Caty Forden
Encountering Nature 2
Time and Interconnectivity
project space KIMGO, Berlin
March 29 - May 17, 2025
Opening the spring season, project space KIMGO presents Encountering Nature 2 - Time and Interconnectivity, an introspective exhibition exploring the theme of nature. Showcasing six international artists whose work derives from an intense relationship with the natural world, the exhibition demonstrates the interconnectedness between highly individual art-making approaches, and sheds light on the artists' relationship to the natural world and the brief time spans to experience it.
Anne Bachschuster (Germany) is fascinated by the signs of interconnectedness and interdependence in nature and how she can approach this through her art. She photographs “living tree stumps” - roadside trees which have been felled but continue to grow thanks to the support of other trees in their network. According to scientific studies, these stumps signify the interconnectedness of nature and the mycelial networks that seem to support and influence them. In addition, Bachschuster combines and layers reflections and research to create a uniquely personal vision of the natural world and her place within it. Painting directly on her personal paper trove of drawings, letters, notes, photocopies of her discarded children's books and photographs, she creates new meaning over layers of captured experience, comparable to the earth’s strata we walk upon. The process evokes memories and emotions that become part of the artwork.
Frauke Bohge (Germany) pushes the boundaries between abstraction and figuration. Exploring the ambivalent realms of time and place as cornerstones of landscape painting, she creates atmospherically dense works through precise yet sensitive layering of paint. Her intuitive compositions create pictorial worlds that radiate both lightness and depth. Bohge's paintings are not static scenes of recognizable landmarks, but dynamic descriptions of places tangibly affected by the passage of time. It is as if her paintings have undergone intense weather phenomena, re-emerging to greet us. Her works result from a passionate exploration of color, structure and form, subtly interweaving emotional and narrative elements.
Caty Forden (USA/Italy) commingles elements from memories, dreams and art history to create surreal landscapes. Bathed in a golden light, her paintings depict gentle slopes dotted with ruins and traversed by waterways. Here her mostly female protagonists interact with their natural surroundings and with each other. They seem to exist outside of time and float through the picture in fantastic spatial references, as if caught between different historical epochs. Integrating finely detailed motifs with more loosely painted areas creates a sense of magical realism, offering a multi-layered space open to interpretation. Recontextualizing compositions and motifs from the Renaissance, Forden’s repertoire of visual metaphors questions our status in the natural world today, conveying a sense of instability.
Helena Kauppila (Finland) is inspired by moments of connection with big systems such as forests, oceans, the order of the genome, and the structure of mathematical theories. She bonds with nature through both direct immersion in natural spaces and through reflection on scientific research. Kauppila holds a Ph.D. in mathematics and loves to energize people with science and colors. She is interested in translating scientific knowledge and deeply felt experiences of the natural environment into vibrant manifestations of color. In her work, she focuses on human interconnectivity with nature at the micro, macro, and universe levels. “My paintings explore ways to create deeply felt color experiences, while scientific structures allow me to give the work a philosophical focus and to include the genuinely other.”
Jinran Kim (South Korea) approaches nature from the position of an urban dweller whose interactions with nature are framed within the city’s spaces. She focuses on transmitting her thoughts and feelings about the natural world onto a vertical surface by developing techniques from sculpture and layering materials such as gauze and paint. “When I see, feel and paint nature, I am like a small weed. I am learning to be humble through nature.” Part of her feelings stem from a deep understanding of our inherent connection to the natural world. We live and die, eventually returning to the earth as all living things must. Through her work, she honors the short time of our existence given to us by the natural world.
Anna-Lisa Unkuri (Sweden) draws deeply from her personal experiences of nature, past and present. In her paintings, landscapes fluctuate between the figurative and the abstract, creating a meditative realm for her protagonists to occupy. Having grown up near a forest, the pull of the wild led her to explore its depths and to daydream of alternative spaces to live and play in. “I imagined a life within a small cave-like rock formation, miles away from my family home.” Through memories, photographs, and emotions, she gathers her encounters with the natural world, allowing it to permeate her work. Her paintings offer the viewer a vision of nature where landscapes are felt as much as they are seen. Working in oils and acrylics, she layers her paint in various thicknesses, often scraping away old or adding new areas of color with a palette knife. The deliberateness of this process imbues her images with a sense of time stilled.
Encountering Nature 2 - Time and Interconnectivity, invites you to reflect and to take a closer look at these richly varied artistic positions exploring our relationship to the natural world.
- Caty Forden