In art and in many cultures, the garden often symbolizes a paradisiacal, peaceful and poetic place where people can unfold themselves and reflect on their own self, existence and creation. The word garden also originally means an enclosed place, which is intended to represent a kind of shelter for contemplation and a place of rest and is often found as a hortus conclusus – a closed, virginal place – as an image motif in Marian symbolism. The garden also plays an important role in myths and legends in the history of literature and art and harbors both secrets and dangers.
In today’s fast-paced world, however, there seems to be a longing for and a return to the original: People seek peace, reflection and self-development in nature or in the creation of their own garden.
And in the visual arts, nature in all its forms has always served many artists as inspiration for their creations.
Carolin Israel’s works reflect her engagement with and impressions of her organic surroundings, plants, animals, the sea and landscapes, which she often intuitively translates into expressive and abstract color atmospheres and forms.
Malgosia Jankowska’s works have something magical about them, immersing themselves in archetypal images of legends, myths and fairy tales. She works skillfully with ink and felt-tip pen on paper, often in just a few shades of color.
For Tatiana Urban, today’s ideas of nature can often be derived from the tension between alienation from nature and longing for nature, a multi-layered to labyrinthine connection that forms the origin of her pictorial worlds.
And René Dante’s sculptures illustrate his overwhelming repertoire of a unique formal language. His impressive works, mostly made of steel, focus on the human form and the formal language of nature.
And just as the gallery itself is located in Munich’s beautiful Hofgarten, a green refuge in the middle of the city that invites you to linger, visitors to this exhibition can immerse themselves in exciting, mysterious and diverse worlds of art.
Lillian Berger
Art historian | Curator
