Windows XP Wallpapers (2001)

 By Jonathan Shih

Released with Windows XP in 2001, the default wallpapers were selected to feel optimistic, legible, and broadly familiar. While XP included a range of images, the most iconic was Bliss, a real photograph taken in 1996 by American photographer Charles O’Rear and licensed by Microsoft. The wallpapers favored idealized landscapes and calm natural scenes, using saturated color and simple compositions that aligned with XP’s visual identity. Seen daily by hundreds of millions of users worldwide, their cultural significance emerged less from artistic intent than from constant repetition, making them some of the most widely viewed images of the early internet era.

Seeing the Ordinary the Wrong Way — Chema Madoz

 By Jonathan Shih

Chema Madoz is a Spanish photographer who transforms everyday objects into quietly surreal images, almost always rendered in black and white. Working without digital manipulation, he constructs physical scenes that turn the familiar into visual riddles: a cloud confined to a box, pencils reshaped into a ladder, or glass that seems to hold frozen waves. His photographs rely on simplicity, precision, and metaphor rather than spectacle, inviting viewers to pause and rethink what they are seeing. Often linked to the spirit of Surrealism, his work echoes the poetic logic of René Magritte and the conceptual wit of Marcel Duchamp, yet remains distinctly his own—less about shock and more about subtle, enduring wonder.

📸 @chemamadozphotographer [IG]

Willem de Kooning: Chaos and Order

 By Jonathan Shih

"The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves." - Willem de Kooning

At a glance Willem de Kooning had an extraordinary life: coming to America as a stowaway, living as an illegal immigrant for decades, then becoming immersed in a group of artists who would change the world. Yet he was only human. He experienced ups and downs, took risks and followed his heart. He struggled with addiction, broke the hearts of lovers and failed to live up to his own expectations. He was earnest, sincere, and forever plagued by self-doubt. He was both extraordinary and utterly ordinary.

What makes him stand out is perhaps his fortitude. He never ceased to push himself. The spirit of that 12-year old boy who left school to pursue a creative career stayed with De Kooning his entire life, and he served that spirit well. It is fitting that the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts and Techniques, where De Kooning attended night school as a teenager, changed its name after De Kooning died to the Willem de Kooning Academie. What better testament to an artist who remained consistently true to his art, his intellect, his passion, and to the intrepid spirit of youth.