KATES-FERRI PROJECTS is thrilled to present SAVAGE GARDEN, an exhibition featuring the works of twelve dynamic artists from February 28 to March 31, with a reception on Friday, March 1, 2024.  

Utilizing imagery of the natural world in their respective works, the artists explore the complex relationship between humanity and nature. Flora, plants, cacti, and landscapes are the essential subjects within the works, addressing the human impact on the environment. Featuring an eclectic mix of paintings and sculptural works, the exhibition includes contributions from artists: Alissa Alfonso, Nicole Basilone, Lujan Candria, Luis Figueroa, Salvador Jimenez Flores, Erika Harrsch, Noormah Jamal, Ernesto Kunde, Juan Alberto Negroni, Cristina Lei Rodriguez, Emilio Perez, and Jingyi Wang.

Flowers are one of the most soothing and well-recognized artistic iconographies. Suggesting wealth and opulence in their still-life form in 17th-century European painting, artists today continue to place flora at the heart of their work to reflect the positionality of modern society to nature. If the 17th century is about capture and control, Negroni’s painting also places his flowers in a rigid constraint. By incorporating bits of manmade ringlets, beads, and sequins like detritus attached to the surface of her work, Rodriguez’s intervention is less invasive but no less harmful to her floral subjects and by extension, nature. Alfonso’s sculptural plants show off many types of flowers with a vibrant range of colors growing out of found and handmade balls. They exemplify plant life’s resilience and ability to grow in difficult conditions, it is humanity that is unable to survive the environmental distress. 

Similar to the flowers in Alfonso’s work, four of the artists specifically employ cacti imagery to represent the adaptability of nature in the face of the world’s harshest conditions. Perhaps the most ecologically conscientious messaging in the show, Flores created glass sculptures with playful anthropomorphic cacti emoting while being on fire – illustrating the need to protect the environment. In Wang’s paintings, she personifies cacti as human figures inhabiting manmade spaces to demonstrate nature’s conformity to man. Jamal’s use of cacti spikes on his ceramic human flower pods signals the tie of man’s fate to nature. Figueroa’s biomorphic cacti paintings also address this interconnectedness by telling the stories of Guajiro culture, an Amerindian group in Colombia and Venezuela. With nature as the central theme of the exhibition, each artist expresses the responsibility humans bear to the well-being of the planet through the cacti.

The remaining artists in the exhibition engage in a dialogue on the environment in their work through various mediums. Perez’s surrealistic paintings merge desert-like conditions with lush green foliage into the same landscape compositions. Similar to Basilone’s all-encompassing floral abstractions or close-ups of palm fronds in Kunde’s acrylic paintings, Perez, Basilone, and Kunde all make the untouched nature inhabit and extend beyond the frame to consume one’s surroundings. Candria’s print-on-fabric of tropical plants and settings also provides an enveloping reach to nature. The beautification and anthropomorphization of Harrsch’s processed branches into feet further articulate the interdependence between man and nature.

The selection of multi-media artworks in SAVAGE GARDEN serves as a powerful commentary on the delicate balance between humanity and the natural world. The artists delve into the dichotomy of nature untouched by mankind's influence and the savage garden that emerges when humanity exploits nature's bounties, creating toxic chemicals and undue burdens upon populations. Curated to provoke thoughtful contemplation, the show invites viewers to reflect on the beauty of nature, the consequences of human intervention, and our interconnectedness with the natural world.

Art Works on View  

Video of exhibition on YouTube