‘Outcasts’ Highlights the Scientific Contributions of Trailblazing Artist and Naturalist Mary Banning

In the 1800s, mycology—the study of fungi—was a relatively new field, emerging around the same time as Enlightenment-era studies in botany and herbal medicine. Science and art converged in works like Elizabeth Blackwell’s A Curious Herbal, along with German naturalist Lorenz Oken’s seven-volume Allgemaine Naturgeschichte, consisting of more than 5,000 pages dedicated to classifying everything from beetles and fish to mushrooms and ferns.

In the late 19th century in Maryland, Mary Elizabeth Banning (1822–1903) emerged as one of America’s first mycologists—and the first woman to describe a new fungus species to science. The self-taught artist and scientist is now the focus of a nature-centered exhibition at New York State Museum, Outcasts: Mary Banning’s World of Mushrooms. The show features 28 original watercolors and detailed records of various mushroom species from the unpublished manuscript of her book, The Fungi of Maryland. In fact, of the 175 species she documented, 23 of them were unknown to science at the time.

Banning’s manuscript is dedicated to Charles H. Peck, whose role as New York State Botanist—and an enthusiastic mycologist—at the NYSM formed the foundation of a 30-year correspondence with Banning. As a woman in an almost entirely male field, who also lacked formal biology degrees, Banning was largely ostracized from professional proceedings at the time, but her work did not go unrecognized. Peck published some of her findings in the Annual Report in 1871, and he kept her manuscript in a drawer at NYSM, where it remained for more than nine decades.

A handful of Banning and Peck’s letters are included in Outcasts, along with some of Peck’s lab equipment, mushroom specimens that Banning collected, and a dozen early 20th-century wax models of fungi from the NYSM Natural History Collection.

Along with Banning’s vibrant illustrations, the exhibition introduces visitors to the mycological universe, including prehistoric specimens like Prototaxites. A fossilized example of the ancient life form was found in Orange County, New York. Around 420 to 370 million years ago, these unique organisms would have towered over the landscape at up to 26 feet high.

Outcasts: Mary Banning’s World of Mushrooms continues through January 4 in Albany. Learn more and plan your visit on the museum’s website.

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A Multifaceted Book and Exhibition, ‘Black Earth Rising’ Contends with Colonialism, Land, and Climate

Between 450 B.C.E. and 950 C.E., a particularly fertile soil known by researchers as terra preta, literally “black earth” in Portuguese, was cultivated by Indigenous farmers in the Amazon Basin. The soil was made with broken pottery, compost, bones, manure, and charcoal—which lends its characteristic dark shade—making it rich in nutrients and minerals.

The historic, fecund material becomes a symbolic nexus for the exhibition Black Earth Rising, now on view at Baltimore Museum of Art. Curated by journalist and writer Ekow Eshun, the show illuminates several links between the climate crisis, land, presence, colonization, diasporas, and social and environmental justice.

Accompanying the exhibition is a new anthology published by Thames & Hudson titled Black Earth Rising: Colonialism and Climate Change in Contemporary Art, which highlights works by more than 150 African diasporic, Latin American, and Native American contemporary artists.

The volume explores intersections between slavery and forced migration, the environmental consequences of colonialism, socio-political injustices experienced by urban Black and Brown communities, and the violent occupation of Native lands—all through the lens of learning from Indigenous knowledge systems and a wide range of cultural practices to consider more carefully how we view and interact with the natural world.

Black Earth Rising brings together striking works by some of the art world’s most prominent practitioners, from Cannupa Hanska Luger and Precious Okoyoman to Wangechi Mutu and Firelei Báez, among many others. Hanska Luger’s ongoing project, Future Ancestral Technologies, takes a multimedia approach to science fiction as a vehicle for collective thinking. Luger describes the project as a way to imagine “a post-capitalism, post-colonial future where humans restore their bonds with the earth and each other.”

Carrie Mae Weems’ photograph “A Distant View,” from The Louisiana Project, approaches the history of enslaved women in the South through the perspective of a muse—the artist herself—spectrally inhabiting a seemingly idyllic landscape. Reflecting on the relaxed atmosphere of the image, we’re confronted with the stark reality experienced by Black people who were forced to labor on plantations, these grand houses now symbolic of atrocious violence and inequities.

“Black Earth Rising presents a discourse on climate change that places the voices of people of color at the active center rather than on the passive periphery,” says a statement from the publisher.

Through a wide variety of paintings, photography, sculpture, installation, and interdisciplinary pieces, readers—and visitors to the exhibition—are invited to consider how the continuum of history influences the climate crisis today and how we can proceed toward a future that centers unity and deeper relationships with nature.

The Black Earth Rising exhibition continues through September 21. Find your copy of the anthology on Bookshop, and plan your visit to the show on the Baltimore Museum of Art’s website.

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The 16th-Century Artist Who Created the First Compendium of Insect Drawings

Nearly a century before the invention of the microscope and even longer before entomology became a field of research, Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600) devoted himself to studying the natural world. The 16th-century polymath created an enormous multi-volume collection called The Four Elements, which contained more than 300 watercolor renderings, each depicted with exceptional detail.

As Evan Puschak of the YouTube channel Nerdwriter1 (previously) explains, Hoefnagel showed unparalleled talent in his field. Compared to one of his predecessors, Albrecht Dürer, Hoefnagel draws with a painstaking commitment to precision and accuracy, even depicting specimens’ shadows with impeccable fidelity. As Kottke writes, “his paintings were so accurate that if he’d lived 200 years later, you would have called him a naturalist.”

While drawings in three of the books appear to mimic other scientific renderings of the period, Hoefnagel seems to have created his works by studying the insects themselves and sometimes even included parts of their bodies in his compositions. His Fire volume, full of beetles, butterflies, and other arthropods, is thought to be the first of its kind.

Some of Hoefnagel’s works are on view at the National Gallery of Art in Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World, which ventures back to the 16th and 17th centuries to explore how artists and naturalists have historically been aligned. It’s also worth looking at the museum’s interactive archive that lets viewers zoom in on several of Hoefnagel’s drawings.

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Challenging Gender Norms, a Bolivian Skateboarding Collective Celebrates Indigenous Style

In Cochabamba, Bolivia, a group of women skateboarders are changing attitudes toward Indigenous traditions one kickflip at a time. Donning customary Quechuan garments like brimmed sombreros and colorful polleras—wide skirts commonly worn by Andean women—the Imillaskate collective combines a contemporary sport with time-honored cholita heritage.

Colossal readers might recognize some of the women of Imillaskate from Celia D. Luna’s marvelous series of photographs, Cholitas Bravas. A new short documentary directed by Rebecca Basaure and Mariano Carranza and produced by NOWNESS highlights the group’s style and dedication to the community. The film traces the stories of members of Imillaskate, the collective’s mission to construct a skatepark, and their visits to local schools that emphasize self-affirmation and empowerment through skateboarding.

Until fairly recently, Quechuan and Aymara women were derogatorily called “cholitas” and were actively ostracized from society. Known for their long braids, bowler hats, and full skirts—a hybridization of styles resulting from Spanish influence during the Inquisition—the style evolved into a look brimming with Indigenous cultural and lineal pride.

Deysī, an Imillaskate co-founder and award-winning skater, describes how surprised her mother was when she first dressed as a cholita. She continues:

Some people in my generation are embarrassed to wear pollera because the pollera highlight your features—your Indigenous features—highlight what we are as Indigenous people, as the daughters of women of polleras. It’s a part of my family legacy. And without family, I’m nobody.

The inspiring documentary also touches on gender inequalities in Bolivian society, as Imillaskate members share how important mutual support has been through major life transitions like motherhood and the loss of loved ones. “We rely on each other, just as others rely on us,” says another co-founder, Ellī. “Because we, as Indigenous people—as Quechuas—we have a collective mindset.”

NOWNESS creates videos that celebrate art, food, travel, fashion, and more. Watch the entire film on YouTube. You might also enjoy Todd Antony’s series Cholitas Escaladoras, chronicling a group of Quechuan and Aymara mountain climbers in Bolivia.

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Explore Centuries of Art History 15 Minutes at a Time in James Payne’s ‘Great Art Explained’

The art world is rife with persistent myths and associations, some of which are based on socio-economic factors that have prevailed for, well, millennia. For instance, wealthy patrons have historically been among the few who benefit in a system that can be exclusive and elitist. Whether we’re talking rich ancient Romans, the Medici family in Renaissance Florence, myriad kings and queens, or today’s major art collectors, the bottom line is most often money. For many, that’s a solid barrier to entry.

Another term that gets tossed around a lot is “gatekeeping.” Galleries, art dealers, museum curators, scholars, publishers, and so on assume roles as tastemakers and assessors, building relationships (or not) that often determine which artworks end up in public institutions, which shows receive attention, or which private collections artists’ pieces are destined to join. Gatekeeping is, by definition, the act of monitoring who “gets in,” reinforcing the notion of exclusivity. In short, it describes a multitude of potential barriers.

So, if the art world has historically always indulged the wealthy or felt like a realm for scholars and intellectuals, how can it be made more accessible? That’s what curator, gallerist, educator, and self-described passionate art lover James Payne is up to with Great Art Explained.

The video series began in May 2020, at the height of the pandemic, with the simple premise that great art can be “explained clearly and concisely in 15 minutes,” he says. Payne’s YouTube channel chronicles seminal artworks throughout the centuries, predominantly focusing on textbook titans of European and American art like Marcel Duchamp, Sandro Botticelli, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Johannes Vermeer, Salvador Dalí, and more.

Distilling the stories of iconic pieces into 15-minute explanations, Payne dives into some of the most groundbreaking moments in art history. The most recent video highlights a turning point in American art through the lens of Jackson Pollock’s splatter paintings, including “Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist),” which the artist painted on the floor of a Long Island barn in 1950.

Pollock’s methods, lifestyle, and views have long been polarizing, but he is most known for eschewing traditional brushwork—changing the course of art history, really—by pouring, dripping, and flinging paint onto canvas. Not only that, he removed the substrate from the wall and put it on the floor, challenging notions of formality and preciousness. There’s even a discarded cigarette and a few rogue insects permanently stuck to the surface.

“Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist)” and similar works made around that time amounted to an artistic breakthrough for Pollock, who has come to exemplify the myth of the lone, troubled, so-called “cowboy painter.” (He was born in Cody, Wyoming, and was known to drink to excess; he died in 1956 in an alcohol-related car crash.) This period of his practice also spurred the Abstract Expressionist movement in New York City and marked a monumental shift in our appreciation of what painting can be.

Payne is interested in these kinds of trailblazing moments, but he emphasizes letting go of “art-speak” to bring us closer to significant works of art through a mini-documentary format. He releases a new video each month, plus an occasional sub-series called Great Art Cities that highlights a variety of destinations in collaboration with travel writer Joanne Shurvell.

“Sometimes the artwork is a springboard for other wider issues I would like to explore, and sometimes, it is a simple exploration of techniques and meaning,” Payne says. “For me, setting the works in context helps us appreciate them more.”

Payne’s work is supported via Patreon, and a Great Art Explained book is slated for release from Thames & Hudson later this year. And for the literary fans among us, he also runs another YouTube channel in a similar vein called Great Books Explained. (via Kottke)

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Photos by Charly Broyez and Laurent Kronental Celebrate Architecture Ahead of Its Time

Forty minutes east of Montpellier on France’s Mediterranean coast sits a midcentury complex once disparaged as “architectural pollution” by L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui. The seminal work of architect Jean Balladur, La Grande Motte — which means “the big mound” — is a modernist development comprising buildings inspired by pyramids and mastabas that rise above the sandy, green expanse of a former farm between the Étang de l’Ór lagoon and the open sea.

Conceived as a resort during the post-war period when Europeans were again embracing holiday travel, La Grande Motte accommodates nearly 38,000 tourists in vacation homes, apartments, and campsites. Today, around 8,000 people live here full-time, and the area welcomes more than 100,000 visitors each summer.

Balladur realized the project during what is known as the Les Trente Glorieuses, or “the glorious thirty,” a period of economic prosperity following the end of World War II. And for him, the resort represented an ideal city in which lodging was relatively affordable and residents could escape socio-economic pressures.

For photographers and collaborators Laurent Kronental and Charly Broyez, who often focus on architecture and urban environments, La Grande Motte presented a unique opportunity to explore an infamous location which, over the years, has grown on its critics. Increasingly seen as a concept well ahead of its time, its unique forms, white facades, sculptural elements, and harmony with nature provided an irresistible focus for a series titled La Cité Oasis—un Rêve Futuriste au bord de la Méditerranée, or, The Oasis City—a Futuristic Dream on the Mediterranean.

Between 2019 and 2023, Kronental and Broyez captured the gleaming towers, arched silhouettes, sculptural elements, and brutalist details in dusky, glowing images that radiate a feeling of summertime. We see the nuanced influences Balladur incorporated from sources like the pre-Columbian pyramids of Teotihuacan, Mexico, or Le Corbusier’s La Cité radieuse in nearby Marseille. Each building is unique, rising from the sand like enormous, inhabitable sculptures.

Negative opinions of La Grande Motte began to shift in the 1990s, as the resort’s thoughtful urban planning and sympathy with the landscape became even more apparent. In 2010, France La Grande Motte was formally designated as a Monument Historique within the 20th Century Heritage category.

Broyez and Kronental’s images are devoid of people, but umbrellas on balconies, towls hanging to dry, or open windows suggest their presence. Exploring La Grande Motte was “like discovering a parallel world in which we don’t know if we’ve found the remains of an ancient civilization, or entered the future,” Kronental told The New York Times.

Check out both Broyez and Kronental on Instagram, and peruse the entire project, which consists of nearly 70 photos.

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