Throughout 2024, we were awestruck by archaeological finds, vibrant paintings, striking sculptures, remarkable photography, immersive installations and much more. It’s hard to choose just 10 top articles for the year!
Luckily for us, dear Colossal readers, you helped choose the best one. Below, dive into our most-read stories on the site from the past twelve months, and find hundreds more in the archive.
Ewa Juszkiewicz’s reimagined historical portraits of women explore the nature of concealment
From elaborate hairstyles to hypertrophic mushrooms, a range of unexpected facial coverings appear in Ewa Juszkiewicz’s portraits. Drawing on stately likenesses of women, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries, the artist places fabrics, bouquets of fruit, leaves and more over the women’s faces.
A rare cross-sectional illustration reveals the infamous events in the Walled City of Kowloon
At its peak in the 1990s, Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City housed approximately 50,000 people. The population is unremarkable for small cities, but what set Kowloon apart from other cities of the same size was its density. For a now sold out book with the title Kowloon City: An Illustrated Guideartist Hitomi Terasawa made a meticulous cross-section of the urban phenomenon to preserve its memory.
Remarkable drone footage captures a new volcanic eruption in Iceland
In January, photographer and drone pilot Isak Finnbogason captured stunning images of an eruption on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula in December, documenting the nearly two-mile-long lava flow on its first day of activity.
Landscapes radiate light and drama in Erin Hanson’s vibrant oil paintings
In vibrant pinks, blues and greens, radiant landscapes emerge in Erin Hanson’s impressionistic oil paintings. The artist is based in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where the rolling hills and surrounding mountain ranges are home to miles of vineyards.
Framed by Frozen Lakes, Richard Johnson’s ‘Ice Huts’ capture winter communities in Canada
Each year, Ontario’s 279-square-mile Lake Simcoe attracts more people for its ice fishing than any other lake in North America, attracting more than 4,000 cabins each year. The colorful villages caught the attention of Toronto-based architectural photographer Richard Johnson (1957-2021), who captured hundreds of structures, from artistic to ad hoc, in a series of bold portraits taken between 2007 and 2019.
Archaeologists discover an extraordinary 2,100-year-old mosaic near the Colosseum
Early this year we shared the news that the Italian Ministry of Culture had made a remarkable discovery in the heart of Rome. In the late Republican era, a luxurious mansion was laden with designs made of shells, glass, white marble and Egyptian blue tiles. A large ‘rustic’ mosaic dating from the last decades of the 2nd century BC – just over 2,100 years ago – was probably inspired by the decorative styles of Near Eastern monarchies.
‘To Judge a Book by its Cover’ spans seven centuries and celebrates an enduring art
The Grolier Club Exhibition, To judge a book by its cover, highlighted some of the most unique editions within the collection, including a pigskin and brass-bound edition Jewish Antiquities and the Jewish War made for a Benedictine monastery in Bavaria around 1473 – the oldest in the club’s library. The collection also includes several religious texts, such as the miniature book of psalms above, made by women at the Royal Exchange in London using a variety of silk and gold threads.
Vibrant, translucent quilts from Wally Dion merge native culture and create traditions
For many rural and economically strapped communities throughout history, quilting was a necessity. Tattered clothes and blankets were cut up and transformed into new blankets, with the patchwork styles evidence of the fabrics’ previous use. For indigenous peoples, however, quilts “have a particularly important cultural value,” says artist Wally Dion, “and appear as gifts, ceremonial objects and festive decorations.”
Compelling bamboo installations by Asim Waqif swirl and sway in monumental movement
In his monumental, swirling structures, Delhi-based artist Asim Waqif combines principles of architecture and sculpture to create dramatic site-specific compositions. He uses natural materials such as bamboo and pandanus leaves and often incorporates found objects, scaffolding, sound elements, fabrics and rope.
From fire to wind: JiSook Jung’s ceramic sculptures animate the elements
JiSook Jung has long been drawn to clay because of its inherent malleability. “Clay has the advantage that I can quickly transform an image in my mind into a visual form because it is soft and plastic,” the Seoul-based artist tells Colossal. “In that sense, I think clay is an intuitive and instinctive material.”
