective values and belief systems, Paulino examines the construction of myths—not only as an aesthetic pillar but also as a key influence on cultural consciousness.
The Creation of the Creatures of Day and Night is a continuation of the artist’s mangrove series, which depicts tree-women as a mythological archetype and symbol for the Brazilian biome. Paulino notes that mangroves, like the country’s Black and Indigenous people, have been mistreated and exploited. The artist highlights the symbolic meaning inherent in this ecosystem: It is where life begins, as a home for countless species and as a blue carbon reservoir, and where life ends, due to the decomposition of the mangrove itself. In The Creation of the Creatures of Day and Night, Paulino re-imagines this duality between life and death as day and night. From left to right, the color of the sky fades from daylight to a deeper, midnight hue. In lieu of gilded halos traditionally seen in European representations of holy figures, the tree-women’s heads are framed by halos resembling the sun and the moon. Similarly, the animals surrounding the goddesses also reference the transition from day to night. On the left side of the composition, Paulino depicts two diurnal birds native to the mangrove biome: the white egret and, in the tree-woman’s hands, the scarlet ibis. To her right, the other goddess holds an owl and is flanked by two bats, both of which are nocturnal. Together, these elements present a rich, new mythological framework for the mangrove, offering a departure from depictions shaped by colonization and exploitation.
May 032025
Bradley Hoffer’s works in the foreground, Michael McLoughlin’s photos on the wall behind
Images to the left and right by photographer Mike McLoughlin
Asbury Park in New Jersey is most famous for its music scene, but recently murals and other artworks are adding another reason to visit this seaside town. Many of these pieces would not exist without the hard work of local Jenn Hampton, who started the Wooden Walls Project in 2015. The collaborative arts initiative has worked on numerous projects in the area with local artists and others from farther afield.
One of these projects is New Jersey photographer Mike McLoughlin‘s Art Lives Here- a series of portraits of local arts community members. Each portrait is based on a famous work of art. All of them can be found here.
Below are a few of the murals and works created in collaboration with Wooden Walls. They are located around Asbury Park Boardwalk‘s Historic Steam Plant building and the Carousel Casino Complex. They include works by Porkchop and Bradley Hoffer who currently have a joint exhibition on view at The Art Spot.
Hearts by Amberella, work by Tina Schwarz and mural by Keya Tama
Mural by Keya Tama
Work by ONEQ (@negiyakisoba)
Work by JMikal Davis aka Hellbent
Work by Joe Iurato (left) and Beau Stanton (right)
Ray Geary “St. Shadi and the Madd Doggs” Pigmented resin on board
Work by Pau Quintanajornet (@artofpau)- “Yemaya and her Sea Birds”
Sculpture by Hyland Mather (@thelostobject)
Mural is by Porkchop and Bradley Hoffer
Mural by Porkchop of Yemaya
Flashback Friday- South Carolina Art Events- ArtFields in Lake City
Architecture, Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Ceramic Art, Collage, Conceptual Art, Design, Digital Art, Drawing, Fiber Arts, Glasswork, Illustration, Installation Art, Lake City, Mixed Media, Painting / Painters, Photographers / Photography, Places to Visit, Printmaking, Public Art, Sculptors / Sculpture, South Carolina Art Shows
Apr 252025
Mural by Donald Walker
ArtFields Community Mural by Jessica Diaz, Morgan Funkhouser, Olivia Cramer, Sam Ogden
Today’s flashback is to 2021 and a trip to Lake City, South Carolina to check out ArtFields. Started in 2013, the event is a wonderful example of how the arts can revitalize local economies.
So what is ArtFields? Every year for one week local businesses and galleries host works created by artists from the Southeastern United States for a competition with prizes totaling over $145,000. There are also two People’s Choice Awards which are determined by the attendees of the festival. The other awards are chosen by a panel of art professionals. Special events take place throughout the week and ArtFields Jr. offers a chance to see work by South Carolina students.
This year the event runs from April 25th to May 3rd, 2025. Even if you can’t make it, it’s worth taking a look here at this year’s artwork as well as from past years.
Below are a few selections from 2021-
Mural by Lance Turner
“From This Moment Forward” by Herman A. Keith Jr. inspired by Gee’s Bend Quilters
Partially finished mural by Broderick Flanigan honoring Lake City educators Elouise Cooper and Derrick Faison.
“7 Red Wolves” by Joann Galarza Vega
About the work from the above by Joann Galarza Vega–
“There may be as few as only 7 red wolves remaining in the wild. These animals, like so many others, are disappearing in the shadows of our periphery. Their very existence depends on us, as did their extinction. Let us see them, acknowledge them, acknowledge that biodiversity and the balance of life matters. They are painted bright red in order to stand out and bring attention, no longer hidden away.”
Pictured above is The House on Church Street which in 2021 was used for several art installations including the two below. The first is New Histories: The Gadsden Farm Project by Michael Austin Diaz and Holly Hanessian.
About the installation-
The installation below, All Too Brief, was created by Gainesville, Florida artist Cindy Steiler.
From the ArtFields website about the installation-
All Too Brief was inspired by the movement of time and the unconscious process where our present moment is being continuously converted to memory. The elements comprising All Too Brief include a series of scrolls of cyanotype photographs and repurposed textiles wound on antique industrial weaving bobbins. Each scroll has a WW2-era laundry pin embossed with a number that corresponds to the written narrative of the images and textiles it holds. This piece is my attempt to document and archive people, places, and fleeting moments I hold dear. This piece became even more meaningful to me this year. My studio assistant at the time this piece was created has since passed.
Finally- while in town it’s also worth checking out the Ronald E. McNair Life History Center and Memorial Park. The Lake City-born astronaut and physicist died tragically in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.
