Bedford Exhibit Frames the Natural World

The new exhibit at the Bedford Gallery asks some questions.

It asks viewers to consider the questions:

• What is a specimen?
• Why are specimens important to both artists and scientists?

"Captured: Specimens in Contemporary Art" takes a playful and satirical look at the crossroads of art and the natural world. It runs at the Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts through Nov. 18.

The following information comes from the the Bedford Gallery:

Last week, the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek opened its doors to the fall exhibition, Captured:  Specimens in Contemporary Art.  The evening brought together renowned contemporary artists from across the Bay Area to celebrate the debut of this challenging look at art and the natural world.  For the show, Curator Carrie Lederer assembled a diverse cast of artists from Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans and the Netherlands whose work investigates the creative and unexpected dialogues that occur at the intersection of art and scientific exploration.  
 
 “As contemporary artists move beyond the restrictions of traditional media, many are investigating the possibilities offered by organic and discarded materials,” says Bedford curator Carrie Lederer. “Looking to traditions as diverse as taxidermy, specimen boxes, and the cabinet of curiosities, this exhibition will address the changing nature of our relationship with the natural world, and encourage viewers to consider the questions ‘what is a specimen, what do they tell us, and why are they important to both artists and scientists’.”
                                                                                  
The tone of the exhibition is playful and satirical.  Taking up issues of climate change and habitat destruction, exhibited artist also offer up imaginative narratives about butterflies and foxes, seaweed and swarms.  Captured will be open at the Bedford Gallery through November 18th—come out and see these beautiful, fun, and uncanny displays of the natural world.