Jigsaw puzzles were making a surprising comeback even before the pandemic — the Museum of Modern Art started making puzzles of pieces from its collection a few years ago — but quarantine made the decidedly lo-fi activity even more appealing.
The following written content by Kyle Chayka
Jigsaw puzzles were making a surprising comeback even before the pandemic — the Museum of Modern Art started making puzzles of pieces from its collection a few years ago — but quarantine made the decidedly lo-fi activity even more appealing. Assembling the image isn’t particularly exciting and doesn’t tell you much of a story, but it does kill plenty of time safely indoors. It’s meditative, occupying your hands and your eyes enough to keep them away from your phone.
The problem is usually the puzzle’s content. They have a bad reputation, associated more with saccharine Thomas Kinkade landscapes and animal photography than visual art. That’s starting to change. Whiled, a new lifestyle product brand, is collaborating with artists scouted through Instagram to create a line of bright, colorful puzzles that function both as activity and decor.
The visuals are the priority. Founder Alisha Ramos, who also created the newsletter Girls Night In, describes herself as “a big art history nerd and frequent museum- and gallery-goer.”
All of Whiled’s puzzles are unique commissions. After identifying collaborators, Ramos gives them a brief, discusses sketches, and then moves ahead with the final image. “It has been a fairly hands-off collaboration,” she said. “We really want the artist to shine in the medium of their choosing and feel like they have a stake in what they create.” Ramos chose Tess Smith-Roberts to create a puzzle because her work “sparked childhood memories of Richard Scarry books.” The resulting puzzle is a primary-colored, bustling cityscape populated by residents that look like Memphis objects.
The art isn’t the only innovation. Whiled dresses up puzzles in all the hallmarks of millennial lifestyle brands: minimalist white boxes with crisp graphic design, cloth bags to keep the pieces together, irregularly shaped pieces to add some challenge, and a soft-matte finish to the paper so it doesn’t glare under lights. Whiled’s aesthetic tends toward a kind of Matisse-lite, with domestic scenes arranged into energetic compositions. Ana Leovy’s “Ladies Who Lounge” brings a Fauvist palette to a cozy apartment interior. Read more from Art News.
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