The exhibition Persistence of Flora presents the work of three artists who address the power of Nature and its omnipresence in the midst of human constructs. Magnolia Laurie, Pam Rogers and Leslie Shellow interpret this relationship between nature and industry, the organic and the inorganic, and the cycles of civilization in three distinct forms.
Magnolia Laurie confronts human mechanizations head on, literally fabricating constructions that uphold paintings which incorporate nature into mechanized settings. Each image calls forth a feeling of industrial decay and nature’s triumph over it.
Pam Rogers’ irrepressible gardens suspend from the ceiling and burst from wall pipes with an optimistic enthusiasm. All of the works use organic material; from the flowers and leaves of the installations to the pigments used in her works on paper. Here, the strong survive.
The crawling sculptures of Leslie Shellow elicit tricks of scale. A magnified amoeba lilts across the architecture of the space. One could be floating on the plate of a microscope. Shellow employs the use of recycled material in this installation, revisiting the idea of life and death, and the cyclical nature of being.