For a little more than two decades, Bavarian photographer Markus Brunetti has scoured Europe for its most impressive basilicas, monasteries, duomi, and other striking ecclesiastical landmarks. Working closely with collaborator Betty Schöner, with whom he travels around the continent in a firetruck that has been converted to a photo lab, the pair snap thousands of images of each structure in meter-by-meter detail, often over the course of several years.

Through a meticulous editing process that includes layering and arranging each shot into composite images, Brunetti creates precise, high-resolution views of the facades that we never experience in real life. Perspective is skewed so that the ornate temples and cathedrals’ entrances are perfectly straight. Rather than the oblique view we usually get—think of how tall structures look when viewed from the street, with their base appearing wider and the top growing gradually narrower—we’re confronted with a striking one-point perspective.

Brunetti’s current solo exhibition, Facades IV at Yossi Milo, highlights a selection of the artist’s recent portraits, several of which were completed in the last couple of years. “Roma, Basilica di San Pietro,” for example, was initiated in 2007. “Brunetti and Schöner returned to St. Peter’s Basilica seven times over nineteen years,” the gallery says. “With each survey, they grew closer to realizing this grand image—a particular challenge given that it is one of the largest and most visited churches in the world.”

Printed at an impressively large scale—up to seven-and-a-half feet tall—the photos venerate these buildings, many of which are centuries old. “The result exceeds the possibilities of any single photograph, even at the highest possible resolution, creating works that stand as monuments in and of themselves,” the gallery says.

Facades IV continues through June 20 in New York City.

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In ballpoint pen on found fragments of philosophical and historical texts, Habib Hajallie delves into the emotional realm of memory, connection, and loss. The Kent-based artist often celebrates Black cultural figures and beloved family members, along with examining his own personal experiences as a British man of Sierra Leonean and Lebanese heritage. In his current solo exhibition, Black & Blue at Larkin Durey, Hajallie grapples with the devastating stillbirth of his daughter and the “indescribable emotions that sit beneath language,” says the gallery.

For this show, the artist deliberately switched from using black ballpoint ink to blue. As he made these works, Hajallie also reflected on the loss of his sister four years ago. Using antique maps and snippets of philosophical and sociological writings, he portrays subtle sides of what the gallery describes as “an altered sense of self.” Figures, including several self-portraits, exude feelings of despair, confusion, numbness, care, and the nuanced emotions that emerge in-between.

“While this series is concerned with the internal landscape of loss and what it means to endure a profoundly altered reality, each artwork has acted as an invaluable step towards healing,” the gallery says. “By drawing directly onto antique texts that explore morality, purpose, and transcendence, Hajallie’s personal pain enters into a wider conversation about finding meaning and the ways in which drawing can become a space of solace and catharsis.”

Black & Blue continues through May 22 in London. See more on the artist’s Instagram.

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Dear readers,

In a collection of her published diary entries, Virgina Woolf wrote, “Thinking is my fighting.” This sentiment was a prominent theme in her 1940 essay, Thoughts on Peace In an Air Raid, in which the British writer framed the importance of individual thought as a crucial antidote to war and the rise of fascism.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Woolf’s quote and its relevance today, largely connected to discourse on education. While literacy rates in the U.S. continue to plummet, a soaring number of individuals are adopting habits antithetical to thinking—offloading even the smallest of cognitive tasks onto Chat GPT, doomscrolling for hours on social media, and numbing the mind with addictive “brain rot.” Critical thinking is being traded for passive acceptance and the death of curiosity—all in the name of efficiency and capital innovation. Our minds have become the new commodity.

In response to this, I’ve seen a clear cultural shift toward self-education. I, too, have been influenced by this new wave of autodidactic learning—personal curriculums, digital detoxes, reading challenges, etc. While these are certainly more examples of internet trends worming their way into our algorithms, beneath them lies something deeper: a collective desire to reclaim our own thoughts.

At the same time, access to quality information and educational materials can be hard to find, whether those resources are locked behind the gates of inflated tuition costs, class fees, or online paywalls. For Colossal, accessibility has always been an ongoing commitment. Over the last 15 years and counting, every article, interview, and instructional aid on our site has remained completely free. Our team believes that the ability to learn about and enjoy art must be universally available.

For years, members of this community have made us aware of how beneficial Colossal has been in their learning journeys. Educators of all ages have shared that they’ve introduced the website to their students, crafting complete lesson plans from our articles and glossary of art terms. I encountered Colossal for the first time in a classroom, and in another life where I taught elementary students art, it remained one of my most reliable tools.

Out of the classroom, learning persists, and we’ve been elated to hear many stories about how our daily doses of art allow readers to uncover something new everyday, gain more knowledge about contemporary art, and discover impactful stories that bring about change, connection, and hope.

Now more than ever, creative thought must be nurtured, protected, and free from barriers. Our mission to do this can only continue with you. Today, only 1% of Colossal readers financially support the work we do. Like many independent publications, our members are the cornerstone of our existence and ability to continue sharing art with the world.

We encourage you to join the Colossal community. Now is the time to spread creative ideas, revive curiosity, and defend the ability to think and learn imaginatively.

And as we celebrate teacher appreciation this month, we’d like to highlight our deeply discounted education membership, available to current students and educators (just shoot as a quick email and we’ll get you set up). Thank you for reading, sharing, and learning with us.

Gratefully,
Jackie Andres
Online editor, Colossal

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In Love Letters, Hilary Pecis captures the mundane moments and under-appreciated views of daily life. The Los Angeles-based artist presents a suite of new acrylic paintings in her signature saturated style, focusing on snippets of a backyard pool, the corner of a studio worktop, and a friendly picnic complete with a radiant strawberry cake.

Pecis prefers to work from photos and translates singular moments onto linen. Utilizing a uniform opacity in her paints, she incorporates both comparable and exaggerated colors and affords particular attention to texture and pattern. Frilly fronds on a plant, light radiating off the water’s surface, and the rough texture of a woven tablecloth each evidence the artist’s meticulous process.

Love Letters opens at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles on May 16 and runs through June 20. Until then, explore more of Pecis’ work on Instagram.

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Despite its name, the Canadian Tuxedo is a distinctly American look. The denim-on-denim getup dates back to the 1950s, when Bing Crosby sported a full Levi’s ensemble while in Vancouver, setting a sartorial trend that continues today.

The national mythology woven into this utilitarian material is also the focus of Brooklyn-based Nick Doyle, who layers denim atop denim into large wall sculptures. From a pair of aviators reflecting puffy clouds to a vast Rocky Mountain landscape framed by brick, the works evoke a sort of nostalgic road trip west, as if chasing a big break, and ultimately, realizing the American dream.

For Doyle, denim is a poignant, loaded metaphor for much of American culture and history. The material has roots in chattel slavery, when people enslaved in the South were dyeing cotton with indigo. There’s also its association with the brusque masculinity of James Dean and cowboy ruggedness, itself an extension of the gold rush and Manifest Destiny. The fabric, in many ways, is a stand-in for the contradictions, hypocrisies, and unreachable desires so bound up in American life.

While researching the visual language of Americana in 2018, Doyle came upon a roll of denim discarded by a fashion designer moving out of his building. “At the time, I had no money, so I was making work out of material I found in the garbage or at my local hardware store,” he shares. “As I was pulling [the roll] out of the trash, I noticed a network of ideas connecting in my brain… I felt the material reflected the historical complexities I was seeing in my research, as well as being reflected in my own familial history.”

This encounter was one of those providential moments that set off an enduring fascination. In his solo exhibition Collective Hallucinations, on view at Perrotin, Doyle presents the latest of his denim sculptures, including stylized cacti, landscapes cordoned off by chainlink fences, and more mystical objects like tarot cards and a life-sized fortune teller’s shop.

The show contains myriad symbols of American exceptionalism and individualism, presented in the heritage fabric of the nation. Doyle shares:

Over the last few years, my conception of American mythology has only become more complex… I think in a lot of ways what we’re experiencing now is a breakdown of these mythologies. They are in direct conflict with the current political reality, yet they are summoned as if it is business as usual. The world’s image of America has changed, but our country’s nostalgia for itself is making us late to the party. There’s tragedy in vanity.

Collective Hallucinations presents these unrealized dreams and confrontations in varying shades of blue, rendering what appears to be individual moments as simply different washes of the same story.

In addition to his practice, Doyle will soon open a kink bar called Human Resources and is working toward a fall exhibition of paper collages and prints at Pace. If you’re in New York, Collective Hallucinations runs through May 30. Otherwise, find more on Instagram.

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Known for his stunning photos of wildlife and landscapes, as well as co-founding SeaLegacy alongside fellow conservationist and photographer Cristina Mittermeier, Paul Nicklen has traveled the globe to not only highlight our planet’s phenomenal biodiversity but also to shed light on its increasing vulnerabilities due to the ongoing climate crisis.

Nicklen’s most ambitious project yet gathers myriad images from a career exploring the corners of the earth for more than three decades. Forthcoming from Hemeria, Reverence marks the most comprehensive collection of his work to date. The book features 160 photographs, including some of Nicklen’s most enduring images alongside others previously unpublished.

From the root-like system of the Colorado River delta to narwhals feeding on cod in the Arctic Bay off Baffin Island, Nicklen’s photos illuminate the vast and resilient beauty of the natural world. “Reverence is what we feel in the silent presence of a whale beneath the ice, in the fierce gaze of a polar bear, in the timeless dance of ocean and light,” says a statement. “It is what the natural world evokes when we stop long enough to truly see it.”

Reverence is slated for release on July 28, which is also World Conservation Day, and pre-orders are open now.

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Organized by Capture the Atlas, the 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year saw a record number of submissions, with more than 6,500 entries representing a wide range of landscapes and perspectives around the world. Just 25 were selected as the top images, representing 12 different regions from the Canary Islands to New Zealand to Argentina.

“Every year, this collection reminds us that photographing the Milky Way is not only about technique or planning. It is about curiosity, patience, and the desire to experience the night sky in places where it still feels wild,” says Dan Zafra, editor of Capture the Atlas and curator of the annual contest. “Many of these skies are becoming increasingly rare, and we hope these images inspire people not only to admire them, but also to value and protect them.”

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“The world hums with beauty and danger, harmony and discord,” says Jake Messing. “We walk through these shifting currents every day. For as long as I can remember, I have turned toward the natural world—studying its patterns, its relationships, its quiet lessons.”

In highly detailed, hyperrealistic paintings, the Northern California-based artist explores nature as a reflection of our inner lives. Abundance and beauty are sometimes confronted with tension and discomfort, and through nature, “I question the fears and unspoken rules that shape us,” Messing says.

Working in acrylic on canvas, the artist composes otherworldly vignettes of flora and fauna, often uniting creatures and plants in situations we’d be unlikely to encounter in the real world. Yet these dense, maximal clusters of succulents, insects, blossoms, birds, and other creatures summon what Messing describes as both “chaos and grace” in a vibrant meditation on ecosystems, interdependency, and biodiversity.

In an art historical sense, these works certainly nod to the meticulously detailed Dutch Golden Age oil paintings of the likes of Rachel Ruysch and Jan Brueghel the Elder, which were also typically set against deep backgrounds. Employing a bit of memento mori—a reminder of the inevitability of death—these often incorporated wilting petals and other nods to decay.

Messing taps into this tradition, yet he emphasizes full-blooded vivacity. Every floret and frond is bursting with life, while the occasional playful color gradient, bubbles, or shiny fabric place these compositions firmly in our time. “Through my work, I seek to bring the outside in, to honor the wildness that surrounds us, and to reveal the beauty and danger, the decay and renewal, that bind our outer and inner worlds together,” he says.

See more on the artist’s Instagram.

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For the better part of two decades, Irina Werning has traveled throughout Latin America searching for a specific trait: incredibly long hair. In her photography series Las Pelilargas—meaning “the long-haired ones” in Spanish—she chronicles a time-honored Indigenous tradition through a visual celebration of patience, joy, and cultural pride.

In a statement, Werning shares that when she asks young women in the many small towns she’s visited why they have long hair, they respond with simple reasons akin to, “Because I like it.” But, Werning adds, “The true reason is invisible and passes from generation to generation. It’s the culture of Latin America, where our ancestors believed that cutting hair was cutting life, that hair is the physical manifestation of our thoughts and our souls and our connection to the land.”

Nearly 90 images are included in Werning’s new book, Las Pelilargas, published by GOST Books. The photos span 18 years, starting with the artist’s first encounter with long-haired women in 2006 in Argentina, when she was photographing members of the Indigenous Kolla community.

“Guided by her intuition, she went on to spend months in remote mountain towns putting up signs in schools, hospitals, and markets, and organising hair competitions in an effort to seek out those with long hair,” GOST says. Werning continued to make the portraits until 2024. “She found that traditions were not just surviving, but evolving with long hair symbolising both continuity and subtle rebellion.”

Find your copy on Bookshop. You might also enjoy Celia D. Luna’s series, Cholitas Bravas.

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 Irina Werning Chronicles 18 Years of Photographing ‘Las Pelilargas’ in a New Book appeared first on Colossal.

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