Flora Nova: Painting Nature Now

Flora Nova: Painting Nature Now

July 1 - July 31, 2021

Flora Nova: Painting Nature Now, which features recent work by five gifted artists who each regard the natural world in a unique and compelling way. Rose Frantzen, Lara Call Gastinger, Sarah Margaret Gibson, Alex Merritt, and Katie Whipple were invited to participate by the Sugarlift team and guest curator Peter Trippi, who notes that Flora Nova offers “a thrilling snapshot of the possibilities being explored by artists who not only see but feel their fertile subject matter.” On view at Sugarlift are ravishing beauty and the wondrous intricacy of botanical forms, but also glimpses of the inevitability of decay and nature’s propensity for enchantment, mystery, even danger.

Each of this exhibition’s artists is immersed in a deep, ongoing dialogue with nature, yet their aesthetic and technical approaches are little alike. Their individuality reminds us that flowers and other foliage are so diverse in appearance and meaning that we humans could – and surely will – go on forever trying to capture and process them.

Timeless as their effort may be, we can no longer gaze at such art without recalling that climate change triggered by mankind’s carelessness is causing many species of flora to disappear. All the more reason, then, for us to marvel at those that remain, and to do all we can to pass along their visual and emotional power to future generations.