BRATTLEBORO — The natural world has always inspired artists to contemplate themes as diverse as history, science, memory, and spirituality. Eleven contemporary artists are exploring those ideas and more in the exhibition “In Nature’s Grasp,” currently on view at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC).
The public is invited to join a curator tour of the 32 artworks in the exhibit at 7 p.m. May 9.
BMAC director of exhibitions Sarah Freeman and guest curator Michael Abrams will guide visitors through the exhibit, welcoming questions and conversation, including with several of the artists who will join the tour. Admission to the event is free. Registration is recommended, but walk-ins are welcome. To register, visit brattleboromuseum.org or call 802-257-0124. For accessibility questions and requests, email office@brattleboromuseum.org or call 802-257-0124.
The artists featured in the exhibit approach nature both literally and abstractly, some working with landscape imagery and others conjuring ideas of nature through textures, shapes, and color, or through an aspect of their artmaking process.
Their common thread, Freeman explains, is the centuries-old concept of the Sublime in nature, first described by the philosopher Edmund Burke in his 1757 book, "A Philosophical Enquiry." Burke noted that certain experiences supply a thrill that mixes fear and delight, which he called the Sublime. He declared the Sublime to be the strongest human passion, and observed that experiences and sensations elicited by nature were more powerful examples of the Sublime than any others.
“All of the artists in ‘In Nature’s Grasp’ offer different visual and tactile interpretations of our fragile living environment,” Freeman says. “They each take viewers to different realms of the senses.”
Athena LaTocha, Richard Fishman and Jai Hart build textured sculptural works that evoke land and water: LaTocha recreates, with unfurling rolls of paper, the lava flows that formed the basaltic cliffs of Great Falls, New Jersey; Fishman’s rock-like sculptures resemble the earth’s molten core and display intricate details of plants and insects; and Hart’s bright, canvas shapes flow energetically onto the gallery floor like a waterfall or canyon river.
Shawn Dulaney’s colorful abstract paintings hint at geological topography but also play with a traditional horizon line, the ebb and flow of tides, and the fusing of sea and sky. Marcy Hermansader’s works are dreamlike with softly spiritual vignettes and glowing otherworldly illuminations. Lily Prince’s abstract landscapes capture New York’s Hudson Valley, the mountains and valleys of northern Italy, and the American west with undulating patterns that emanate color and light. Eileen Murphy intertwines natural forms with subtly surreal vistas, bringing to mind the deft hands of Renaissance artists.
Photographer Renée Greenlee and filmmaker Jeffrey Blondes both reveal natural worlds layered in mist, with familiar landscapes balancing between reality and the abstract. Greenlee’s works are from a series titled “Liminal State,” with multiple exposures and reflections of color and light, as well as memories from different times. Blondes’s video images of natural decay shift slowly, drawing the viewer’s attention.
Ron Milewicz’s glowing landscape paintings, inspired by the woods of the Hudson Valley, convey a hint of the supernatural, with trees appearing to dance and wave, moving beyond their stationary nature. The large-scale works of Rick Harlow are almost objects of meditation, incorporating a paint-spattering technique that imbues them with a feeling of electric energy but also stillness.
“These artists are inviting the viewer to connect with the idea of the Sublime in nature,” Freeman says. “They each hold their own unique reverence for our planet, for its awesomeness, beauty, and capacity to astonish and thrill.”
“In Nature’s Grasp” is on view through June 16.
