VENICE, CA.- L.A. Louver opened yesterday The Flower Show, an exhibition that celebrates the flower in art, which will continue through September 1st, 2023. The Flower Show includes over 50 artists who work from different perspectives and cultural origins, and who have embraced the floral motif for different ends. Works date from the early 19th century to now, with a focus on contemporary. A range of media is represented including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, film and digital technology.
Ever since the ancient Egyptians symbolized the sun and creation with a lotus, flowers have held a place in art. However, within the canon of Western art, until the later decades of the nineteenth century the depiction of the flower was largely relegated to a lower echelon of artistic endeavor: often assigned to the decorative and deemed “suitable” for female pursuit. Since the birth of modern art this has changed: the motif has given artists the freedom to explore a multiplicity of issues, including the body, spirituality and the environment, in addition to a universe of human emotion – from love, joy, abundance and hope, to resilience, nostalgia and loss – through modalities including expressionism, symbolism and abstraction among others.
To this day, flowers prove to be a rich source of inspiration for artists. In an ever-changing and disappearing natural world, artists have increasingly looked to nature’s beauty, mystery, and mutability. In turn, inspired by the richness of what we see being made today, L.A. Louver is delighted to bring together a diversity of contemporary art inspired by flowers, which we position alongside a small selection of historic works. As well as themes of symbolism, the body and identity, the exhibition emphasizes the use of the motif to address art’s formal concerns.
The Flower Show will be installed throughout all L.A. Louver gallery spaces, and includes the following artists:
Marcellina Akpotojor, Terry Allen, Tony Berlant, Pancrace Bessa (1771- 1846), Mary Beyt, Édouard Boubat (1932-1999), Rebecca Campbell, Paul Caponigro, Nick Cave, Dale Chihuly, Eileen Cowin, Petah Coyne, Amir H. Fallah, Gajin Fujita, Charles Garabedian (1923-2016), Yvette Gellis, Luis González Palma, Penelope Gottlieb, Glenn Hardy Jr., David Hockney, Dion Johnson, Flora Kao, Rachel Lachowicz, Birdie Lusch (1903-1988), Heather Gwen Martin, Patrick Martínez, Enrique Martínez Celaya, Tony Matelli, Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Thom Mayne, Jacquelyn McBain, Shaun McCracken, Lauren Doolin McMillen, Ana Mendieta (1948-1985), Adolphe Monticelli (1824-1886), Jiha Moon, Kathy Moss, Stas Orlovski, Christopher Pate, Zemer Peled, Vanessa Prager, Astrid Preston, Paula Rösler (1875- 1941), Sandra Mendelsohn Rubin, Alison Saar, Tsherin Sherpa, Raychael Stine, Don Suggs (1945-2019), teamLab, Jennifer Vanderpool, Matt Wedel, Faith Wilding, Tom Wudl.
A fully illustrated online catalogue accompanies The Flower Show with text by Elizabeth East, L.A. Louver Director and co-curator of the exhibition.
