Due to snow the opening has been rescheduled from January 13 to the 20th

The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art is proud to present our first exhibition of 2024, titled Immense Journeys: Art, Nature, Science and Beyond, featuring works by Melissa Jay Craig, Lisa A. Frank, and Anne Hughes. These artists lead lives rich in creative experiences informed by nature. Day by day, art practice and the natural world awaken shoots of imaginative reflections and actions. This exhibition brings together varied, visual art forms to stand on their own and resonate off the others through surprising interconnections (just like nature itself). A purposeful confluence provides many pathways into appreciation of process and range. It allows for thoughtful exploration of the infinite ways in which nature affects our lives and we affect nature. Presented here are works by three artists who, over decades, have embraced the wonders of nature and witnessed results of human actions and inactions. Deepfelt desires, to share their personal artworks and stir the passions of others to engage, reside at the heart of this exhibition. There is no one-way in. Creativity and nature inspire, confound, amaze, and amuse.

Melissa Jay Craig approaches her work with wry humor and thrilling, fresh expression. She is recognized for tough-fibered, sculptural works of hand-made paper that cleverly allude to many levels of communication. Born out of her own life’s challenges, her art practice exemplifies the power of libraries and nature to act as nurseries for expansive growth, revealing amazing complexities.

Lisa A. Frank comes to pattern-in-nature through textile design and hours spent observing her world behind the lens of a camera. She approaches photography much as a painter. Multitudes of individually captured images serve as raw materials. She then chooses, from her thousands, to layer, compose, and ultimately unify into stunning photographs.

Energy and imagination abound in works by Anne Hughes. She ponders how everything is connected by natural systems functioning throughout our world and beyond. Hughes puts marks and colors to surface and allows those elements to guide her into magical compositions. She values exploration and searches for the moments when parts unite into a wondrous whole where the push and pull of positive and negative space interchange.