(Un)Natural Histories

Re-creations of nature have played a pivotal educational role in museum displays for over a century, and offer a rich dichotomy: constructions of nature, painstakingly researched, but ultimately artificial. This tension between the natural and the simulated has been taken up by a number of contemporary artists, and the works assembled here range from Anthony Lepore’s explicit exploration of the ways we present animal life to a viewing public, to Suzanne Caporael’s abstractions based on the natural cycles of salt marshes, resulting in highly formal studies in color and form. (Un)Natural Histories explores the myriad ways that artists have shaped—or commented upon—our viewing of our natural world.

Listen to a Kemper ARTcast relating to (Un)Natural Histories.

Above: Anthony Lepore, Coney Island Aquarium, 2007; pigment print 1/8, 40 x 50 in.; Collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Gift of the artist and Marvelli Gallery, New York, New York, 2009.2