Natures, Natural and Unnatural
17 Mar – 14 Jun Whitechaple Gallery
Turner Prize nominated artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (b.1977) known for her striking figurative paintings of imagined characters, selects works inspired by nature from the V-A-C collection.
Celebrating the arrival of Spring is Natures, Natural and Unnatural, a display that uses nature as inspiration in different ways: as still life, in the abstract, as a feeling or as an environment. Through painting, photography and film this exhibition considers how people interact with nature, both indoors and outdoors. Indeed, it is a force that is as sublime as it is threatening. The artists herein explore the intoxicating sensuality of the floral scent: flora, fauna and human nature itself.
Highlights include David Hockney’s 30 Sunflowers (1996), a vibrantly coloured oil on canvas, and Peter Doig’s large-scale painting Green Trees(1998) depicting an imagined forest. Also featured is a video by Estonian artist Jan Toomik, Dancing with Dad (2003), which shows the artist dancing in a sunlit woodland where his father was buried and Andy Warhol’sbrightly coloured screen-print of a cow.
The exhibition highlights the V-A-C collection, Moscow as part of the Whitechapel Gallery’s programme of opening up rarely seen collections from around the world.
