Sky to the East, Sky to the West

Whether depicted with realism, fantasy or fiction, nature and our living environment have been the inspiration for artists for thousands of years across Eastern and Western cultures. Aside being a central subject in art, they provide the context for storytelling, as a metaphor to express, or even challenge the world around us.

Depictions of our surroundings may often appear universal, yet artists’ personal experiences, memories, politics, the environment, consumerism, even war, shape their expression of it. Equally, iconic motifs from nature, including great waves or flowers, have been reappropriated by subsequent artists across decades, even centuries.

Spanning from 1930s to present day, the works in this exhibition include diverse media from paintings and photography, sound and light installations, sculptures and installations. They embrace the diverse notions of how nature and our environment can be experienced or depicted—from dream-like encounters, moments of meditation or threat, the creation of future scenarios or ecologies, and including perspectives from both East and West.

Artists: Harold Ancart, AVPD, Ay-O, Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen, Dan Flavin, Piero Gilardi, Geoffrey Hendricks, Henry Heerup, Per Bak Jensen, Rita Kernn-Larsen, Tetsumi Kudo, John Kørner, Michel Majerus, Richard Mortensen, Kerstin Ortwed, Gerhard Richter, Mark Rothko, Qui Shihua, Richard Tuttle, Günther Uecker, Ai Weiwei, Clifford Wright.

Photo: Clifford Wright – Den forunderlige bølge / The Wonderful Wave.