Earth Art Exhibit: View QuickTime movie (streaming large file, may take a moment to start)

Earth Art — Art in nature, nature in art. Renowned Canadian and international artists create one-of-akind environmental art installations throughout our cultivated gardens and natural lands. Plus works from previous Earth Art exhibits at the Gardens.

Curated by John Grande.

FEATURED ARTISTS
(click below for artist statement, bio and images of works at Royal Botanical Gardens):
Ichi Ikeda (Japan)
Ko, Seung-hyun (Korea)
Ryszard Litwiniuk (Canada)
Dennis Oppenheim (USA)
Urs-P. Twellmann (Switzerland)

ARTIST SPONSOR:


155 Centennial Parkway N., Hamilton

SPONSOR:

Buy your admission ticket and receive a trail map ($2 value)

Earth Art - Evolving Art with Nature
Earth Art’s roots stretch back to the 1960s with a show at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Curator Willoughby Sharp invited artists Walter De Maria, Jan Dibbets, Hans Haacke, Michael Heizer, Richard Long, David Medalla, Robert Morris, Dennis Oppenheim, Robert Smithson, and Gunther Uecker. Together these artists created a new style of installation work – Earth Art.

By 1964, Fredrick Kiesler was exhibiting his visionary Environmental Sculpture at the Guggenheim. In 1970, Robert Smithson crafted a 1500 foot long, 15 foot wide Spiral Jetty made of black basalt rocks and earth. Soon after, Alan Sonfist created what is one of the world’s most significant urban permacultural artworks, Time Landscape (1965-present) bringing ecological awareness to the urban context of New York City.

Earth Art has evolved as an international phenomenon, and over the decades, has become less about concept and more about the aesthetics of integration. It also involves notions of sustainability and site awareness. With its Earth Art initiatives – three shows to date – Royal Botanical Gardens brings great knowledge and expertise in working with nature to integrate the sculptures produced during their Earth Art exhibitions. Collaging and contrasting and building with nature’s materials on-site, the Earth Art shows have brought some of the original progenitors and visionaries such as Dennis Oppenheim, Nils-Udo and Alan Sonfist to produce works here in Canada. Equally we have shifted to focus globally to include artists from Japan (Ichi Ikeda), Korea (Ko), Chile (Pilar Ovalle), and this will continue. With this initiative, RBG is establishing itself as a foremost world venue for the production, creation, invention, exploration and interface of art with nature. May the show go on!

- John Grande

ANNUAL EVENT CALENDAR
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Local toursim organizations also offer events. Click below for more information:
Burlington
Hamilton