REVISITED ONLINE: May 26, 2020 – Ongoing
Organized by Rory Padeken, associate curator
  • An abstract landscape shows a plant with a small bird perched on it. A white lotus flower is overlaid on the right side, with an angler fish's outline sketched towards the bottom. A red bird inside a circle is to the top left. The backdrop is overlaid with rectangles in muted greens.

    Lisa Adams
    Given That All things Are Equal, 2009
    Oil on panel, 60 × 144 inches
    Gift of Merry Karnowsky and James Panozzo

The precarious relationship between nature and humanity is the subject of this exhibition, drawn primarily from the permanent collection of the San José Museum of Art. The exhibition presents paintings, sculpture, photography, mixed-media works, video, and installation by artists who raise questions about our rampant impact on Earth’s fragile ecosystems. They demonstrate that close observation of the rhythms and cycles that govern the planet can transform our understanding of nature and make our sense of wonder so indestructible that it inspires and admonishes us to impart this awareness to the generations to come.

 

Artists featured in the exhibition include Lisa Adams, Anne Appleby, Chester Arnold, Ruth Asawa, Sandow Birk, Val Britton, Edward Burtynsky, Evan Holm, Chris Jordan, Amy Kaufman, Michael Light, Mayme Kratz, Danae Mattes, Richard Misrach, Judy Pfaff, Nathan Redwood, Sam Richardson, Diana Thater, Alyson Shotz, Kathryn Spence, Kirsten Stolle, and Gail Wight.

 

Press

Man vs. Nature: 'Indestructible Wonder,' Metro Silicon Valley (Metroactive)
August 24, 2016

Indestructible Wonders @ San Jose Museum of Art, Squarecylinder
December 20, 2018

Sponsors

  • Sponsored by Doris and Alan Burgess and supported by a gift from Megan Hayes and Reed Zars, in memory of Janet Gray and Kenneth Hayes.