Against Nature is a survey of the emerging scene in the Czech Republic curated by Edith Jerabkova and Chris Sharp. After conducting several dozen studio visits with young artists, the one thing that struck them most was an emphasis on making, the hand made, and thinking through materials while working in more traditional media, such as painting, sculpture and photography. Additionally, the materials artists’ used tended to be if not natural, then materials that had a history. Of course the assumption here is that the emerging art scene is dominated an interest in the natural. But just what is natural? How is that defined? And in contrast to what? In a period in history when the very notion of nature and the so-called natural is so mediated as to be unrecoverable, the artist in this exhibition collectively participate in a very contemporary dilemma. Representative of the effervescent developments of the emerging scene in the Czech Republic, this timely gathering of artists also speaks a number of socio-political issues accompanying the production of contemporary art in general today.
Curators: Edith Jeřábková and Chris Sharp
