Meet the Artists| Art, science, and nature at VOLTA 2023
Throughout history, people have sought to gain a perspective of their place in the world. From the early Renaissance pioneers to Impressionism and 20th century Abstract Expressionism, artists have looked to nature as place of solace and for inspiration. Now, as the world looks for solutions that will help imagine a positive climate future, art can continue as a crucial tool to bring scientific ideas to life, as well as act as a tangible format to communicate complex ideas.
Here, we present some of the artists and galleries who will bring these ideas surrounding science and nature to VOLTA 2023.
“I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. ”
Paul Hallahan represented by Hang Tough Contemporary | VOLTA Basel
‘True level digging comes up goes down’ by Paul Hallahan, Acrylic ink and paint on canvas, 160 x 230 cm. Courtesy of Hang Tough Contemporary
Hang Tough Contemporary is a leading contemporary gallery based in Dublin, Ireland. This year, they join us at VOLTA Basel with a solo presentation by Paul Hallahan. The artist’s work takes the form of abstracted interpretations of the world around him and aims to function as a space for contemplation on our relationship with the natural world.
Through a process-based practice, he investigates the belief that art has the power to ground and connect us to the present moment. Using a variety of mediums, Hallahan explores these themes to create work that is simultaneously calming as it is thought-provoking. He often uses raw, semi-transparent canvas, allowing light to move through the work. His artistic practice seeks to question the current position of human beings and facilitates a space for the question: how can we live in harmony with the natural world to protect our future survival?
Jody Rasch and Shanthi Chandrasekar represented by LAMINAproject | VOLTA New York
LAMINAproject presents artwork that integrates ideas, images and metaphors of science to convey fundamental truths about the world, drawing together artists who share an underlying philosophical, rather than stylistic, unity.
‘Supernova’by Shanthi Chandrasekar ,penandinkonpaper,34x26. Courtesy of LAMINAproject
Visitors will be greeted by a cosmology-inspired, site-specific installation entitled Cosmic Vibrations - Raining Gold in the foyer by Shanthi Chandrasekar represented by LAMINAproject. The gallery presents artists who focus on the ideas of science and Shanthi’s work is no different. She is fascinated by cosmology, the study of the origin, evolution and fate of the Universe, and her work combines scientific facts and theories with her own imagination.
’Einstein's Ring VI’, Jody Rasch, Collage paper and acrylic on board, 60x60cm.Courtesy of LAMINAproject
Jody Rasch is inspired by astronomy, biology, and physics. Amongst his other works from LAMINAproject set to feature at VOLTA, he creates collages based on radio astronomy. Playing with scale, he uses small pieces of paper to create large-format works representing even larger images of astronomy that invite us to think about our place in the Universe.
Natalie Collette-Wood represented by Vellum Projects | VOLTA New York
‘The Garden of Hallucinatory Delights’ by Natalie Collette-Wood. Courtesy of Vellum Projects
Vellum Projects’ presentation at VOLTA New York is entitled ‘Nature Bound’: a visual narrative using nature as a muse to explore topics of mythology, popular culture, environmental activism and conservation.
As well as artists Jennifer Deppe Parker, Diana Wege and Marcy Brafman, Vellum Projects presents Natalie Collette-Wood. For over a decade, her work has focused on exploring the intersections between the passage of time, nature and the built environment. Through sculpture, collage and painting, she creates blurred spaces where interiors, building facades and cityscapes merge with the natural world.
The assemblages bring into question scale and permanence, as well as the relationship between urban spaces and the cycles of growth, decay and change that occur in the natural world.
Wieteke Heldens represented by O-68 Gallery | VOLTA New York
‘248’by Wieteke Heldens, Mixed media on canvas, 133 x 103 cm. Courtesy of Art Gallery O-68
Anne-Mie Emons is Director of O-68 Gallery, as well as a previous Professor of Plant Cell Biology, who draws comparison between the process of an artist and researcher. At VOLTA New York, the gallery platforms painter Wieteke Heldens who creates abstract visual forms through processes that explore systems of meaning and states of mattering.
Her work often starts with precisely sized, unprimed canvases, where the sizes in centimetres reflect meaningful numbers in her life. She establishes meaning, purpose, and systems of relation. Discarded materials suddenly have a purpose, and she feels entrusted with the duty to use them to their fullest extent. She uses found or repurposed paint, markers, pencil and pen, using every bit of pigment.
Wieteke's working method is not only about many brushstrokes or stripes, or other actions, but also about the finiteness of them. She works until the felt pen is empty, the paint exhausted. She shows us the finiteness of things and points to finiteness of herself, of us, of our world.
“The intensity of her work makes me feel the intensity of life itself. Wieteke Heldens’s at first sight abstract works implicitly scrape self, soul and society.” Anne-Mie Emons
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