NATURAL WONDERS. New Art from London

NATURAL WONDERS. New Art from London

“Plumage, petals, bristling fur, bared teeth, and wit: we may appreciate, or fear (or both), all of these things, and be dazzled by their ever branching and beautiful ramifications. We, the viewers of art, may think of the art world as a country garden, cultivated but full of natural wonders, the gentle scene of mortal struggles, the stage on which living things act out their strategies of display, camouflage, mimicry, feigning and intimidation”

High Art Lite, Julian Stallabrass

Drawing from Julian Stallabrass’ depiction of the contemporary art world as a country garden, NATURAL WONDERS. New Art from London immerses the viewer in the creative landscape of London, with its thrilling mix of “plumage, petals, bristling fur, bared teeth, and wit.” The curiosities one encounters along the way — at times provocative, at times playful, at times perplexing — speak to the incredible diversity and possibility of the city, which is unique in having maintained its prominence as a cultural capital, constantly absorbing and assimilating new people, information and ideas from across the globe.

True to London’s dynamic nature, NATURAL WONDERS presents twenty-two artists, whose creative practice ranges over a wide spectrum of media and subject matter. The exhibition’s installation locates Stallabrass’ country garden in the urban context of the global capital. The unexpected angles and industrial materials echo the erratic structure of the city, leading the viewer on a journey through an abstracted urban environment. Around every corner, this environment offers up genuine wonders, whose distinctive styles are nevertheless united by certain intellectual and aesthetic correspondences, which make sense of the diversity and daring of the London art scene, in much the same way that a city block can make sense out of a collection of distinct buildings.

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