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.

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When we think of somewhere we’ve been, what are the first things to come to mind? Perhaps there are memorable smells, a sense of other people being around, or a particular quality of light. But what if we remembered landscapes and experiences through plants? For Hillary Waters Fayle, flower petals, seeds, and foliage combine into a kind of album of various places, which she then uses to create bold cyanotypes.

The artist has long worked with botanicals and other organic materials, notably embroidering foraged leaves and feathers with meticulous geometric designs. With the series Portraits of Place, which she’s been pursuing for the past six years, Fayle precisely arranges individual petals and leaves into intricate, symmetrical, mandala-like compositions on acrylic.

She starts by collecting and drying botanicals from specific locations, such as Grace Farms Foundation in New Canaan, Connecticut, or Maymont Park in Richmond, Virginia. These are then laid onto watercolor paper that’s been painted with UV-sensitive iron salts. After being left out in the sun, these result in the bright blue cyanotypes that chronicle the outlines—perhaps one could even say the spirit—of the distinctive layouts.

“The way these portraits illustrate a very particular place and time via botany can be a way to define the relationship that the people of that place have with the land—almost like a modern-day florilegium,” Fayle tells Colossal. She continues:

All of these pieces are so different and special to me, but it has been particularly meaningful to make portraits of areas that are going to change drastically in the near future, either from development or rising sea levels, fire, etc. It feels like a way of preserving and honoring the land and all that is present there right now. 

Flowers and plants symbolize the natural evolution of particular spaces, such as a gardener adding new bulbs or birds depositing seeds. They symbolize the nature of seasons and life cycles, emphasizing a relationship that is simultaneously enduring and ephemeral. See more on the artist’s Instagram.

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Galicia, Spain-based artist Abi Castillo continues to create iterative self-portraits through her evolving ensemble of ceramic personas. Her delicate yet emotive figures are an invitation to consider the inner self, transformation, and the beauty of the natural world.

Femininity, nature, and symbolism play a central role within Castillo’s sculptures, contrasting with the notion of concealment. “This ambivalence between mysticism and drama, between monstrosity and beauty, is all very present,” she explains in an artist statement.

Though each ceramic character is distinct, her body of work carries overarching formal motifs including colorful hairstyles and wide eyes with light blue irises. Organic elements—such as flowers, insects, coral, and marine foliage—wrap themselves around Castillo’s figures, evoking a sense of protection through delicate armor.

Last time we checked in with Castillo, she mentioned plans to move into a larger studio, where she works now. The artist shares that this opportunity has given her larger creative freedom, and she is looking forward to an exciting year including a group exhibition with Beautiful Bizarre Magazine opening next week at Outré Gallery in Melbourne. For updates and studio views, find Castillo on Instagram.

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“I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that our perceived reality is shaped by our minds and reflecting our inner world,” says artist Michelle Blancke, whose ethereal photographs of trees, glens, and foliage invite us into a familiar yet uncanny world. Her lens-based practice explores themes of interdependence, consciousness, and concealment, especially through the subject of nature.

Blancke’s vivid Secret Garden series comprises a total of five sub-categories: Realm, Ascent, Essence, Veins, and Origin. Whether capturing the waxy surface of an intricately veined leaf or the way vines create shadowy veils over gnarled trees, she’s interested in relationships between “transformation, mysticism, and the thin veil between the seen and the unseen,” she says. “When I enter woodland, it feels like stepping into a parallel space where something hidden becomes perceptible.”

Much of Blancke’s process involves walking—moving through forested areas until a certain atmosphere or interaction with sunlight resonates with her. “When I photograph, I’m responding to that feeling rather than to the literal scene in front of me,” she says.

It’s during digital post-production that Blancke begins to make more deliberate choices, shifting hues “to amplify the emotional tone I sensed in the moment,” she says. “The colours are a way of revealing an inner layer that already felt present while I was standing there. It’s an attempt to make the invisible atmosphere visible.”

Blancke’s work is on view through January 25 as part of the 2025 Aesthetica Art Prize exhibition at York Art Gallery. She also works closely with BBA Gallery. Explore more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

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One of the most iconic figures of the mid-20th century, trailblazing Japanese-American artist Ruth Asawa led a prolific life of art-making, advocacy, and civic engagement. Over a decade after her passing, the last year has ushered in a momentous wave of exhibitions for Asawa—appearing at David Zwirner in her first solo exhibition in Greater China, followed by two major showings of Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective.

In a tale of two MoMAs, the enormous exhibition recently traveled from its point of origin in San Francisco, where the artist fostered a deep, lifelong connection to the city. Its arrival in New York City now marks the largest show dedicated to a woman artist in the museum’s history.

Featuring more than 300 of Asawa’s artworks spread across a whopping 16,000 square feet, the expansive collection documents the artist’s six-decade-long career. You can expect to get a close look at her groundbreaking wire sculptures, intimate paintings, drawings, and prints, as well as bronze casts and monumental public works.

Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective opens at the Museum of Modern Art on October 19, where it will be on view until February 7, 2026. Explore more from Asawa on Colossal, and delve further into her practice through her estate’s website.

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Known for his squishy flowers and foliage made of polyurethane-coated fabrics, often encased-slash-smushed behind panels of clear acrylic, Ant Hamlyn has a sense of humor when it comes to art history.

Nodding to genres in Western art like vanitas still-life paintings, he creates textile reliefs that tap into our contemporary condition. From fast food to houseplants to a vibrant bar cart, his compositions playfully explore themes of indulgence, impermanence, beauty, and the quotidian.

Until recently, Hamlyn has focused predominantly on cartoonish botanicals, and he now delves further into the still-life genre. Works like “Greasy Spoon,” “Shelf Life,” and “Drive-Thru” incorporate motifs of food and trendy home decor evocative of quirky snapshots one might see on Instagram, with people just out of frame.

The works seen here were recently presented by Moosey, and you can find more of Hamlyn’s work on his website and Instagram.

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In Romain Veillon’s most recent body of work, Secret Gardens, the enigmatic allure of abandoned greenhouses takes center stage. Traveling to derelict sites to immortalize forgotten corners of the world, the French photographer invites viewers into spaces where humans are decentered.

The boundaries between interior and exterior are a key element in Veillon’s approach to abandoned growing houses, where he emphasizes their convergence. “It is ironic to see that, on the contrary, nature felt imprisoned there and sought to break free from its captor, unleashing its unstoppable force,” the photographer shares in a series statement. “Now, we admire vegetation that has become one with the bars of its cage.”

Veillon’s photographs are formidable, documenting the power nature holds to eventually reclaim spaces no longer governed by human intervention. While echoes of the presence of man persist in each image—through shattered stained glass window panes, rusting pipes, and piles of unused pots—the commanding force of rollicking vegetation is a clear reminder that in the end, nature endures beyond us.

Find more on Veillon’s website, and keep up with his practice on Instagram. (via designboom)

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Since ancient times, artists and craftsmen have drawn upon natural pigments for creative use. Extracting dyes from organic sources is an art in and of itself, deeply rooted in various cultures across the historical Mesoamerican region. Although many traditional practices—like pigment harvesting—have been threatened by external factors such as colonialism, artists continue to keep these processes alive today.

Mexico City-based artist Omar Mendoza taps into the persistence of ancestral knowledge for his newest series of paintings in Serpiente Solar Noche Obsidiana, or Solar Serpent Obsidian Night, at Povos. Conjuring hues from native plants, tree bark, and flowers collected from his father’s hometown, supplemented with pigments sourced from local markets, the existence of Mendoza’s works are themselves a symbolic form of resistance.

Visually, the artist’s compositions evoke cosmic power and sacred rhythm. As Mendoza reaches toward the sanctity of time-honored cultural wisdom, he connects both celestial and earthly forces, depicting multitudes of intuition and insight through motifs such as stars, planetary objects, snakes, eagles, vines, and more.

Victoria Rivers’ curatorial text shares:

Omar Mendoza creates these works from a cosmovision in which everything is alive and in relationship: water, stone, plants, fire, night. In that web of sacred correspondences, painting becomes an act of reciprocity with the earth and its cycles.

Symmetry flows through several of Mendoza’s paintings, calling to the mirroring of two worlds. Nonetheless, tactile washes of pink, blue, violet, and yellow atop hand-prepared canvases sumptuously intertwine, presenting a transcendent sense of harmony across Mendoza’s series of works, calling once more to the cyclical energy that courses through them.

Serpiente Solar Noche Obsidiana opens on October 4 in Chicago. In the meantime, you can find more from Mendoza on Instagram.

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Beau Miles is a nature-lover, adventurer, and a self-described oddball who makes stuff from other people’s junk. Based in Australia, he delves into urban foraging on his YouTube channel, wrote a book called The Backyard Adventurer, and has made numerous films about everything from building a tiny cabin to exploring Sydney’s most polluted river. Miles also happened to plant a small, flourishing forest in one day.

“Without being dramatic, it was easily the hardest thing I’ve ever done in a single day,” he says. “But it was also fun—and the kind of thing that shifted how I intend to use my ideas and my body as a force for good. It was practical, hard, and an outcomes-driven use of time and energy.”

Miles planted one tree per minute for 24 hours—that’s 1,440 in total—and when he made the initial video, he promised to return every two years to report on its progress. In a recent update, he revisits the 2021 marathon project, documenting the wildlife that has moved in, wandering beneath healthy, young trees, and building a small fire from scrounged wood.

“This was a special day because I really felt like the project had landed,” Miles says. “I had a cup of tea in the new forest, from water boiled on a fire made from the forest itself. It’s perhaps the most profound cup of tea I’ve ever had.”

Another video that Miles posted in July set a virtual one-month timer on an endeavor to turn his streaming channel into a force for good. With funds from advertising, he aims to purchase and plant even more trees. Follow his updates on YouTube, Instagram, and his site. (via Kottke)

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Why can plants be considered native to more than one nation while people can’t? This line of inquiry grounds a large-scale exhibition by Raul De Lara in which he presents his surreal sculptures that merge flora and furnishings.

HOST, on view now at The Contemporary Austin, brings together a collection of works that call into question belonging and identity and rejects the idea that state borders are fixed and natural. Using wood endemic to Texas and Mexico, De Lara sculpts potted monsteras sprouting from chains, a schooldesk covered in long spines, and a cactus disguised as a child’s rocking horse.

The resulting pieces translate what should be a common object—a shovel, for example, or an enormous cluster of daisies in a vase—into the strange and uncanny. Many works are also rendered unusable, including a spiked ladder even the bravest among us would hesitate to climb.

Now based in Ridgewood, Queens, De Lara grew up near Austin as a child of Mexican immigrants. He first learned woodoworking in his family’s shop, which he describes as “a world where each tool has its own language, each piece of wood shows the passing of time on its skin, and where one is able to communicate through their hands.” A strong belief in animism, luck, and the paranormal pervaded this sacred space and taught the budding artist that he could harness the energy of a particular material to create beautiful objects.

Today, he sees woodworking as a mode of storytelling, one in which magical realism flourishes. “I welcome the idea that artworks can hold their own spark of life and extend it to us,” De Lara says, adding:

When I make my work, I remember childhood memories of when I would see local carvers turn branches into saints. I always wondered at what point in
the carving process does the ghost enters that piece of wood. I strive to make works that invite a certain kind of trust and acceptance from the viewer, that let them live without our realm.

As global concerns about immigration and human rights intensify, De Lara’s work is all the more relevant. The artist has DACA status and knows firsthand the precarity and swift change that comes with a new administration.

His sculptures capture a sense of whimsy and play that might seem in opposition to this reality, but for De Lara, woodworking, and traditional craft more broadly, is a superpower. “It cannot be taken away from you as it is not tied to location, politics, or laws. You carry it with you and can practice anywhere, with anyone, and oftentimes, it disarms differences amongst us,” he says.

See HOST through January 11, 2026. Keep up with De Lara’s work on Instagram.

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