26st September – 8th October, open daily 11 – 6pm
Private view 28th September, 6 – 9pm
Fitzrovia Gallery is delighted to host Imagine Wild, an exhibition of paintings, works on paper, and sculptures by ecological artist Addy Gardner. Alongside these works feature a series of photographs of wildflowers by Selly Gardner-Morrison.
Imagine Wild is the accumulation of Gardner’s artistic practice developed over the past years in response to a dedicated interest in and support of rewilding[1]. Gardner, whose painting career stretches over twenty years, shifted her attention to themes found in her surrounding Oxfordshire landscape during the pandemic and has since made this a focus in both personal and artistic life. Her purpose with this exhibition is to raise awareness about the plight of biodiversity in the U.K. As source material for her paintings and drawings Gardner uses what she refers to as ‘intersections between human living spaces and natural environments’; aerial views of suburban areas, outdated maps, plans for building schemes and press photography of flooded areas. Heavily abstracted, the works evoke both a sense of our strong emotional and physical connection to nature and the methods by which we ‘other’ it. The sculptures, equally imposing, are re-enactments of nature entrapped: plants and animals confined with synthetic materials. The exhibition title – Imagine Wild – takes its cue from the potential, by our own will, to replace any entrapment with acceptance of all forms of life and embrace wilderness.
Gardner uses exclusively biodegradable packaging for artworks and advocates environmentally friendly shipping methods for acquisitions.
Imagine Wild opens Tuesday 26th September and is open daily 11-6pm until 8th October
Private View Thursday 28th September 6 – 9pm. All welcome.
For further details or a list of works, contact Addy Gardner on addygardner.art@gmail.com
[1] Rewilding is an ecological approach aimed at increasing biodiversity and restoring natural processes whilst reducing human influence on ecosystems. Rewilding Britain was founded in 2015. The organisation has called for the reintroduction of near-extinct predator species and, in 2020, called for natural regeneration to be the default approach to woodland creation.
