Living in a high-rise apartment or a house with a small yard comes with the disadvantage of not having access to garden space. Fortunately, fine wallpaper manufacturer Astek has a way to bring beautiful blooms indoors. The company’s collection of dreamy floral mural designs called Eterna Nouveau reinterprets the Art Nouveau movement of the early 20th century, which historically flourished in Europe and emphasized nature-inspired motifs like flowers and birds.

Eterna Nouveau’s arching, sinuous stems and leaves nod to its namesake style’s characteristic “whiplash” lines. “Aquavita,” for example, features lilies and other water plants and illustrates life both above and below the surface. And “Carnivoria” celebrates more unusual plants, like Venus flytraps. A variety of colorways emphasizes the designs’ bold forms and delicate metallic outlines.

The motifs were first created by hand, then digitized so that they can be sized up or down to fit custom spaces. Printed to order, the colors and shapes can even be customized for special projects. See more on Astek’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 A Line of Mural Wallpapers from Astek Celebrates ‘Eterna Nouveau’ appeared first on Colossal.

You will want to find a way back to the sideways world, the dirty world, the alien world of Tetsunori Tawaraya. Click above!

The post Tetsunori Tawaraya’s Fierce & Hypnotizing World Will Air-Fry Your Retinas first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

Home to some of London’s most iconic landmarks, the City of Westminster sees around 25 million of tourists every year. Add that number to residents and professionals who transit through central London daily, and we’re talking lots of people using the Underground, a.k.a. the Tube. Fortunately for travelers, eight stations are getting restroom upgrades with a big assist from Hugh Broughton Architects.

When the Victorians established the first underground train network in the mid-to-late 1800s, they incorporated arched details and tile work that is preserved today, often augmented with contemporary nods to the city’s history and culture. Opened in 1863 along the Metropolitan Line, Baker Street is one of the oldest stations. In a design convention seen throughout the Underground, decorated tiles added later feature a silhouette of Sherlock Holmes—a tribute to the character’s fictional address on the station’s titular street.

Tile designs are richly embedded throughout the system. An architect named Leslie Green is known for a slew of deep red tile facades on more than a dozen central stations. Some interiors are covered practically top to bottom with the material, with the location names and “Way Out” signs made entirely from ceramic. Bethnal Green station features fantastic relief tiles of London icons, and a few years ago, a design student named Jeffrey Miller even repurposed the Tube’s own waste into Art Nouveau-style tiles modeled on historic versions.

Hugh Broughton Architects’ redesign continues this tradition, but it also serves the practical purpose of making these spaces safer, more inclusive, and more accessible. “There is a clear demand for public toilets across London, and many councils struggle with the costs surrounding maintenance and issues around antisocial behaviour,” says a statement. “To address this issue, the council is creating a series of inclusive facilities that demonstrate high-quality design and enshrine as much civic pride as the Victorians displayed when they first started looking at a proper sanitation system for the general public in the 19th century.”

The facilities at Victoria Embankment, Parliament Street, Piccadilly Circus, Green Park, Carnaby Street, Westminster Pier, Covent Garden, and Leicester Square are all getting vibrant makeovers. The tiles incorporate designs by artist and illustrator James Lambert, who interprets the distinctive character of each location through historical motifs and iconography. Among numerous playful references, you’ll find patterns consisting of the King’s Guards in their iconically tall, black, furry helmets and a tribute to George John Vulliamy’s giant sphinxes that guard Cleopatra’s Needle on the Embankment.

The restrooms are being refurbished in succession. Victoria Street opened in February 2025, followed by Parliament Street, and now Piccadilly Circus and Green Park. The next will be Carnaby Street and Westminster Bridge. Follow updates on the firm’s Instagram.

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For Olaf Hajek, difference isn’t about opposition but rather about identifying connections. The Berlin-based illustrator renders dense, uncanny compositions that nod to Surrealist icons like Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. Nature and culture entwine, and magic and mystery veil each scene. These dreamlike moments of intrigue ask the viewer to suspend preconceived notions and instead, enjoy the allure of the ambiguous.

Hajek is an avid traveler and cultural consumer, offering him a vast repository of images from a variety of sources and locales. Folklore, vernacular traditions, spiritual practices, and natural motifs blend into a distinguishable aesthetic. “What interests me is not so much their differences, but the connections between them—the possibility of developing a universal visual language by bringing diverse influences together. This blending becomes a way of transcending cultural boundaries and revealing something shared and timeless,” he says.

Ambiguity is a central point of Hajek’s practice, emerging technically through superimposed florals and figures, dramatic shifts in scale, and a tension between decay and renewal. Gender and conceptions of masculinity, in particular, are depicted with a sense of softness and fluidity, particularly through symbolic, botanical motifs in vibrant color.

Hajek works in parallel, if not complementary, practices, sketching and painting on paper in a looser, more reflexive manner. “I embrace the unexpected—how colors interact, how forms dissolve into one another, and how compositions evolve organically. Especially in works on paper, intuition plays a central role; they feel more immediate, almost like a direct dialogue with the moment,” he tells Colossal.

Shifting to the canvas, though, requires a clearer vision, and the two approaches are an essential pairing in his practice. “They are part of the same artistic process, which constantly moves between intention and surprise, between structure and freedom,” he says.

Hajek is participating in several upcoming exhibitions, including a group show at Feinkunst Krüger in Hamburg and two solo presentations at Museum Franz Xaver Stahl in Erding and Kaplan Projects in Palma de Mallorca. Until then, find more of his work on Instagram.

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From recognizable scenes around her home in Scotland to delicately rendered snapshots of places she visits, Laura K. Sayers’ meticulously crafted postage stamps nod to connections from afar. The artist, who also illustrates children’s books and is commissioned for special projects like greeting cards, incorporates itty-bitty cuts of colorful paper into tiny tableaux that can fit in the palm of a hand.

Much of the work seen here is currently on view solo in Sayers’ solo exhibition of miniatures titled The Wee Small Hours at N. atelier. An array of everyday scenes is chronicled in a format we typically associate with significant events and remembrance, documenting fleeting moments like little treasures. Some of her recent pieces are inspired by the Finnish landscape that emerged during the artist’s stay at the Fiskars Artist-in-Residence program, organized by Onoma.

The Wee Small Hours continues through this weekend in Glasgow. And keep an eye out for a joint update from Tiny Art Show. Find more on Sayers’ 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 Laura K. Sayers’ Vibrant Postage Stamps Celebrate the Beauty of Everyday Moments appeared first on Colossal.

Oliver Bonhomme is a French illustrator and art director with a long client list that inludes le Monde, the New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Apple and numerous others.

His illustrations look at first to be high in chroma, but then you realize the colors are not actually that intense, but are made to appear so by the artful juxtapositon of complimentary colors.

His subjects are often imaginative and surreal, but sharply delineated and graphically strong.

[Via Richard Solomon, Artist Representative]

Angela Hao lives and works in the U.S., but makes virtual visits to Japan via Google Street view, capturing the charm of small, quirky storefronts in digital ink and watercolor style illustrations she creates in Procreate.

These are delightlfully whimsical and take note of the small details that give each little store its own personality.

She has prints available on inPrint.

Via My Modern Met

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 that eyeglasses became more affordable and entered the mainstream. These advances also influenced scientific inquiry, making microscopes more powerful, and the pursuit of microscopy enabled researchers and enthusiasts to discover creatures invisible to the naked eye.

One of these enthusiasts was London-based educator and amateur scientist Charles Thomas Hudson. Along with other scholars and aficionados, he participated in interest groups. “As President of the Royal Microscopical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society, Hudson was a leading figure in this growing scientific community,” says a statement from Osh Gallery, which is currently exhibiting a collection of unique illustrations in The Hudson Transparencies.

Curated by Luke Powell and Jody Hudson-Powell of design firm Pentagram, which runs Osh Gallery, the exhibition literally brings to light a number of colorful transparencies that Hudson used during his lectures. While they appear dark and even unfinished in a typical setting, “when lit from behind these intricate works transform into magical visions of life previously only glimpsed when viewed under a microscope,” the gallery says.

The Hudson Transparencies includes 58 original transparencies that measure a surprisingly large 37.8 by 29.5 inches. Each of the graphics’ proportions are “the equivalent of drawing ants the size of elephants,” says a statement. The animals and botanicals emerge through a combination of painted paper and perforations, which are made with lines and clusters of pinholes.

Hudson was particularly fascinated by rotifers, a phylum of zooplankton named for their so-called “wheel-bearing” characteristics. He also catalogued algae, protozoa, and larvae—such as that of the mayfly with its feather-like tail. Microscopic marine organisms were a particular favorite, though, and these back-lit images highlight the convergence of science and spectacular visuals that not only brought these creatures to life in a unique way for 19th-century viewers but continue to awe us today.

The Hudson Transparencies continues through June 11 in London. You might also enjoy Martin Kunz’s turn-of-the-century tactile graphics and Lorenz Oken’s seminal natural history work, Allgemaine Naturgeschichte Für Alle Stände.

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 Victorian-Era Transparencies Illuminate a Host of Microscopic Creatures appeared first on Colossal.

“To me, being a visual activist means I only illustrate stories that resonate with me deeply, by giving voice to minorities or social situations that need to be addressed,” says Fatinha Ramos. “It is the only way I can truly connect with others.”

Based in Antwerp, the Portuguese artist and illustrator is well-known for blending analog and digital techniques to create rich, emotive compositions. Collaborating with clients like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Tate, and Scientific American, among many others, Ramos has cultivated a keen eye for storytelling through her distinctive visual language.

Recent partnerships include the Anne Frank Museum and MoMA, the latter of which commissioned the artist to illustrate an essay on her experience being compared to Frida Kahlo. Ramos was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, commonly called brittle bone disease, which spurred a childhood spent in and out of hospitals. Drawing and art-making quickly became a preferred pastime, allowing her to transport herself from such clinical settings.

This adolescent hobby stuck, and Ramos worked as an art director in advertising and publishing for 12 years before venturing out on her own. Boasting an impressive list of clients and collaborators, she considers her practice to be an antidote to stereotypical narratives, whether related to the climate crisis, sexism, racism, or the dire lack of empathy that seems rampant in today’s world.

“I want to move away from the narrative that turns artists with disabilities into symbols of resilience,” she tells MoMA. “Creativity does not happen despite limitations but through them. Art should broaden how we see the world—and that includes how we see bodies, too.”

At the moment, Ramos is only accepting select illustration clients as she focuses on her fine art practice, including a series of anatomical glass sculptures based on brittle bone disease. You can explore more of her practice on her website and 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 How Fatinha Ramos Channels ‘Visual Activism’ in Her Richly Layered Illustrations appeared first on Colossal.

micky the pixel posted a photo:

Perry Rhodan / Heft-Reihe
Kurt Mahr / Im Halbraum lauert der Tod
(art: Johnny Bruck)
Moewig Verlag
(München / Deutschland; Dezember 1962)
ex libris MTP
www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?318241
www.perrypedia.proc.org/wiki/Im_Halbraum_lauert_der_Tod
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan