It may be Winter but that doesn't mean we can't dream about warmer seasons and colourful flowers in bloom. An obvious way to do it is looking at artworks featuring or revolving around the floral theme, such Arne Quinze's gardens.
The artist, whose work is suspended between art and architecture, focused in the last few months on a series of paintings entitled "My Secret Garden" and inspired by the meadow comprising over 4,000 plants and flowers that surrounds his house.
Mesmerised by nature and by the metamorphosis of flowers and plants in the different seasons, but also intrigued by the relationship existing between different plants and the effects they may have on human beings, Quinze continued his exploration of gardens and developed also a series of colourful aluminium and acryl pieces mounted on an oak or aluminium base.
The medium-sized sculptures are abstract representations of flowers such as Lobelia, Lupine, Persicaria and African Iris, characterised by a shape borrowed from nature, but also by bright and electric unnatural shades almost evoking invasive alien plants like the triffids in John Wyndham's sci-fi classic.
While starting to work on this new series Quinze also had in mind the evolution of anthropology and of plants as well and the way flowers develop into a broad spectrum of diverse forms, structures and colours, symbolising therefore a sociocultural conversation that stimulating creativity and embracing diversity.
This juxtaposition brought him to ponder about the diversity of nature and the ongoing expansion of cities and to look for ways to incorporate these pieces in his public installations that can help people to use art and architecture to start a debate about civic and shared spaces.
The sculptures will be on display next year in Valencia, at the Maruani Mercier Gallery in Brussels and at Patricia Low Gallery in Gstaad.
In Valencia the pieces will be displayed outdoor, overlooking the Principe Filipe Science Museum by Santiago Calatrava and engaging in a dialogue with its powerful architecture, reshifting in this way the attention on Arne Quinze's interest in public projects and installations.
