The Reality of Nature at Launch Gallery

Above, Catherine Ruane’s Burn Joshua Burn

The Reality of Nature at Launch LA Gallery through September 30th, is a profoundly beautiful show with a profound message – what is the reality of nature? Is it all wonder and light and the embrace of flora and fauna? Is it a force unto itself, and one often to be reckoned with? Do we really look at the natural world or simply exist in it? These are just a few of the questions this exhibition posits.

If you’ve ever heard the expression “natural wonders,” then you’ll see just that in this exhibition that offers a variety of mediums and powerful portrayals of both the natural world and man’s interaction with it.

According to curator Kristine Schomaker, above, this lushly beautiful exhibition had a political and social genesis. “After the election, I participated in the Women’s March which was a fulfilling experience. I felt like somehow I was making a difference. I wanted to do something else where I could use my experience and my voice to talk about important issues in todays world. My brother is passionate about science and frustrated with the climate change deniers and had been talking about it on Facebook. The more I thought about it, I realized I knew so many artists whose work focuses solely on the environment, nature, science in one way or another. So I decided to put together a show continuing the dialogue about the external forces of nature rather than the internal.”

The result: a truly wonderful pairing of thirteen artists: Terry Arena, Andrea Bersaglieri, Jeanne Dunn, Samantha Fields, Jennifer Gunlock, Virginia Katz, JJ L’Heureux, Erika Lizée, Constance Mallinson, Catherine Ruane, Steve Seleska, Marie Thibeault, and Devon Tsuno, the exhibition blossoms with color, light, and meaning.

Here we have Catherine Ruane’s monochrome graphite and pencil lushness with “Burn Joshua Burn” – a desert plant,  perfectly detailed, surviving in a harsh environment, so wildly successful at its adaptation that it is spilling onto the gallery floor.

Erika Lizée’s site-specific trompe l’oeil work shimmers in blue, a cosmic creation, a mysterious sea-swirl alien form seems ready to emerge from “The Seed of Life.”

So supple, sinuous, and both serene and emerging: in an instant, this piece portends change.

Below, Devon Tsuno’s acrylic and spray paint “Watershed (Los Angeles River)” series gives us the fluidity of water with the tension surrounding that which is the LA River – harnessed, abused, wild at heart, reclaiming it’s own power. This is water as stained glass, broken glass, sunlight and storm.

Below, artist Jennifer Gunlock with her dimensional mixed media gesso, acrylic, photo collage,  on wood board, “Landmark.”  This is an urban take on the environment, at once made of man and overtaking what is manmade.

Below a detail of one of the works presented by Andrea Bersaglieri, “Suburban Tuft.” Her oil on canvas is perfectly drawn, delicately rendered – but her subjects are hardy, unruly survivors, eking a claim to patch of earth.

Below, the almost shockingly vibrant abstract oil by Marie Thibeault, “Deposition.” If nature had a house in the city, this just might be it. The words ‘urban jungle’ come to mind.

Below Steve Seleska’s incredibly dimensional work makes viewers want to dive in and explore his depths. The mixed media “Landscapism #7” is a natural world gone askew, surely – yet the silvery, spidery tangle is as alluring as it is frightening.

Among the works undepicted, the gorgeous, diminutive detail of Terry Arena’s stunning graphite on metal platter, tiny and perfect works revealing lemons, rosemary, and one of her most poignant subjects, bees stands out with its intricate lines and grace; as does the “Ross Ice Shelf” in vivid, painterly blue of J.J. L’Heureux’s photographic work.  Jeanne Dunn’s acrylic and oil works of trees are graceful and seemingly sentient. They dance, they embrace, as living beings do.

In short – don’t miss the closing, this Saturday from 3-5, which includes conversation with the artists.

Launch Gallery is located at 170 S. La Brea in Los Angeles.

• Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis