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This is an unmissable opportunity to enjoy over 100 pieces of art, by about 40 artists, centred around trees which are currently on display at the “Being with Trees” exhibition in the Gustavo Bacarisas Gallery in Gibraltar (Casemates Square) throughout March and April.
Around 40 artists adopting different techniques and styles have created their own representations of what trees signify for humanity; their vital place in nature and how they transform landscapes and urban environments. Many pieces bring to light the challenges faced by trees in a world which is becoming less habitable as well as promoting a greater respect for our environment.
“Being with Trees” is a European initiative under the internationally acclaimed “Arborealists” group of artists. Gibraltar’s edition of this exhibition launched on the 4th of March 2021 as Covid-19 restrictions finally began to ease. The exhibition is open from Monday to Friday from 10:30AM-6:30PM, and Saturdays from 10:30AM-01:30PM until the 30th of April.
The exhibition is hosted by the Lloyd’s Art Group and the Gibraltar Cultural Services with the support of the Minister of Culture and Heritage, John Cortes, and include works by the “Urban Contemporaries” as well as Gibraltarian artists in collaboration with the “Arborealists” group.
At the inauguration of the “Being with Trees” exhibition, Minister Cortes said that each piece “represents the artists vision and artistic responsibility towards trees, thus highlighting the vital role they play in our lives”.
As we toured the halls of the Gustavo Bacarisas Gallery during these final days of winter, with spring just around the corner, a wide array of trees in different colours, materials, techniques and styles jumped out from the walls. From traditional oils on linen, acrylics and pastels to eclectic collages of paints and photography, to glass sculptures and several pieces by Eva Edery. You’ll even find pencil sketches by Paul Ridyard and original compositions made up of leaves and tree sap on a canvas by Sally Annett.
The colours emanating from the canvases are striking – like the different shades of blue used by David Wiseman (water forests and riverbanks), who plays with shades of whites standing out from stone walls, which is unusual for forest paintings, and Jemma Appleby’s blacks and greys in her architectural compositions.
Who are ‘The Arborealists’?
The Arborealists are an international group of artists who were first promoted in 2013 by British artist Tim Craven, who is the director of the Southampton Museum, after a successful “Under the Green Wood” exhibition. The Arborealists are made up of a diverse group of painters, sculptors, photographers and European illustrators who aim to promote trees, landscapes and forests and intend to “exalt their beauty and contribute to their conservation”.
Among the members of the Arborealists are prestigious British royal academics and artists whose signatures you will find in many national collections. Since 2016, after numerous successful exhibitions throughout Great Britain, the group has taken to France and other countries in Europe. Every exhibition promotes a common interest which transgresses language and frontiers: The love for trees, their colour, their beauty and, of course, their fragility.
“When we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy” – The Arborealists.
