Secret Gardens: A Contemporary View
Galerie REVEL is pleased to present the group exhibition entitled “Secret Gardens: A Contemporary View,” showcasing the works of Rocio Navarro, Kyung Soon Park, Stephen Price, Option Dzikamai Nyahunzvi, Wenhai Ning, and Flore Sigrist. From October 16 to December 31, the gallery dedicates its space to a rich artistic tapestry exploring the theme of the garden as a living archive and enigmatic space.
In the history of art, the garden reveals itself to be much more than just a verdant landscape. It is imbued with symbolism and mystery. While artists have long drawn inspiration from flora to create still lifes, vanitas, and landscapes, our environment can be interpreted as an extension of ourselves. Each garden is a living palimpsest, a manuscript where traces of the past are layered with new botanical writings. Throughout the centuries, gardens have offered artists a refuge, a place of leisure, to capture the deepest facets of the human experience. As dynamic and evolving spaces, they lead us today to explore our buried roots.
The exhibition “Secret Gardens: A Contemporary View” delves into the enigmatic and archival aspects of the garden. In the work Greater Perfections: The Practice of Garden Theory by historian John Dixon Hunt, the “secret garden” is described as a hidden sanctuary, a place where one withdraws to reflect, dream, or reconnect with oneself. Thus, with a varied palette of colors inspired by her Franco-Mexican heritage, Rocio Navarro illustrates her family nest, where plants and flowers seem to penetrate the domestic space. Adopting a similar artistic approach to that of Henri Rousseau, a major figure in naïve art, Kyung Soon Park revives her memories through phantasmagorical Edens and lush forests. Option Nyahunzvi composes a myriad of sinuous, colorful lines, like rhizomes intertwining to reveal our connection to the ancestral and spiritual dimension of the natural world. Drawing on personal narratives and photographic sources, Stephen Price’s stoic silhouettes, situated between historical and fictional figures, infuse nature with a deep sense of nostalgia and serenity. Flore Sigrist’s work is rooted in abstract expressionism, redefining our perception of gardens with large, vibrant color fields. Wenhai Ning combines oil painting with soil samples to recreate simulacra of botanical microorganisms, blurring the lines between reality and imagination.
