SUMMIT, NJ — Reeves-Reed Arboretum will be kicking off its summer season of the arts with its newest exhibit, “Earthscapes: Emerging to a brighter tomorrow.” Curated by Executive Director Jackie Kondel, the exhibit will be on view from Monday, June 14, to Sunday, Oct. 31, in the Wisner House Gallery and features paintings and sculptures by Brooklyn-based contemporary neonaturalist artist Pamela Casper. Spanning more than 12 years, the show traverses the breadth of the artist’s inquiry into the natural environment and the nuance of humanity’s uneasy relationship with nature.
Casper’s plein air paintings, which welcome visitors into the Wisner House foyer, form a natural dialogue with the sylvan surroundings at the arboretum. The subsequent gallery introduces guests to Casper’s “The Tornado Series,” created from 2007 to 2015 and documenting imagined landscapes that reveal the impact of human waste and pollution on natural cycles, such as pollination and water habitats. The tornado as a formal element dominates these paintings, serving as a metaphor for upheaval and uncontrolled natural forces.
In her recent paintings, watercolor and oil on canvas, the artist has produced imagined renderings of the hidden aspects of our subterranean world. These works probe aspects of nature that we rarely engage with, tapping into various perspectives of this hidden habitat through both microscopic and macroscopic lenses.
Finally, the artist utilizes barbed wire and other found materials, such as feathers and wood, in her sculptures “Carnival of Insects,” “Abandoned Nests” and “Ghost Birds,” which deal with themes of extinction and form a site-specific installation in the gallery.
Guests will be provided with a departure point to consider nature through the lens of the built environment’s impact on ecosystems, along with a window into a personal consideration of how individual actions form a collective impact on the natural world. This work reminds us that we have roots in the ground and that humanity is responsible for ensuring environmental conservation for generations to come.
All works are for sale, and the artist will donate 30 percent of each sale to the arboretum. The public is invited to meet Pamela Casper at a reception on Thursday, June 24, from 7 to 9 p.m. Reeves-Reed Arboretum is located at 165 Hobart Ave. in Summit. For more details about the exhibit and to confirm gallery hours before visiting, visit reeves-reedarboretum.org.