This exhibition will feature five artists whose art springs from a deep engagement with nature. Their works depicting wild animals, mountain people’s livelihoods, landscape and vegetation transformation, the radiance of life, and the wonder of nature all brim with the fresh joy of living with nature. At the same time, they evoke nature with teeth bared and claws unsheathed, engaged in resilient strategies for survival, and the sense of awe and respect for nature’s immense power we tend to lose in sheltered city life. Their works, born not from remote wilderness but places where people’s lives and nature are inextricably entwined, question the relationship between human beings and nature.

In ancient times, people kept eyes and ears attuned to the workings of nature and developed ways of coexisting with it for centuries. Artworks by artists who push into the backcountry, experience fear and wonder, and open themselves to the spirit of the land have a power to convey the voices of the land we can no longer hear in our human-centered lifestyle. The world of people who live close to nature, experienced through the keen senses of artists responsive to nature’s subtle signs and whispers, can awaken our own sense of wonder.