In Nature

23 Nov 2020-4 Jan 2021

Overview

At a time of global pandemic and urban lockdown many of us are re-evaluating our relationship with nature on both a personal and a societal level. Communion with nature is ever more sharply highlighted for its existential importance - seeking solace and balance in nature is a time-tested way to recalibrate and regenerate the human condition. This presentation looks at how artists draw on that relationship and how it is reflected in their practice. They find inspiration, subject matter and material in nature and their works offer a meditation on time, the seasons, fleeting moments captured and savoured. A slow and immersive look at the natural world outside ourselves: an antidote for a time of dislocation and social isolation. Highlights of the presentation include an expansive new painting by Swedish artist Andreas Eriksson that offers a meditative response to his rural surroundings in Medelplana; a totemic sculpture by Brazilian artist Tonico Lemos Auad that reveals the artist’s poetic use of materials from the natural world – in this instance reclaimed wood – to explore the personal and cultural significance afforded objects in everyday life; photorealistic paintings by Venezuelan artist Juan Araujo that reference archetypal depictions of the British countryside by John Constable; and a number of romantic paintings by British artist Ged Quinn that follow an isolated protagonist as he journeys through majestic and ethereal vistas. All of the artists are united in their evocation of time, memory and materiality in relation to nature.