The Barbican Conservatory, London, United Kingdom. Architect: Chamberlin, Powell and Bon. Photo © Taran Wilkhu. All images courtesy of Olivia Broome and Hoxton Mini Press In the mid-20th century, during reconstruction following World War II, an architectural style emerged in the U.K. and Europe that favored bare, industrial building materials, a monochrome palette, and angular […]
“Coltivazione del Sé” (2021), Cassino, Italy. All images © ONIRO, shared with permission Greenery abounds in the large-scale murals of Italian artist ONIRO, who often focuses on themes of interconnectedness and balance, especially between humans and the natural world. In “Coltivazione del Sé,” or “self-cultivation,” a human form emerges from the leaves and shadows of […]
‘Les Lalanne: Zoophites,’ Kasmin, New York. All photos by Charlie Rubin, courtesy of Kasmin, shared with permission Now obsolete, the term zoophytes once referred to organisms that exhibited both animal and plant characteristics. It’s also an apt title for a poetic exhibition of sculptures blending beastly and botanical forms by the late Claude (1925-2019) and […]
All images © Fidencio Fifield-Perez, shared with permission Fidencio Fifield-Perez’s Dacaments series began as a response to the bureaucracy of the U.S. immigration system. The Oaxaca-born artist immigrated with his family as a child, making him eligible for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). To qualify and retain his status, he needed to collect official […]
Courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library In the early 19th century, German naturalist Lorenz Oken quickly established himself as a leader in the Naturphilosophie movement, a current of Idealism, which attempted to comprehend a total view of nature by investigating its theoretical structure—a precursor to the natural sciences as we know them today. Oken’s seminal […]
“Bustle” (2024), acrylic and gouache on wood panel, 48 x 48 inches. All images courtesy of Western Exhibitions, shared with permission In Persuasions, artist Edie Fake turns their attention to the wise, enduring insights of plants. The new series of acrylic and gouache paintings expands Fake’s bold visual language to incorporate flowers, which they render […]
“Ambush.” All photos © Cynthia James, shared with permission In the 1901 book, The Life of the Bee, Nobel prize-winning author Maurice Maeterlick wrote, “If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.” Regardless of determining an exact range of years for such a catastrophe, […]
The touch-me-not plant, officially known as mimosa pudica, quickly contracts its leaves when shaken or brushed by assumed predators. When one of these specimens senses danger like a nearby herbivore ready to take a bite, calcium erupts within its system, prompting exposed areas to recoil. Scientists have known since the 1980s that other plants, not […]
“Triticum” (2020), wooden platform and flame-shaped borosilicate glass, 26 x 27 centimeters. Photo by Steven van Kooijk. All images © Nataliya Vladychko, shared with permission “After the fire brigades rescued the London Natural History Museum from German incendiaries, Albizia silk-tree seeds bloomed on their herbarium sheets, liberated from two hundred years of dormancy by the precise combination […]
“Clown verdoyant” (2023). All images © Kaori Kurihara, shared with permission Elegant petals, scalloped fans, and seed-like textures coat the Kaori Kurihara’s whimsical ceramic sculptures (previously). She incorporates delicate botanical details with eccentric forms, melding realism with fiction. “I try to associate imaginary plants with a more realistic feeling, so I observe more consciously the […]