Piecing it all together
Collage, clay, and coming-of-age in 2025, this week’s features linger on the handmade worlds that make art come alive.
🎨 The Art of Collage: Artist Spotlight on Benny Del Mar
“Collage is an act of remembering, even when what we remember never really existed.”
In this week’s artist spotlight, Benny Del Mar reimagines nostalgia through paper and glue, weaving found fragments into dream-state cityscapes. His work, both chaotic and serene, feels like if De Chirico and Basquiat met in a bodega aisle.
→ Read the full feature
The Art Newsletter is an independent publication, your support helps us to keep the lights on and make sure we can continue to deliver the content you love. Try it free now for 7 days.
🧸 We Need More Clay Puppets for Halloween
A love letter to stop-motion and the eerie tactility of handmade horror. From Coraline to Mary and Max, this essay argues that CGI has sterilized what clay once made beautifully uncanny.
“Clay reminds us that horror isn’t about fear — it’s about touch.”
→ Read more
☁️ Imperfect Days
A reflective, journal-like piece that captures the quiet melancholy of in-between moments — the days that don’t go wrong, but don’t go right either.
“Nothing catastrophic happens, and yet everything feels slightly off — the kind of day that hums between keys.”
Perfect reading for a gray October afternoon.
→ Read the full piece
🪐 When Saturn Returns: Notes on Youth, Netflix, and the Passing Moment
In one of our strongest essays of the year, this story captures the bittersweet glow of early adulthood — framed around Netflix, astrology, and the echo of friends you might never see again.
“You grow up in apartments that weren’t yours, celebrating birthdays with people who might not remember you by the time the lease ends.”
→ Read the essay
🎧 Song of the Week: Lia Lang – “Chelsea”
With only a humble 1500 monthly listeners, you can thank us later for putting you on first. Lia Lang is a rising voice you’ll want to remember , think Laufey, but deeper, softer, more emotionally raw. With beats ranging from rock to electronic. Lia Lang is an artist you won't want to miss.
→ Listen on Spotify
→ Listen on Apple Music
→ Follow Lia Lang on Instagram
🏛️ Art in Politics
This week in the headlines: former president Donald Trump proposed constructing a triumphal arch in Washington D.C. — a monument to himself inspired by imperial Rome.
What does it mean when politicians use architecture to aestheticize power?
As ARTnews reports, the project “melds nostalgia with spectacle — an architecture of ego rather than memory.”
→ Read the story
🖼️ Editor’s Note
If you loved this piece, send it to someone who still believes art can change dinner-table conversations. Thanks everyone for reading.
— Wolfgang Burst, Editor
📍 Austin, TX
