Mankind's pretty good at fucking everything good up. The concept of Nature Morte paintings addresses just this: When an artist makes the conscious decision to capture the inherent beauty of something-anything-he is partially responsible for the ultimate destruction of that very thing he was attempting to portray. Just by imposing his own perception, the artist kills its very purity. You following us here? So really, no matter how well-intentioned, how well-meaning man may be, we still ultimately fuck it all up. That's really what it comes down to. “Nature Morte/Dead Nature” is a group exhibition of contemporary artists investigating the concept of capturing the beauty of nature at the very moment of perfection-but by creating these works of art, the very object of beauty must be destroyed in order to preserve its image. Penelope Gottlieb considers our abuse of nature through paintings of exploding floral bouquets. Ori Gersht's photographs address the fragility of nature. It's about the perpetual discord between man and nature. But really, we're just good at fucking everything up.
May 10-July 5, 2008
