Colossal is an art and visual culture blog founded by Chicago-based editor Christopher Jobson.The site covers topics ranging from art, design, and photography, to visual aspects of science and general creativity.[1]
Colossal is an art blog that features 15 to 25 posts per week on photography, design, animation, painting, installation art, architecture, drawing, and street art.[2] It started as a personal blog in the fall of 2010. Web designer by trade, Jobson began his blog as one of one hundred things he wanted to accomplish in 2010.[3] On March 9, 2011, Jobson posted artist Sagaki Keita's surreal, intricately detailed ink drawings to his blog. By 5:00 p.m. that day, so many visitors flooded the site that his server crashed. The blog grew in popularity to the point New York-based advertising agency Nectar Ads asked Colossal to be a part of an "art ad network" with site-specific content.[4] This allowed Jobson to quit his job in 2013 and focus on the site full-time. Jobson explains the mission of Colossal, "I want Colossal to be a place where anyone, from any background, can discover art and aspects of visual culture that are interesting, fun, and approachable. To that end I shy away from criticism and interpretation and instead provide as many resources as possible for visitors to learn more on their own. I want to share art as it is, without justification."[5]
Colossal has garnered a Utne Media Award for arts coverage, a Webby Award nomination, and was described as the "Tate Modern of the Internet" by Fast Company.[6] [7] The National Endowment for the Arts has called the website a "must read."[8] American blogger Jason Kottke describes it as "a top-notch visual art/design blog,"[9] and PBS' said the publication "brings recognition to under-represented (or even unrepresented) artists."[10] In 2020 Jobson curated an exhibit Par Excellence Redux at the Elmhurst Art Museum.[11]
Colossal was praised by American actor Neil Patrick Harris as "artistic, smart, and inspiring,"[12] and the publication was cited by the TED blog as one of "100 Websites You Should Know and Use" in 2013.[13]