Flora & Fauna is a small group exhibition presented in two parts, featuring local, national and international artists whose works transcend representation with dream-like observations of environmental themes. Part one of the exhibition ran March 5 through April 30, featuring artists Lena Klett, Jóse Bermúdez, Daniella Napolitano, Lynda Frese, Jonathan Bond and Teresa Villegas. Part Two of the exhibition runs May 6 through September 6, featuring artists Lex Gjurasic and Jackie Brink.
Lena Klett connects with her surroundings through careful observation and genuine interaction with natural objects. Her abstractions capture the freedom of play while her attention to detail slows time and heightens the sense of wonder.
Jóse Bermúdez was a prolific painter, sculptor and photographer. He set the stage for his photographic still-life series in the outdoor alcove built into his home. Intriguing narratives are revealed in his arrangements of everyday, mundane elements from the kitchen and collections of keepsakes juxtaposed in shrines to memory.
Daniella Napolitano depicts the often overlooked, misidentified or misunderstood. Her loving portraits of wildlife in urban habitats examine the complex relationships among animals, humans and the environment.
Lynda Frese employs photography, collage and tempera painting techniques in her gem-like, surreal landscapes and cinematic botanical studies.
Jonathan Bond’s experience as a writer informs his literary approach to digital collage. Borrowing from textbook illustration and using his own pedestrian photography, he constructs animated sequencing through studies in variation.
Teresa Villegas’s paintings graphically illustrate landscapes of internal and external human experience. Informed by her background in science, her figurative and botanical paintings explore color, emotion and magical realism.
Lex Gjurasic’s, Flower Mounds, explores the idea of home — not only through the lens of childhood comfort, but also through traditional Slavic art’s deep reverence for botanical forms, reflecting her identity as a first-generation American. Her work evokes the joy and solace her Slavic foremothers found in floral embroidery on garments, painted botanical motifs adorning home interiors, intricately decorated eggs and traditional Croatian silver filigree jewelry, especially during uncertain times.
Jackie Brink’s deconstructed Kintsugi introduces surreal, dreamlike elements into the act of repair — organic growths, distortions, and even contradictions — symbolizing the nonlinear and often unpredictable nature of healing. Her process is intentionally ad hoc: glue drips, seams misalign, and additions defy logic, mirroring how people often piece themselves back together using whatever tools are at hand.
