Ziyu Wang grew up in Xinyang in a traditional Chinese family, meaning that he was constantly aware of the gendered expectations that his parents have for him. “My father had hoped I would become a government official, because in his eyes, this was a symbol of masculine power,” Wang says. “As a result, I took a photo of myself wearing a suit against a blue background, as in China, all government officials have ID photos with this backdrop.” But what might it mean for Wang, who is queer and now lives and works in London and Shanghai, to upend these expectations, and to challenge himself and others through photography?
Ziyu Wang, Lads, 2022
In his playful self-portrait series Go Get ’Em Boy (2021–22), Wang performs traditionally masculine archetypes in front of the camera, embodying different characters to point out the often absurd assumptions of traditional gender performance, in China and elsewhere. The reflexive nature of self-portraiture allows Wang to explore these themes and remain authentic to his own life. Informed by gender theorists such as Judith Butler, whose germinal writing in the 1990s framed gender as a form of performance, Wang inflects ideas of “gender parody” into the context of Asian men, subverting stereotypical ideas to capture gay, Asian men in the role of “alpha” males. In Lads (2022), Wang poses in a line with other Asian men, all shirtless, flexing, ordered from largest to smallest physique. It’s a striking image that, on one hand, cleverly confronts stereotypes of Asian masculinity as it relates to the body while, on the other, questioning the viewer’s expectations of what a “man” should look like.
While Wang employs a supporting cast of characters, the focus in Go Get ’Em Boy remains on how he himself can personify these masculine archetypes. “I believe that using myself as the subject allows me to create a deeper connection with the viewer, as they are able to see me, my body, and my emotions in a way that they might not be able to with an image of someone else,” he notes.
Wang’s photographic influences include Hans Eijkelboom’s With My Family (1978), a series wherein the Dutch photographer took self-portraits with real families, interloping as a fake father figure. “What I love about this series is Eijkelboom’s ability to subtly shift identities and insert humor into a familial context,” Wang says. He also cites Yushi Li’s self-portraiture work as a touchstone of photography that deals with tangential ideas of gender and race, using a similar approach.
Ziyu Wang, Go Handstand, 2022
Wang approaches image-making with levity and wit. “Humor and playfulness are key to making conversations about masculinity and gender identity more inclusive,” he says, which “allows for detachment and questioning, connects with audiences, and creates a more accessible and relatable experience.” However, the pleasure of viewing Wang’s parodies of masculinity (for example, being held in a pose of extraordinary athleticism by two conspirators in morph suits), belies the use of humor as a critical device. “I had been pretending to be heterosexual in my parent’s presence,” Wang says. “It struck me as absurd.”
While Go Get ’Em Boyis foremost a playful refraction of his own lived experiences, Wang is aware of the broader ideas communicated by his work. “Many young Chinese people are often pressured to conform to cultural and societal expectations surrounding gender, sexuality, and identity,” remarks Wang, who has come across similar experiences of familial prejudice in conversations with his queer, Chinese friends in London. This experience of having to live a double life—being able to be openly queer in London, but not China—is something he wants to explore in a future body of work. “Overall, I want to bring attention to the struggles faced by the queer, Chinese community.”
Ziyu Wang, Wedding Rehearsal, 2021Ziyu Wang, Untitled 1, 2022Ziyu Wang, With My Daughter, 2022Ziyu Wang, With My Buddies, 2022 All photographs from the series Go Get ’Em Boy. Courtesy the artist
Ziyu Wang is a runner-up for the 2023 Aperture Portfolio Prize, an annual international competition to discover, exhibit, and publish new talents in photography and highlight artists whose work deserves greater recognition.
A new advertisement for the United Nations Global Compact, the largest corporate sustainability program in the world, recalls the nearly 40-year-old speeches of the prescient American scientist and cosmologist Carl Sagan. Famously testifying to Congress in 1985 to alert of the dangers of a warming environment, Sagan was an unflinching advocate for transitioning the world away from fossil fuels and protecting the planet for generations to come.
In “Carl Sagan’s Message,” the Brazilian production company Boiler Filmes and ad agency AlmapBBDO bring the scientist’s words back to life alongside a menagerie of wildlife automata. As a reel-to-reel audio recorder plays his speeches, a kangaroo, elephant, moose, and more—all of which were created by artist Pablo Lavezzari—begin to wiggle. Each is part of a larger installation, a fitting metaphor for the connection of all living beings.
Throughout the nearly two-minute ad, Sagan warns, “We’re doing something immensely stupid…The abundance of greenhouse gases is increasing. One degree of temperature change is enough to produce widespread suffering and famine worldwide.” Unfortunately in 2023, the planet has already surpassed one degree, and we now face the immense task of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius. “40 years ago it was urgent,” the ad reads. “Now it’s an emergency.”
For millennia, Spain has been leading producer of olives thanks to the Mediterranean climate’s long, hot summers and mild winter temperatures. Harvested and cured in brine or ground up to extract the natural oils, the fruits are grown on trees planted in vast groves that stretch for miles over the undulating landscape. The region of Andalusia in particular boasts a time-honored tradition of olive cultivation, producing and exporting more than any other part of the country. For German photographer Tom Hegen, the rows and grid-like patterns of the groves presented an irresistible subject.
Known for his aerial photos of swaths of earth that have been impacted by human presence, such as salt extraction sites, Florida beaches, and solar plants, Hegen captures expansive Spanish landscapes that when viewed from above, morph into abstractions of pattern and texture. He highlights the immense monocultures that spread over nearly six million acres of Spanish countryside, documenting both large-scale agricultural production and smaller farms managed by individual families for whom producing olive oil is a centuries-old vocation.
Explore more of Hegen’s aerial photography on his website and Instagram.
A voluntary top-up pension fund used by hundreds of politicians is set to go bankrupt by 2025 at the latest. The European Parliament must decide what happens next.
A pipe organ soars like a skyscraper-lined boulevard and a Steinway piano’s action mechanism transforms into a sun-speckled tunnel in atmospheric photographs by Charles Brooks (previously). His ongoing Architecture in Music series highlights the inner structures of renowned instruments, imbuing the interiors with airy light. Bringing the camera inside a variety of string, brass, keyboard, and woodwind instruments, he offers unique insight into rarely seen textures, details, and patinas. He angles the camera from a low viewpoint, mimicking the perspective of standing in a grand space and looking up at architectural details like columns or skylights.
Brooks has played cello for most of his life and for two decades, performed in orchestras around the world, fueling his curiosity about how instruments are made and who built or played them. Unless you’re a luthier, it’s unlikely you would ever see the inside of a violin, so the photographer wanted to highlight the precision and individuality of a wide variety of examples. Proffering glimpses of a range of interiors—where the real magic happens—Brooks highlights the volumes and components designed to allow sound to swell throughout meticulously assembled forms.
You can purchase prints of many of Brooks’ photographs on his website, and follow updates on Instagram.
“Charles Threress Double Bass c. 1860.”
“‘Siete Lunas’ Guitar by Roberto Hernandez”
“1995 Low C Prestige Bass Clarinet”
Left: “Lockey Hill Cello c. 1780.” Right: “The Exquisite Architecture of Steinway, Part 8,” Steinway Spirio R piano
If you feel like a fish out of water, the saying goes, then you’re probably feeling a little confused or uncomfortable. St. Paul-based artist Liz Sexton gives the simile new meaning with recent marine-themed additions to her ongoing papier-mâché masks series, highlighting the distinctive faces of familiar creatures like walruses, manatees, and polar bears that find themselves out and about on dry land.
Sexton enjoys papier-mâché for its versatility and accessibility, using additional readily available materials like cloth, wire, and acrylic paint to build up each animal’s unique textures, patterns, and colors. Comprising her upcoming solo exhibition Out of Water at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, the lifelike wearable sculptures draw attention to a variety of beings that rely on aquatic ecosystems for survival. Barnacles and belugas are photographed in atmospheric settings by the artist’s partner and collaborator Ben Toht, who captures each animal’s unique details and expressions.
Many of Sexton’s sculptures portray species that, in their native habitats, are under threat as they increasingly become entangled in nets and suffer the effects of the climate crisis. The delicate and often awkward balance between the human-made environment and natural ecosystems is highlighted in photographs of the masks in atmospheric settings by the artist’s partner and collaborator Ben Toht. The portraits playfully juxtapose the creatures with unusual locations like a grocery store freezer aisle, a campground, or a laundromat.
Out of Water opens May 6 and continues through September 3 in Winona, and you can find more work on the artist’s website and Instagram.
An emergency that’s often explained with abstract data, catastrophic predictions, and threats to the planet and its species, the climate crisis can be difficult to comprehend. For decades, warming temperatures and rising waters were largely connected to plants and animals, with imagery showing the devastation as it relates to polar bears, coral, and other threatened species. There’s been growing interest in recent years, though, in documenting the communities most profoundly affected and highlighting the human impact already underway.
Gideon Mendel, a South African photographer living in the U.K., has been taking this approach in his two companion series, Drowning World and Burning World. On view now at The Photographers’ Gallery as part of Fire / Flood, Mendel’s portraits are deeply personal, showing individuals and families in their homes and neighborhoods that have been destroyed by natural disasters. Taken in 15 countries since 2007, the collection insists on recognizing that although the regularity and intensity of wildfires, hurricanes, and other weather events are increasing, humanity has been feeling the effects of the crisis for decades.
Mendel began Drowning World first after floods overtook Doncaster, a small city in South Yorkshire. He started by photographing people partially submerged in what was left of their homes, a position that he recreated a few weeks later when visiting India. “When I got back, I put these pictures side by side, portraits from floods in the U.K, and India, and I felt like something quite strong was happening—a shared vulnerability, despite the huge differences in wealth, culture, and environment. That was the beginning of the journey for me,” he told LensCulture.
João Pereira de Araújo, Taquari District, Rio Branco, Brazil, March 2015, from ‘Drowning World’
Whether captured in Haiti, Brazil, Pakistan, or France, the photos assert that no community is immune to the effects of a changing planet, although some are surely left in worse conditions. Mendel explains in a statement:
My subjects have taken the time—in a situation of great distress—to engage the camera, looking out at us from their inundated homes and devastated surroundings. They are showing the world the calamity that has befallen them. They are not victims in this exchange: the camera records their dignity and resilience. They bear witness to the brutal reality that the poorest people on the planet almost always suffer the most from climate change.
When Burning World followed in 2020, Mendel was able to compare the two types of disasters and find commonalities, most notably how his subjects unanimously found strength and endurance. He photographs each person standing upright, remaining assured amid the ruin and choosing courage over fatalism.
Fire / Flood is on view in London through September 30. You can find more of the series on Mendel’s site and Instagram.
Gurjeet Dhanoa, Rock Creek, Superior, Colorado, USA, March 2022, from ‘Burning World’
Florence Abraham, Igbogene, Bayelsa State, Nigeria, November 2012, from ‘Drowning World’
Jenni Bruce, Upper Brogo, New South Wales, Australia, January 15, 2020, from ‘Burning World’
Kevin Goss, Greenville, California, USA, October 2021, from ‘Burning World’
Top left: … Nigeria, November 2022, from ‘Drowning World.’ Top right: Uncle Noel Butler and Trish Butler, Nura Gunyu Indigenous Education Centre, New South Wales, Australia, February 28, 2020, from ‘Burning World.’ Bottom left: Rhonda Rossbach, Derek Briem, and Autumn Briem, Killiney Beach, British Columbia, Canada, October 16, 2021, from ‘Burning World.’ Bottom right: Joy Christian, Dorca Executive Apartments, Otuoke, Ogbia Municipality, Bayelsa State, Nigeria, November 2022, from ‘Drowning World’
Abdul Ghafoor, Mohd Yousof Naich School, Sindh Province, Pakistan, October 2022, from ‘Drowning World’
Amjad Ali Laghari, Goth Bawal Khan village, Sindh Province, Pakistan, September 2022, from ‘Drowning World’
Pittsburgh-based photographer and self-proclaimed nemophilist Barbora Batokova has cultivated a deep passion for fungi ever since her childhood in the Czech Republic. Growing up mushroom hunting and foraging for hearty meals, Batokova shares the cultural nuances linked to moving overseas as she explains that the “Czech Republic is a mycophilic country, which means people are not afraid of mushrooms, unlike people in mycophobic countries like the U.S.”
Yearning for her roots, Batokova created fungiwoman, an ongoing photography and cooking project that allows her to reconnect with nature. Venturing into the woods year-round, she explores new regions, hunts for mushrooms, captures images to learn about different species, and brings the fruitful yield home to cook. Her mesmerizing photographs show small orange caps springing up from mossy grounds and vibrantly fruiting polypores branching from trees. Devoted to protecting precious corners of the woods, she hopes to inspire others to look closely at the surrounding environment.
Batokova’s forthcoming book about mushrooms will be released in 2024, and she has prints and cards available in her shop. In the meantime, you can follow her Instagram to tag along as she traverses new thickets and shares her findings.
After a decade of living in Finland, David Popa has established a fruitful creative collaboration that would be impossible in his native New York City. The artist frequently works on land and sea, particularly the fractured ice floes of the Baltic, to render large-scale portraits and figurative murals that draw connections between the ephemerality of human life and the environment. Whether depicting his wife or newborn child in intimate renderings, he highlights the inevitability of change as time passes, seasons transition, and the climate warms.
Popa’s use of such unconventional canvases emerged from a desire for adventure and child-like play, when he put on a drysuit, climbed onto his paddleboard, and ventured out to a frozen mass. “These spaces were so mysterious and so interesting,” the artist says. “I derived an enormous amount of inspiration from going out into these ethereal spots.” After taking some drone photos of the areas, he began working, spraying the contours of a cheek or lip onto the icy matter.
Left: “Remnants of the Past.” Right: “Prometheus”
Because many of his works are destined to melt and be reabsorbed, Popa opts for natural materials like white chalk from the Champagne region, ochres from France and Italy, and powdered charcoal he makes himself—the latter also plays a small role in purifying the water, leaving it cleaner than the artist found it. Most pieces take between three and six hours to complete, and his work time is dependent on the weather, temperature, and condition of the sea. “The charcoal will sink into the ice and disappear from a very dark shade to a medium shade, so it has to be created very quickly and documented. No to mention the work on the ice will just crack and drift away completely, or the next day it will snow and be completely covered,” he says. “I’m really battling the elements.”
Popa embraces this cyclical process and the lack of control over the fate of his works, which he preserves only through stunning aerial photos. Broadly reflecting themes of existence and time, some of his murals, like “Prometheus” and “Remnants of the Past,” also emphasize shifts in aesthetic impulses. Mimicking Greek sculptures, the works appear “washed up on shore,” drawing connections between antiquity and today and the differences in how we perceive beauty.
Popa will release a new limited-edition print next month, and you can follow that release on his site and Instagram. (via Yatzer)
One of the largest solar energy plants in the scorching deserts of Ibri is also the site of burgeoning childhood curiosity thanks to the French-Swiss artist known as Saype (previously). A commission from the Swiss Embassy in Oman to celebrate the countries’ 50-year partnership, the massive piece of land art spreads across 11,250 square meters of sand. Created with eco-friendly paint in shades of gray, the public work titled “Towards Good Ideas?” depicts a child kneeling at a lightbulb, connecting two switches to rows of solar panels.
Best viewed aerially, the piece took about one year of planning and five days to execute. Saype shares that given the increasingly urgent calls to divest in fossil fuels and find alternatives, he wanted to highlight one area offering a potential solution. He said:
Energy management is certainly one of the major challenges of our overaccelerating world…Being aware that the solution centers around a complex energy mix and in a form of sobriety, I chose to paint this child playing with the magic of solar energy. Looking towards the horizon, he symbolizes the renewal of a civilization that must now reinvent itself without destroying the planet.
An updated mural from the anonymous Italian street artist Blu (previously) sinks its teeth into capitalistic greed and nature’s unparalleled capability for destruction.
Originally painted in 2009 following the Spanish financial crisis of 2008, the first mural likened the insatiable capitalist appetite to that of the aggressive fish, which stretched across a 25-meter section of wall at the intersection of Barcelona’s Carrer del Santuari and Carrer de la Gran Vista. Crews painted over the work in 2021 as part of a city project, and after hearing that neighbors wanted the piece back, Blu painted a second iteration earlier this year.
Retaining the bank-note shark of the 2009 work, the 2023 version adds an arsenal of nuclear missiles and warplanes to the central creature. The expansive mural continues to unfold like an exquisite corpse of global maladies with raging forest fires and floods encroaching on civilization, leaving mass chaos and ruin in their wake.
See the full mural here, and follow Blu’s latest projects on Instagram.
Nothing puts the enormous power of nature into perspective quite like the energy of our planet’s oceans. On a reef off of the North Short of O’ahu, Hawaii, some of the world’s most famously thrilling and dangerous waves present enticing conditions for surfing in an area known as the Banzai Pipeline. Photographer Kevin Krautgartner celebrates the mesmerizing, barrel-shaped breakers in Pipeline, a series of aerial images highlighting the formidable force of water crashing and whorling along the shore.
“Personally, waves always get my attention when I’m close to a coastline or the ocean,” Krautgartner says. “For me, they are especially unique because they are a natural phenomenon that can create a sense of awe and wonder… creating a rhythmic pattern that can be both soothing and exhilarating.” Going beyond documentation, he focuses on details like structure and form, examining the elemental interactions between light, water, and air. Taken from an aerial perspective and devoid of figures or landmarks for scale, he emphasizes how no two moments are the same: “Since nature is in a constant state of change, be it short or long term, each of my works captures a moment that will never happen again.”
Krautgartner recently released Water.Color, a book featuring his aerial photographs of surreal, watery landscapes. Find more of his work on his website, Behance, and on Instagram.
Moments of coincidental humor, stark cruelty, and surprising inter-species intimacies are on full display in this year’s World Nature Photography Awards. The winners of the 2022 competition encompass a vast array of life across six continents, from an elephant’s endearing attempt at camouflage to a crocodile covered in excessively dry mud spurred by drought. While many of the photos highlight natural occurrences, others spotlight the profound impacts humans have on the environment to particularly disastrous results, including Nicolas Remy’s heartbreaking image that shows an Australian fur seal sliced open by a boat propellor.
Find some of the winning photos below, and explore the entire collection on the contest’s site.
In late 2019, Jan Erik Waider boarded the Bark Europa, a 56-meter-long wooden sailing ship constructed in 1911, bound for the Antarctic Peninsula. The Hamburg-based photographer, whose work centers on polar landscapes (previously), captured the multifaceted forms of glaciers and icebergs, steely grays of storms, and shrouds of mist during the 24-day voyage. Waider is known for his documentation of dramatic northern destinations like Iceland, Norway, and Greenland, and a trip to the southern extreme proffered an opportunity to expand on his series of atmospheric vistas with the project A Faint Resemblance.
Antarctica is approximately 98% covered in ice and nearly doubles in size in the winter when the sea freezes around its periphery. In summer, the sheets break up and calve thousands of icebergs, many of which are so vast that they can be measured in square miles. Waider captured the spectral forms of these floating, icy islands as the ship rounded the coastline, drifting through patches of fog that added an extra element of surprise when it cleared to reveal a new scene. “The infinite shapes and textures of icebergs in the polar regions fascinate me again and again,” he says, adding that “the proportions are unimaginable, considering that the largest part is still under water.” Waider is always astonished by the spectrum of the color blue, which on cloudy days can appear even more vibrant, as if glowing from within.
The poles have seen record warmth and ice melt in the past few years, which contributes to rising sea levels and alters the region’s ecosystems. Waider says, “I’m really drawn to landscapes that are transforming or vanishing like icebergs and glaciers. It has a fascinating and also a sad element, and every photo is a snapshot of a moment which is long gone by now.”
Waider is preparing to publish a photo book of more images from his Antarctica trip, emphasizing a holistic interpretation of the continent’s landscape, nature, wildlife, historic sites and the Bark Europa. Find more of his work on his website and Behance.
Catalan artist Javier de Riba (previously) brings the coziness of home outdoors with his ongoing Floors Project. Made possible with the help of the local community, the collaborative endeavor involves painting a specially designed motif onto the concrete or pavers that line walkways and city squares. Each intervention serves several purposes, including adding color to an otherwise gray setting, connecting locals to the artist and each other through art making, and establishing a welcoming gathering space in the midst of an urban environment.
De Riba has completed five of the carpets so far, four in Spain and one in Shenzen, China. He’s traveling to Breda, The Netherlands, this June to collaborate with Blind Walls Gallery on the largest work yet, which will span approximately 400 square feet. Follow updates on the Floors Project on Instagram and Behance, and pick up a print of the vibrant patterns in the artist’s shop.
We use the phrase “to put down roots” to express a desire to make a place our own, whether purchasing a house or deciding to live in one location for many years. A sense of community, family, being surrounded by one’s belongings, and feeling safe and secure all help to form the idea of home, which evokes myriad emotions and associations—especially if any of those fundamentals are missing. In Colombian artist Doris Salcedo’s monumental installation titled “Uprooted” at the Sharjah Biennial 15, the concept remains nebulous.
Salcedo is known for sculptures and installations that incorporate quotidian, domestic objects like tables or garments. Her practice often takes historical events as a starting point, focusing on the effects of major political actions on people’s everyday mental and emotional experiences. “Conveying burdens and conflicts with precise and economical means,” she once cataclysmically cracked the floor of Turbine Hall in London’s Tate Modern and lowered more than 1,500 chairs between two buildings in Istanbul to address displacement caused by war. In “Uprooted,” the theme of migration continues in the form of hundreds of dead trees that have been shaped into the recognizable silhouette of a house, its meticulously constructed walls and pitched roof gradually morphing into a thicket.
Salcedo contemplates transformation and loss that can be interpreted in many ways, especially in the context of Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine and the devastating earthquakes in Syria and Turkey that have displaced millions of people. By utilizing trees that are colorless and lifeless, she also references a rupture between humans and nature, examining how our connection to the environment is dissolving.
Visitors can walk around the installation, but the impenetrable tangles of the wood prevent them from going inside. Gnarled roots protrude from all sides, densely clustered trees obscure the entrance, and in place of an inviting front door is a forebodingly dark and impassable juncture between the domestic structure and the wilderness.
“Uprooted” is on view in Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present at the recently converted Kalba Ice Factory in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, through June 11.
Along the streets and canals of Amsterdam, photographer Julie Hrudová (previously) captures daily life through candid snapshots of cyclists hauling unique cargo, pedestrians battling the elements, and canines commuting in style. In her series Chasing Amsterdam, Hrudová focuses on everyday moments and unexpected happenings around the Dutch capital, highlighting the diverse routines of its inhabitants. She has also just begun to experiment with mobile phone videography. “After roaming the streets of Amsterdam, it’s fun to capture the city and other places in a new way,” she says.
Prints from Chasing Amsterdam are available to purchase in Hrudová’s shop. Find more of her work on her website, or follow updates on Instagram.
Functioning as a tourist attraction and essential form of infrastructure, the Golden Gate Bridge is what photographer Jake Ricker refers to as a “strange paradise.” His ongoing series by the same name focuses on the lighthearted, alarming, and sometimes bizarre happenings that occur daily at the orange landmark.
Ricker began the project in September 2017, and he’s since encountered a full spectrum of human emotion and experience during the hours he spends towering over the water. “I have photos of some of the saddest things you can see in this life, as well as some of the happiest,” he told Lens Culture. “I think the bridge exists in extremes.” It’s this vastness that makes Strange Paradise a glimpse into both the mundane and surreal, and the photographs capture everything from marriage proposals and weddings to joggers and commuters to people contemplating ending their lives—Ricker estimates he’s prevented about 60 suicides since beginning the project.
Currently, Ricker has a few prints available in his shop, and you can find more of the series on his site. He’s at work on a Strange Paradise book, and you can follow him on Instagram for updates on its release.
In Simon Schubert’s intricate folded compositions, bars of sunlight dash across door frames, ornate cornicing, and parquet floors in a complex interplay of geometric forms. Relying exclusively on the way light rakes across the surface of paper, the Cologne-based artist meticulously folds single sheets to precisely render the angles and perspectives of architectural interiors.
The artist begins each piece with a sketch, often focusing on mirrored or symmetrical scenes in historic buildings and emphasizing the continuity of long hallways, connecting doors, and reflections. Although Schubert currently centers on the built environment, his first foray into folding the material was an experiment in making a portrait of the Irish novelist Samuel Beckett while the artist was assisting with research into the author’s text and video works at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Beckett’s wrinkles were interpreted into creases in the paper, and the artist was fascinated by the idea of drawing without using any traditional materials beyond the paper itself. “The idea was to bring the drawing to a point to where it was almost no longer a drawing,” Schubert says.
Part of a broader artistic practice that explores themes of place, experience, architecture, and imagination, Schubert’s folded paper works translate three-dimensional surroundings into monochromatic reliefs. Subtlety is essential, and there are some surprises lurking, like the ghostly form of a figure who walks up the stairs or an enigmatic shadow that plays against a wall.
Schubert’s work will be part of an exhibition with Foley Gallery in New York later this year, and you can find more of his work on his website and Instagram.
“Untitled (Perspective)” (2021), folded paper, 100 x 70 centimeters
“Untitled (Grand Hall)” (2013), folded paper, 70 x 100 centimeters
“Untitled (Intricated Light)” (2022), folded paper, 50 x 35 centimeters
“Untitled (Intricated 23)” (2018), folded paper, 100 x 70 centimeters
“Untitled (Light in Corridor)” (2020), folded paper, 70 x 50 centimeters
“Untitled (Salon Hanging)” (2010), folded paper, 150 x 150 centimeters
“Untitled (Two Perspectives)” (2022), folded paper, 70 x 50 centimeters
“Untitled (Shadow in Room)” (2021), folded paper, 70 x 50 centimeters
“Untitled (Shadow on Stairs)” (2021), folded paper, 70 x 50 centimeters
“Untitled (Licht in Spiegel und Räumen)” (2023), folded paper, 100 x 70 centimeters
“Portrait of Samuel Beckett,” folded paper, 100 x 70 centimeters
