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Influenced by traditional Japanese raked-sand meditation gardens, sculptor Ava Blitz creates organic forms resembling se...
09/14/2026

Influenced by traditional Japanese raked-sand meditation gardens, sculptor Ava Blitz creates organic forms resembling seeds, buds, hives, and flowers—soft, feminine symbols of nature and growth carved into hard stone.

In our latest Q+Art interview, sculptor Ava Blitz reflects on blending Eastern and Western influences in her work, shares insights into her piece for our summer exhibition, "250: A Celebration of Public Art in the U.S.," and explains why the landscape remains a uniquely inspiring subject for her creative exploration.

Read our interview with Ava and see her work in "250": https://artsy.short.gy/iIHk2K

"250" was created with CODAworx, the leading platform for the public art industry.

About 20 minutes outside Philadelphia, on a half-acre patch of land, four cement “bundt cakes”—dyed baby blue, cream, an...
09/01/2026

About 20 minutes outside Philadelphia, on a half-acre patch of land, four cement “bundt cakes”—dyed baby blue, cream, and red—are stacked on top of a bowed spire, like an offering to the gods. It would be easy to mistake Ava Blitz’s home sculpture garden for a scene from Alice in Wonderland or the pages of Dr. Seuss, if not for the artist’s house and nearby garage, which opens directly onto the yard. There, Ava’s finished pieces are exposed to the elements: sun, rain, the occasional hailstorm, and the fixed passage of time.

It’s a fitting setup for an artist who’s happiest roaming the land with a camera in tow, collecting impressions, textures, and the bones of future work. Adventure and experimentation are the driving forces behind Ava’s practice, whether she’s in a kayak or pouring cement straight into tarped trenches to create molds “born from the earth,” as she puts it.

Ava's work is featured in our summer exhibition, "250: A Celebration of Public Art in the U.S.," created with CODAworx, the leading platform for the public art industry.

Full interview + exhibition: https://artsy.short.gy/iIHk2K

"From Absence to Presence: Commemorating Contributions of Enslaved Peoples." Shane Albritton, Norman Lee, and poet Quent...
09/01/2026

"From Absence to Presence: Commemorating Contributions of Enslaved Peoples." Shane Albritton, Norman Lee, and poet Quenton Baker created this work in Maryland, a piece that sits where reconstructed slave quarters once stood.

This work is part of "250: A Celebration of Public Art in the U.S.," our July exhibition with CODAworx, the leading platform for the public art industry, and Arterial, a non-profit media platform dedicated to amplifying art worldwide.

The exhibition includes 52 projects from every state, DC, and Puerto Rico.

The full exhibition is free to view online:
https://artsy.short.gy/qjBJZs

Most people don't know "shunga" was never consider obscene in Japan. 🌸These woodblock print books were common household ...
08/28/2026

Most people don't know "shunga" was never consider obscene in Japan. 🌸

These woodblock print books were common household objects that were widely owned and treated as art, humor, and even educational material rather than contraband.

Carol Scavotto spent years studying this tradition before she started making her own work in response to it. "What’s unusual about shunga is that the head and the ge****ls are intended to be the same size, of equal importance. That’s why their bodies are often extremely contorted. Knowing all that, I let my figures take any shape. I didn’t want my work to be erotic po*******hy, so that’s where the flowers came in."

Read the full interview and see her work in our May 2026 exhibition, Modern Love: Reflections on Intimacy and Eros.

https://artsy.short.gy/3payu9

MASARY Studios' upcoming “Eco-Rhythms” will bathe Boston’s Tobin Bridge in patterns of light inspired by changing ocean ...
08/25/2026

MASARY Studios' upcoming “Eco-Rhythms” will bathe Boston’s Tobin Bridge in patterns of light inspired by changing ocean currents, fish migrations, and tidal cycles. In a coastal city where sea levels are expected to rise up to 40 inches by 2070, MASARY illuminates the rhythms that bind us, inescapably, to the Earth.

In our interview with MASARY Studios cofounder Ryan Edwards, we talk about building a culture of abundance, the collective’s entry in our summer exhibition, 250: A Celebration of Public Art in the U.S., and why we don't need to invent grand theologies to answer life's biggest questions.

Full interview and exhibition: https://artsy.short.gy/53aI5V

With his ongoing "Slavery Trails" project, New Orleans artist-educator Marcus Brown maps America's suppressed histories ...
08/21/2026

With his ongoing "Slavery Trails" project, New Orleans artist-educator Marcus Brown maps America's suppressed histories by placing AR memorials over historic sites of enslavement.

"We live on landscapes full of ghosts. My work tries to make those presences vivid and unavoidable, whether through sound, sight, or gathering," says Marcus Brown.

“Docks Noirs (Black Harbor)” in New York City was inspired by "Freedom Ship," Dr. Marcus Rediker’s account of the Underground Railroad’s long-overlooked maritime origins.

"Solomon Northup" in New Orleans memorializes a free African American man born in New York who was kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery in the South.

"White House, Black Hands" commemorates the enslaved Black men and women who built the White House, then known as the President’s House.

“Ona’s Way" in Philadelphia honors Ona Judge, an enslaved woman who escaped George Washington’s household in 1796.

Marcus' sound sculpture, "HUMS," was also chosen to represent Louisiana in our summer exhibition, "250: A Celebration of Public Art in the U.S."

Full episode + exhibition: https://artsy.short.gy/huSf8X

In our latest Q+Art interview, Ava Blitz tells us how she created "Flying Carpet" (pictured), a glass mosaic at the Mart...
08/21/2026

In our latest Q+Art interview, Ava Blitz tells us how she created "Flying Carpet" (pictured), a glass mosaic at the Martin Luther King Adult Center in North Philadelphia:

"I came up with something from the natural world, but turned it into a repeating pattern, so that it had the feeling of rugs and textiles, cozy quilts, the kind of thing that’s welcoming."

"Flying Carpet" is featured in our summer exhibition, "250: A Celebration of Public Art in the U.S.," created with CODAworx, the leading platform for the public art industry.

Full interview + exhibition: https://artsy.short.gy/iIHk2K

Last month, CODAworx CEO Toni Sikes joined us to discuss how the leading public art platform teamed up with NOT REAL ART...
08/20/2026

Last month, CODAworx CEO Toni Sikes joined us to discuss how the leading public art platform teamed up with NOT REAL ART for a major exhibition.

For Independence Day 2026, CODAworx teamed with NOT REAL ART and nonprofit Arterial to launch 250: A Celebration of Public Art in the U.S., an ambitious online exhibition featuring one artwork from each state, plus Puerto Rico and DC.

Catch our conversation with Toni and see the full exhibition at the link below:

Full episode: https://artsy.short.gy/AzBjVT

Pictured: Ilan Averbuch
Monument to Their Memory
Promontory, CA

Marcus Brown built a sculpture in Louisiana that plays music when you touch it. 🎵"HUMS" (Human Universal Musical Sculptu...
08/19/2026

Marcus Brown built a sculpture in Louisiana that plays music when you touch it. 🎵

"HUMS" (Human Universal Musical Sculpture) is interactive in the most literal sense. Without someone walking up and making contact, it's just a shape in a public space. With them, it becomes something else entirely.

Brown's piece in New Orleans is one of 52 works in "250: A Celebration of Public Art in the U.S.," our July exhibition made in partnership with CODAworx, the leading platform for the public art industry. The show covers every state, DC, and Puerto Rico.

Free to explore online:
https://artsy.short.gy/qjBJZs

One December, on the longest night of the year, visitors to Boston’s Mount Auburn Cemetery were greeted by a thousand sh...
08/14/2026

One December, on the longest night of the year, visitors to Boston’s Mount Auburn Cemetery were greeted by a thousand shimmering points of light scattered across a wooded dell. Stand motionless on a nearby platform, and the field of light collapsed, plunging the landscape into a suspended hush that echoed the Winter Solstice itself—the annual pause when the sun is said to stand still before reversing its path in the sky. Break your pose, and waves of light ripple outward, returning the dell to life.

This interactive artwork, “In Stillness,” was featured in SOLSTICE: Reflections on Winter Light in 2024 as part of MASARY Studios’ ongoing, multi-year collaboration with Mount Auburn Cemetery. Now in its sixth year, the immersive after-dark experience is quintessentially MASARY: rooted in cosmic phenomena, ecstatic mathematics, seasonal rhythms, and a belief in the transformative possibilities of public ritual. Founded in 2015, the Boston-based transdisciplinary studio traces its origins to Ryan Edwards, an installation artist with a background in West African drum and dance, who cofounded MASARY alongside media artist Sam “Samo” Okerstrom-Lang.

"In Stillness" was chosen to represent Massachusetts in our summer exhibition, 250: A Celebration of Public Art in the U.S.

Read the full interview with cofounder Ryan Edwards, who shares insights on building a culture of abundance, discusses the collective’s entry in our summer exhibition, 250: A Celebration of Public Art in the U.S., and explains why we don't need to invent grand theologies to answer life's biggest questions.

https://artsy.short.gy/53aI5V

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