Curated by Nina Horisaki-Christens

NURTUREart Non-Profit, Inc. is pleased to present Interface: Nature, a group exhibition curated by Nina Horisaki-Christens, opening on Friday, April 3rd at the NURTUREart Gallery at 910 Grand Street in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Featured artists include Jillian Conrad, Lauren Davies, Nicholas des Cognets, Lisa Dillin, Taro Hattori, Katarina Jerinic, Harri Kallio, Miranda Maher, B.J. Vogt and Åsa Elzén & Markus Wetzel. In the 1660s, Robert Boyle invented an air pump and forever changed the the relationship between Western humans and their environment. By subjecting humans and animals to scientific experiments, he demonstrated that no longer did the living world need to be directly experienced, as in the tradition of “Natural History”. Rather, an understanding of “Nature” and natural laws could more accurately be achieved by witnessing and analyzing controlled experiments within constructed laboratories. Today, the perceived categories of “Man”, “Animal”, and “Nature” are ever-more entrenched. Even as human civilization marches into an era of environmentalism and “green” living, becoming increasingly aware of the powers of the natural world, this basic dualism remains. Humans stand alone, separated from the rest of our world by our seemingly unique communication and reasoning abilities.

Using a variety of approaches, the artists included in Interface: Nature question the traditional Western division of humans from the rest of nature. Several works reference our desire to impose foreign logic on natural experiences; others illuminate the failure of our bodies to function with animal efficiency. Some imply a danger inherent in this understanding of the world. Interface: Nature explores the contradictions and complexities of this human/nature conceptual divide in ways that are at once profound, unique, and amusing.