https://www.berlincollectiv.com/exhibition
Naturartis
11 Art Works by 11 Artists Where Nature Plays a Role
Nature can be an object to examine closely or a place to walk into or to look at while passing by. Nature as plants and animals, flora and fauna, in relation to human being. Vegetation domesticated by humans as a park or a garden or landscapes as empty spaces to construct roads or habitations. And nature as a mysterious force.
Nature is an ongoing inspiring source and motif for visual arts, as for some artists of the Berlin Collectiv, and this in very different ways and with diverse media/techniques.
In the works by Alice Garik and Gary Brewer the vegetal seem to be observed in a closeup „scientific“ way, the constitution, the fibers and cells are pictured x-ray like in Garik’s „Iris Sparks“, with the Palladium technique on Japanese gampi paper. Fantastic creatures of nature abstracted in Gary Brewer’s painting recall digital imagery. The title „The emergence of form“ refers to the natural birth of something. Elena Lyakir’s photography „Fading memories“ of her series „City parks romance“ show us trees, in the middle of the woods – but a clipped panoramic view of soil and trunks – they seem to breath creating a lively structure. Malado Balwin’s oil on canvas „Travel painting“ shows trees next to a road or a railway, seen in passing by in the wintertime, without leaves. They seem static and lonely, vertical forms, while a large paintbrush in between creates the movement in the picture, giving the feeling of passing by. Javier Barrera juxtaposes flora, fauna and human in his mixed media aquatint etching „The messengers (MO)“, creating a portrait image of a hybrid of human and animal on a floral background. The photo montage „Amazon women“ by Nicole Cohen shows us a female shape from behind, like a ghost, dressed from another time; the figure is mysteriously rushing away on the path, absorbed in a park with green palms. The painter Gwen Kerber is catching the atmosphere and temperature of the plants and flowers in a garden through thick applied colorful paintbrushes in her painting „The Temperature of the Air II“. In Marcie Kaufman’s mixed media work „Crossroads“ and Paul Paiement’s work „Nexus-Gunnison2“ in Colorado, the divided and constructed landscape by humans are motifs for a surreal collage compositions. In Daniel Gigerly’s Video „Mirror“ a desolate empty landscape with lonely houses and old graves is the location for a mysterious scenery while the video work „Flood Wall“ by Valerie Fuchs is recreating a strong element of nature: water. Projected onto the full height of the 16 foot flood wall’s river side, the installation appears to reverse the intention of the flood wall, making a flood appear like a enlighten urban waterfall.
Text by Katia Hermann, Berlin, November 2020
