TREE 
a group show

Taking the arboretum as its inspiration, TREE celebrates the community that sustains studio e. Through an eclectic group of works united by a common theme — “tree-ness”— the show emblemizes their makers’ connection to studio e as both gallery artists and talented friends of the gallery.  The contrasting and varied approaches to the subject offered by these 20 or so artists range from new abstract expressionism to color field painting, to conceptual, video work and design, all of them contributing to and coalescing in the ecosystem of Tree.
Tree ecosystems mirror human communities in striking ways. Contemporary forestry research has revealed that, beneath the forest floor, trees are constantly engaged in resource exchanges and other interactions that likewise unite them as an ecosystem of individuals. Trees thrive in community. Via a network of roots, fungal web, and interaction with insects, they communicate information, share resources, and attract help.
Natural science in general is undergoing a similar paradigm shift, from examining organisms in isolation to understanding them as players in inextricably interconnected systems. If we bring this lens to Tree, the web of interconnections that relates these works finds its nexus at studio e.
Having grown from no more than a well-lit space for a showing of the work of friends, studio e’s vitality depends on the artists, photographers, designers, writers, curators, collectors, fellow gallerists, and art administrators-in-training who make it the thriving arts ecosystem it is today.
“The reason trees share food and communicate is that they need each other. It takes a forest to create a microclimate suitable for tree growth and sustenance.
-Tim Flannery, Introduction to The Hidden Life of Trees (2015)