On the Cover:
Rina Banerjee, From the oyster’s shell it fell with a neck of dangling bells a flirtatious alligator who put upon us a bodily spell (detail), 2006. Metal bells, steel, heater fan, apple seed necklace, preserved alligator head, and dry loofa, 275 x 125 x 70 cm. Photo: Courtesy the artist and Galerie Nathalie Obadia.
Editor’s Letter
In recent years, it seems nature has made a comeback in art, pushing into the often synthetic realms of Minimalism and conceptualism, in their latest iterations, like vines growing over an abandoned building. That this is occurring while we, on a broader societal level, blithely asphyxiate the planet is no coincidence. Many of the artists featured in this issue share a preoccupation with the natural environment, although theirs is not exactly what we would call environmental art: it is, rather, one that admits nature, be it in the form of a garden, the sea, bones, or shells. —Daniel Kunitz
