Gallery 151 is proud to announce Colors Insulting to Nature, a three person show featuring Eteri Chkadua, Gocha Chkadua, and Peter Grass from December 13 to January 19. The collected works create a hyperreality where nature is examined through patterns of symmetry, vibrant color, and the transformation of materials unnatural by function and re-invented by design. With an immersive installation, we get to walk through a different type of garden, one that reminds us we cannot ignore the effect our actions have on the environment. As part of Gallery 151’s ongoing efforts in philanthropy following the devastation in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, a portion of the proceeds from Colors Insulting to Nature will be used in collaboration with Lifesaver, a humanitarian company responsible for providing safe drinking water for thousands worldwide with innovating water filtration systems.

Georgian painter Eteri Chkadua creates a dialogue between nature, identity, and culture as part of a continuing series using invented personae along with imagined versions of herself. Colors Insulting to Nature features a never before seen painting by Eteri that pits a classic art historical pose against a black abyss framed by hydrangeas. Artist and designer Gocha Chkadua’s hundreds of flowers are hand manufactured from discarded plastic, the former homes of Georgian mineral water, cooking oils, beer, yogurt, shampoo, household cleaning products, and personal apple pies that transform into a garden born from urban waste. Their assembly, a collaboration between Gocha and Eteri, encompasses an ironic take on pollution and waste, a refusal of mass-produced artist materials, and a taxonomy of socio-political artifacts that engage nationality and an imagined, post-industrial natural world. Peter Grass creates strikingly flat, psychedelic paintings. His colorful forms, reminiscent of flora or biological structures, speak to the spectrum of the natural and manmade where language, mathematics, and color are equalized under the rubric of pattern. From disparate practices, these artists together affirm the diversity and depth of our relationship with the natural world with striking vitality, innovation, and color.