In the dreamy installations of Lachlan Turczan, natural and perceptual phenomena combine in otherworldly installations merging technology with aquatic landscapes. Water is central to the Los Angeles-based artist’s work and helps shape an ongoing series of immersive projects incorporating light and sonic phenomena.

Turczan is influenced by the Light and Space movement, which originated in Southern California in the 1960s and is characterized by the work of John McLaughlin, Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Lita Albuquerque, and more. The movement focused on perception, employing materials like glass, neon, resin, acrylic, and fluorescent lights to emphasize light, volume, and scale.

Many Light and Space artists created installations and immersive spaces conditioned by naturally occurring elements like Turrell’s ever-changing glimpse of the sky through a ceiling aperture for “Space that Sees.” Not only does the view change as clouds roll by or the weather shifts, but the light continuously transforms the entire room.

“While my work shares this lineage,” Turczan tells Colossal, “it diverges in several key ways: rather than exploring the ‘nature of experience,’ I create experiences of nature that challenge our understanding of light, water, and space.” He describes his approach as “complicating” these elements, emphasizing the ever-changing fluidity of the environment.

In Turczan’s ongoing Veil series, light installations unfold organically in locations ranging from Death Valley’s Badwater Basin to a flooded park near the Rhine River. Lasers and beams of light are projected and submerged, capturing the movement of wind, mist, and the water’s surface.

Additional pieces also merge light and water, like “Aldwa Alsael,” which translates to “liquid light,” and was commissioned for the 2024 Noor Riyadh Light Art Festival.

“For the most part, these installations unfold organically,” Turczan says. “I may discover a location in nature that seems perfect for a new Veil sculpture, but when I return, the conditions have inevitably changed.” Evolving circumstances require the artist to proceed with an openness to chance encounters that strike a balance between preparation and intuition.

Find more on Turczan’s website, and follow updates on Instagram. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

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Around the time he turned 50, Jeff Bartels (previously) found himself thinking more and more about memory and nostalgia. “It occurred to me that I could remember certain things from my past exactly, while other memories were mixed up or even wrong,” he tells Colossal. “So I decided to explore that confusion.”

Bartels’s ongoing series Urban Glitch consists of five paintings so far, each focusing on different years from the recent past, ranging from 1979 to 2001. Each painstakingly detailed composition highlights pop culture of the era, from the latest cars and products to pastimes, music, and fashion.

The imaginary buildings stack on top of one another and connect via bridges, platforms, and staircases reminiscent of M.C. Escher’s mathematically puzzling architecture.

Locked in time and space, as if the scenes are “glitching,” Bartels’s thriving urban hubs invoke the sights and sounds of bygone eras. People peer into their fridges, walk their dogs, play games at the arcade, and view paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat or Damien Hirst’s seminal 1991 work of a tiger shark preserved in a tank.

The artist employs 3D modeling software to create references for each painting rather than photographic sources, so “there is a lot of work done on my computer before I even pick up a brush and being the painting,” he says. “This way, I can create realistic-looking scenes that could not exist in the real world.”

Each piece takes hundreds of hours to complete due to the meticulous process of defining each building, figure, and tiny, stage-like scene. The artist estimates “1983” took about 850 hours altogether, and while the time commitment alone makes it “easy to burn out on them…” he says, “I do plan on continuing the series with at least a few more.”

Find more on Bartels’s website and Instagram.

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Visually simple yet conceptually unbounded, Italian illustrator Virginia Mori continues to create scenes that proliferate from her imaginative world of inner emotions. “I often take inspiration from dreams, nightmares, hallucinations, and long walks in nature,” Mori says. Rippling water, nested doorways, and liquefied lenses lend to an air of surrealism, indicative of the artist’s distinctive style.

Mori has a busy year ahead, as she is currently working on an animated short film, book illustration, and preparing for a group exhibition opening next month at Blu Gallery in Bologna. If you’re into tarot cards, the artist just designed a deck that you can find on Stay-Hop. Keep up with Mori’s upcoming works on her website and Instagram.

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All images © Benjamin Sack, shared with permission

When Benjamin Sack (previously) graduated from university, he sought a new adventure. “I wanted to travel and see and draw the places that inspire my work,” he tells Colossal. One day, he inquired with Holland America Line, which led round-the-world sea voyages, to see if the company might be interested in a novel trade: in exchange for a spot on the ship, Sack would lead classes and lectures and create a large drawing. “Long story short, they loved the idea and welcomed me aboard, saying it would only happen this one year,” he says. Ten years later, he’s something of a “court artist” on a vessel called the King Neptune.

Sack is influenced by historical cartography and architectural designs, and many of his black-and-white urban renderings evoke etchings popularized in 17th-century London. The artist adds elaborate metallic borders that suggest antique gilded frames, yet the compositions swirl with a contemporary flair.

Each meticulous, large-scale piece takes its cues from places Sack travels while on board the ship. Like a sailing microcosm of a city, the vessel’s rhythms, schedule, and international denizens provide endless inspiration. “My position onboard is unique in that I’m kind of in the grey zone between passenger and crew member,” the artist says. “I have access to both worlds as it were, much like how art is in the real world, where all practices and divisions in society overlap.”

During the past two years, voyages that have inspired new work include itineraries around Africa, South America, and twice around the world. The sea itself lends a hand to Sack’s work sometimes, too, especially if traveling through rougher regions like the Drake Passage between South America’s Cape Horn and Antarctica or while the captains maneuver through changeable weather. “Most of the time, though, it’s a joy to draw with the lilt and lull of the sea,” Sack says. “She gives the page life!”

Explore more of Sack’s work on his website, and follow updates about his art-filled experiences at sea on Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Living at Sea for a Decade, Benjamin Sack’s Elaborate Drawings Cruise the World appeared first on Colossal.