Conversing with the Natural World

There is a sense of a disconnection to nature in our society at present. We are in a period of time when the realisation of having ignored our environment and the simultaneous knowledge that we are destroying it, is evident. By recognising this, our beliefs are developing from the notion that we are born INTO this world, to that we are actually born OUT of this world, and therefore must be naturally connected. This dilemma is nudging us to start questioning, listening, seeing and feeling at a much deeper level. Conversing with the Natural World will show artworks which can be seen, read and felt as representations of four artist’s experiences in forming this bond, by listening intensely to nature. It will feature Arja Välimäki, Katya Peteskaya, Alexandra Mitchell and Paula Walker.

Opening Thursday 27th April | 6–8pm.

Exhibition continues until Sunday 7th May.

Gallery open Tuesday–Saturday 11am–6pm | Sunday 11am–4pm.

Alexandra Mitchell
Alexandra Mitchell is an emerging Sydney based artist currently working in the mediums of sculpture and installation. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours)/Arts at UNSW Art & Design/UNSW in May 2016. Her work often uses the transience and fragility of installation art as a vehicle to discuss themes of place, memory and the environment.

Arja Välimäki
Finnish born, Arja Välimäki is an Australian-based artist, who starts her daily practise with a coastal walk where she finds an exultant connection to nature. She draws her inspiration from the microscopic details, the natural world and bird’s eye views of the landscape.

Paula Walker
Paula Walker is a Sydney based emerging artist who currently works out of her studio space in Redfern. Walker recently graduated with a Master of Art at UNSWAD. Her sculptural works are diverse in medium and investigate the world with a deep curiosity of what lies beneath or above it.

Katya Petetskaya
Katya Petetskaya explores the politics of contamination through oil spill sites in different parts of the world. She is fascinated with these sites as unique and distinctive nature-culture, landscape-human interactions. Combining the language and materials of landscape painting she disrupts traditional readings of this genre while also commenting on humanity’s inability to overcome their destructiveness toward nature.