‘Natured Anew’ at Brown

Here’s my review of “Natured Anew: Reflections of the Natural World,” at Brown University’s Bell Gallery, which was organized by director Jo-Ann Conklin. It’s a five-artist show of art inspired by and commenting on nature. The standouts are Providence artist Bruce Chao, who has been erecting temporary sculptures in a private forest in Seekonk, Massachusetts, and the always dazzling painter Barbara Takenaga, who splits her time between New York and Williamstown, Massachusetts. Chao's work is some off the best contemporary art I've seen in the region this year – and I’ll say more about it in a follow-up post. Many of Takenaga's paintings here will be familiar to those who saw the DeCordova Museum’s “Big Bang!” show this spring.

“Natured Anew,” Bell Gallery, Brown University, 64 College St., Providence, June 9 to July 8, 2007.

Pictured from top to bottom: Bruce Chao "Aether," 2003, and Barbara Takenaga "Blue Tremor," 2003.