If you’re unaware, 2016 is rapidly drawing to a close. It’s been a bananas year. BUT despite all of that, some cool art got made!

I recently went to the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, WI where I live, and saw what I can hands down classify as the coolest and most awe-inspiring work of art I saw in 2016.

Rebirth, by Manabu Ikeda is jaw dropping. It’s a 10 feet by 13 feet work that is somehow monstrous in size, but unending delicate and complex. Created over a three year residency in Madison and with a dip pen and ink (yes, you read that right) there is nothing like seeing it in person. I feel genuinely lucky to have been able to do so.

The article written about it here shows more close-up details of the piece, and includes a small section of the 26 minute documentary about the piece that was shown at the museum. I highly recommend watching it.

It is truly an opus, and Ikeda is a genius.