Nurturing Nature
March 20 – April 15 2012, Freedman Gallery, Reading, Pennsylvania, US
Based on an exhibition held at the Osilas Gallery, Concordia College, N.Y., last spring, the artists included use the natural environment as both subject and material in their exploration of the creative process. Sustainability, endangered species, and the beauty, utility, and diversity of nature are all themes explored in the works presented. Curated by Patricia Miranda and Amy Lipton.
Read the review here.
I showed the film Alchemy – the poetics of bread.
“For the past several decades environmentalists have foreseen an impending disaster of epic proportions if and when the planet becomes truly unable to sustain life. Our basic life support systems of clean water, air and soil continue to diminish at an alarming rate, species are disappearing. The artists in Nurturing Nature: Artists Engage the Environment, are focused on healing our relationship with the living eco-system, recognizing that our very existence depends upon its survival. Their works attempt to bridge the gap between art and life by raising an appreciation of the natural world and by engaging in a collaborative or nurturing process with nature. This exhibition will focus on various spiritual or ethical traditions in relationship to our care of the planet, what Christianity terms “stewardship”, Tikkun Olam or “repair the world” in Judaism, and in Buddhism “compassion for all sentient beings”.
The artists in Nurturing Nature: Artists Engage the Environment will present works that focus on the healing and reverence of our planet in both a physical and metaphysical sense. The theme is a synthesis of our post-Newtonian age with earlier or proto-scientific ages, which referenced an even more ancient prehistoric time when art and nature were not so clearly distinct from one another.” Amy Lipton, co-curator