Human, Nature

Human, Nature reflects on the shifting relationships to our bodies, each other, and the environment many have experienced during this time of public health and climate crises. For some, feelings of mutability or strangeness within our own bodies and in relation to others produced by illness and isolation conflicted with a desire for connection and tenderness. While nature offered a respite from time at home and the possibility to safely be with others, the consequences of climate change manifested in natural disasters frequently rendered the outdoors dangerous and unrecognizable. Selected from 196 submissions received in response to ICOSA’s open call, these nine artists trace the evolving ties between the natural world and ourselves.

About the Curator

Claire Howard is the assistant curator of modern and contemporary art at the Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin. Her exhibitions at the Blanton include Suzanne Bocanegra: Valley, Lily Cox-Richard: She-Wolf + Lower Figs., Joiri Minaya: Labadee, and Ideas in Sensuous Form: The International Symbolist Movement. Claire came to the Blanton from the Menil Collection, where she was the 2016-2017 Vivian L. Smith Foundation Fellow. She has worked at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Fabric Workshop and Museum; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; and Wellesley College’s Davis Museum. Her scholarly research focuses on Paris-based Surrealist journals and exhibitions of the 1950s and 1960s in dialogue with post-World War II cultural shifts. Claire is a founding board member of the International Society for the Study of Surrealism and a contributor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Tate Modern’s exhibition catalogue Surrealism Beyond Borders. She earned a PhD and MA in art history from The University of Texas at Austin and a BA in art history and English from Wellesley College

Artists: Essentials Creative, Brittany Ham, Marilyn Jolly, Aimee Jones, Magdalena Riley, Krystal Rodriguez, Brian Smith, Laurence Unger, & Tanya Zal.