Nature vs. culture
“Theories of the Earth,” a two-person exhibition of drawings, sculpture, photographs and installations on display through April 9 at Wheaton’s Beard and Weil Galleries, was highlighted recently in the arts section of the Boston Globe.
Globe correspondent Cate McQuaid calls the creative pairing of artists Beth Lipman and Lauren Fenterstock “stunning,” noting the “beauty and ambition” of their works and “the lovely way they fit together.” But she also offers a criticism: questioning the way the artists, and others, view culture and nature as adversaries.
The writer looks specifically at Lipman’s all-glass installation, “Laid (Time-) Table with Cycads,” which she calls a “picture of exorbitance” revealing “nature’s persistence in the face of culture,” and at Fenterstock’s “The Order of Things”—a series of cabinets covered in black shells and other objects—which she calls a “dark and foreboding cornucopia.”
Those who may be curious about the artists’ intentions—their thoughts on the relationship between culture and nature as well as other subjects—can attend a talk by both women on Wednesday, April 6. The talk will begin at 5 p.m. at Wheaton’s Watson Fine Arts Center, in Ellison Lecture.