Gallery of Many Voices

Our group chose mixed media because it allows artists to branch out and use multiple different materials to create one piece of art. Similarly, the different media come together to create different meanings in each artwork. All of our artworks have something to do with nature that represents identity. For example, Thornton Dial made History Refused to Die from okra stalks and roots. Okra came to America from Africa through the slave trade, so the roots represent a connection to African ancestry and family history. Anselm Kiefer painted the Rhine’s bare trees and a field of poppies in the red of dried blood, which represents whether a landscape can carry a country’s guilt. Joseph Beuys attached a hare, felt, and fat to a painted panel using warm materials to symbolize human connection in a divided Europe. Romare Bearden rebuilt a remembered neighborhood with torn canvas and paint. Ellen Gallagher tucked tiny, collaged faces among shapes that resemble underwater roots, turning the sea into both a grave and a home. Mark Bradford transformed soaked street paper into a map of an erased neighborhood. Robert Rauschenberg attached a stuffed pheasant to a panel, challenging the idea that a painting has to be made only of paint. Kurt Schwitters wanted to turn the destruction caused by World War I into an opportunity to challenge traditional artistic and linguistic rules. We brought these artworks together so viewers can compare how different artists use materials to connect nature, history, and identity. We hope people leave thinking that nature in art is not only pretty scenery. It can be a home someone lost, a border someone drew, or a place someone is still fighting to belong to.