From dusky woodland scenes to fantastical landscapes populated by mythical creatures, Shannon Taylor’s vibrant dioramas spring to life inside vintage cosmetic compacts. Sourced from flea markets, vintage shops, friends, and anywhere else they might appear, the vessels themselves are often brimming with character, but they let on little about what resides inside. Tiny mermaids, unicorns, and a range of flora and fauna made with watercolor on paper beckon us into a Polly Pocket-sized realm.

In addition to the inclusion of her work in Common Waters at Arch Enemy Arts, Taylor is preparing for a solo exhibition titled Minor Mending at Modern Eden in San Francisco, which opens on August 6. She also curated a show at the Oakland Museum of California titled Fairyland @ 75: A Legacy of Magic, organized on behalf of Children’s Fairyland, where she is Director of Art and Restoration. The show continues through the end of the summer. See more on Taylor’s Instagram.

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 Vibrant Miniature Dioramas by Shannon Taylor Burst from Vintage Compacts appeared first on Colossal.

Their presence is implied. They’ve built gravity-defying structures from shopping carts, stacked newspapers, and plywood. They’ve hung laundry and left crushed beer cans scattered across surfaces, and yet the real subjects of Alvaro Naddeo’s paintings are never seen. Read the full article on the artist by clicking above!

The post The Price of Everything: The Art of Alvarro Naddeo first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

The act of painting is often seen as a solitary pursuit; we picture the artist alone in a studio, working through compositional puzzles and experimenting with materials of their own choosing. For Dima Rebus, the process is collaborative, although she may or may not know the other participants. In her large-scale works, the London-based artist adds new meaning to “watercolor” as she incorporates water samples collected from strangers around the globe.

In her series Floaters, Rebus processes these crowdsourced units by freezing them with watercolor pigments, which she then allows to melt across the substrate, creating abstract color fields. She then adds figures and elements of landscape, often with a fluid, rippling effect evocative of light glinting off the surface of a lake, as aquatic themes emerge in the form of pools and swimmers.

“Nearly every sample arrives with a letter, opening a dialogue shaped by place, mood, memory, and time,” Rebus says. “Over the years, I’ve built an archive of waters from rain, rivers, seas, oceans, and glaciers, each preserved as both material record and human message.”

Find more on the artist’s Instagram.

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 Water Samples from Around the World Melt into Dima Rebus’ Dreamy Paintings appeared first on Colossal.