Being With Trees
Gustavo Bacarisas Gallery, Casemates Square, Gibraltar
4 March - 8 May 2021
Being With Trees brings together two contemporary organisations: Lloyd’s Art Group, a collective of fine artists who work in Lloyd’s of London or the London insurance market, and the Arborealists.
Being With Trees celebrates the artists’ shared love of trees and the vital role they can play in all our lives, in terms of our well-being, identity and sociability, and our understanding of ecology and climate change.
At a time of international anxiety about the existential threats of the effects of global warming, the role of nature and trees in Europe’s cities has never been more pertinent. It has been estimated that we need to plant two billion trees, as soon as possible, in an attempt to avert disaster.
This exhibition thus aims, with a political slant, to raise awareness of the importance of trees in our lives. Diverse themes and issues are explored here: street architecture; urban decoration; ecological beneficence; wildlife habitat; the mythical; the allegorical; the symbolic; and our psychological equilibrium and well-being.
Trees take centre stage in opposition to, yet also in harmony with buildings; as depositories of history and bearing witness to history. We find unexpected trees in unexpected places; iconic and loved trees along with nuisance and unloved trees; diseased trees; boundary markers; noise excluders and barriers against pollution. What is brought to our attention are that trees are the shared lungs of Europe.
Talks Program
Fiona McIntyre talks with 8 artists from the exhibition at the Gibraltar Fine Arts Society.
Colloquium of Exhibiting Artists at a Meet the Artists session including Philippa Beale, Paul Cosquieri, Chris Plato, Michele Stagnetto, Fiona McIntyre and Tim Craven.
Tim Craven, Founder of the Arborealists, on Romanticism at the Gibraltar Fine Art Society.
Being with Trees is sponsored by:
Gibraltar Cultural Services HM Government of Gibraltar.
Aon Global Insurance
Birketts EC3LEGAL
Liberty Global Insurance