UnNaturally
January 18 - March 15, 2003
USF Contemporary Art Museum
Roxy Paine, Dry Rot, 2001.
UnNaturally features over 40 visually stunning works by fifteen artists who employ artificial materials to create simulations of nature that explore the frequently blurred boundary between culture and our environment, raising provocative questions about the mediated environment in which we live. UnNaturally plays on our nostalgia for an idealized pre-industrial past in which human beings and nature coexisted harmoniously in an unspoiled landscape.
Artists includes Chris Astley, Gregory Crewdson, Jacci Den Hartog, Allan deSouza, Keith Edmier, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Jason Middlebrook, Nicoletta Munroe, Roxy Paine, Michael Pierzynski, Marc Quinn, Michelle Segre, Alyson Shotz, Frances Whitehead and Clara Williams. New works by Roxy Paine, courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, New York, are included for the USF CAM premier.
The work, with its studied verisimilitude and occasional deadpan use of irony, suggests that the natural world can be reproduced with man-made materials just like any other mass-produced commercial product. The exhibition, which highlights the tour-de-force craftsmanship and sardonic humor evident in much of the artwork being made today, is divided into three categories encompassing sculpture, photography, and mixed media installations.
Traveled by ICI, New York.
Eva Leitolf, All Quiet and Mute, 2000.
Gregory Crewdson, Untitled, 1994.
Michelle Segre, Untitled, 2000.
Michael Perzynski, Hollywood Reservoir, 1997.