FLORAL FLORA
Affective Care is pleased to present our 3rd show, exhibiting art in a healing environment during this unprecedented pandemic.
Floral Flora: Plant-Based Art is a show of emotional support plants. From tufted mushroom wall sculptures to garments painted to blend into landscapes, the artworks in this show explore our post-quarantine connection with nature while providing a meditative respite to our new technology-enabled world.
David Benjamin Smith, Ariel Adkins, Brianna Harlan, Jac Lahav,
Brian Keith Stephens, eteam, Erik Hanson
Floral Flora: Plant-Based Art
Affective Care : 300 West 72 St, #1D
Opening : Feb 5th, 4pm - 6pm
Show Run: Feb 5 - May 15 - BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
SHOW WALKTHROUGH
ABOUT THE SHOW
The artworks in this show explore our post-quarantine connection with nature while providing a meditative respite to our new technology-enabled world.
The COVID-19 pandemic made us aware of our connection with and vulnerability to nature’s vicissitudes. Nowhere is this more apparent than NYC, where green space is at a premium. At the same time, pandemic life drastically decreases our physical connection to other humans, highlighting the importance of our access to the natural world.
Floral Flora examines the rhizomatic healing power of plants while reconnecting viewers to both novel and forgotten interpretations of nature.
From David Benjamin Smith’s tufted mushroom wall pieces to Ariel Adkins's painted garments, artists explore nature in various media. Jac Lahav shows two new paper mache succulents reminiscent of his childhood in Israel. eteam presents a meditative video on the intersection of tech and nature which vibes nicely with Erik Hanson’s thickly layered flower paintings. Brian Keith Stephens shares a traditional layered painting of a vase, while Brianna Harlan’s hand sculpture explores her role giving flowers to Black people during public events.
Together, the works in this show form a new type of healing garden, countering our isolation and increasing reliance on technology. Yet we also remember the unspoken fact that technology, hyper-capitalism, and climate change are killing off our green space. This show contends that perhaps nature and technology are not so at odds.
Nature, especially tree roots, form their own internet. This wood wide web passes along information and connects discrete organisms. As such, the artists in Floral Flora are joining this information supertrail. These artists ask what we can learn from slowing down and what benefit can be derived from vegetating. Floral Flora provides plant-based food for thought, focusing on a new hybrid artistic organisms that offer both cultural impact and social healing.
ABOUT THE SPACE & ORGANIZER
Affective Care (Space): is a working mental health center dedicated to providing cutting edge solutions to life’s hardest problems. What better place to have a dialogue with healing artworks? This is the 3rd show at Affective Care’s Manhattan facility and the first of the “Emotional Support Animals and Vegetables” exhibition series.
Jac Lahav (Organizer): Lahav is an artist, curator, and activist. He has had over 6 solo museum shows at Longview MFA (TX), Jewish Museum (NY), Florence Griswold Museum (CT), and more. His curatorial work has been written about in Hyperallergic, NY Times, Gothamist, ArtFCity, among others. In 2020 he helped form Public Art For Racial Justice Education, which creates murals, educational programs, and amplifies BIPOC artists.