MANMADE BY NATURE,

Curated by Natasha Schlesinger 

September 5 – October 26, 2019

UNIX Gallery is pleased to announce curator Natasha Schlesinger’s ManMade By Nature, a dynamic group exhibition featuring artists Yorgo Alexopoulos, Jonny Detiger, Norbert Brunner, Vanessa Harden, Stephanie Hirsch, Jessica Lichtenstein, Zheng Lu, Jason Middlebrook, Tatyana Murray, Jonathan Paul, and Christian Voigt, on view from September 5 – October 26, 2019 at the gallery’s 513 West 26th Street location.

ManMade By Nature introduces eleven diverse artists who rethink the presentation of nature through the lens of technology by employing innovative materials and working with advanced processes. Conceived as a way to both highlight and reconcile a natural world confronted by dramatic ecological changes, each artist showcases work that activates the space with an artistic demonstration underpinned by environmental calls to action.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Yorgo Alexopoulos uses technology to create complex digital “natural” worlds. His immersive works transport the viewer with their combined scale and mixture of color and form.

Norbert Brunner invites us into the forest, which he initially captures on his camera and then re-creates through light and layers of glass and crystals, punctuating the overall message of his work with one single, substantial word.

Jonny Detiger’s works and designs transcend the mundane, celebrate life, and joyfully bridge the gap between the everyday and the sublime. His signature style of intricate line art and mixed media sculpture takes us on an exploration of human interaction through a kaleidoscope of iconic imagery, text, color and light. The artist’s work for the current show is a sound installation, allowing the viewer to interact with the work in a multisensory capacity.

Vanessa Harden is a multi-disciplinary artist and gardener provocateur.  As the founder of Subversive Gardener, the platform that encourages public intervention and design exploration and promotes guerrilla gardening in urban spaces, Harden will present an urban gardening kit called Tools by Q, demonstrating an actual planting intervention within the space.

Stephanie Hirsch, who traditionally works with materials more closely associated with “women’s work”, contemplates the theme of nature through an animated video installation that brings the outside within an indoor space.

Jessica Lichtenstein creates virtual natural worlds incorporating the female body as a mechanism to explore deeper themes of power, female representation, fetishism and objectification, provoking tensions that challenge the viewer to confront his or her own gaze.

Zheng Lu is an artist who examines the natural world in all of its complexity in order to recreate its elements through technological processes that focus on the spectacle of beauty.

Jason Middlebrook extracts his materials from nature, employing tree trunks as part of his creative process and a subject for exploration, resulting in the transformation of land elements into large-scale wall sculptures.

Tatyana Murray’s trees of light materialize by drilling and etching the silhouettes on layers of glass that are lit from the back. They function as ethereal reminders of the fragility of nature.

Jonathan Paul’s (aka Desire Obtain Cherish) body of work explores the decision-making process we undergo while chasing the elusive state of happiness. This cultural commentary is echoed in his Happiness Guaranteed series, which features inorganic, kinetic flowers powered by solar panels. Uniquely arranged, these solar flowers react to the artwork’s embedded LED lights resulting in a gyrating symphony for the eyes.

Christian Voigt is known for his impressive photography, created using a large-format camera, capturing extraordinary architecture and landscapes. Voigt has photographed great exterior monuments, from the highest peaks of Mount Everest to the stone deities of Siem Reap, Cambodia. Voigt’s result is a reverie that the photographer expresses as pure and natural; an illuminated tenor, delivering an inescapable sense of history and verve.

Natasha Roberts will also create a scent that evokes the main theme of the show.

ABOUT THE GALLERY

UNIX Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM. For more information or further inquires please contact Andrew Cole at andrew@unixgallery.com or by phone at 212-209-1572.

Yorgo Alexopoulos

Jonny Detiger

Norbert Brunner

Vanessa Harden

Stephanie Hirsch

Jessica Lichtenstein

Zheng Lu

Jason Middlebrook

Tatyana Murray

Jonathan Paul

Christian Voigt

ManMade By Nature

Curatorial statement by Natasha Schlesinger:

When nature calls, technology might just be the answer and the solution, as artists see nature through the lens of technology. Could it be a way to highlight, celebrate and ultimately save what is most precious on this planet? Could seeing nature through technology in art be the next step to bring attention to what the human race values most ? Life itself.

We find ourselves in a state of a crisis as the planet keeps warming causing billions tons of ice to melt at unprecedented speed, which brings the rising of the seas and creates dramatic and tragic changes to weather pattern such as increasing numbers and strength of hurricanes and floods that result in massive human toll. Climate change is real and human existence is at stake. The solution is at times both overwhelmingly impossible to achieve and right in front of us. What can anyone of us do to help? Can we perhaps take individual and collective small steps as well as inspire others around us to join in the efforts to heal this planet? Can we influence change and celebrate the natural treasures around us?

ManMade By Nature presents eleven artists who rethink how to represent nature through the use of technology whether that means using materials, process or calling attention to the subject itself.

ManMade By Nature, curated by Natasha Schlesinger

thecuriousfrenchy

September 5, 2019