Nadia Yaron: For the flowers and the clouds and the wind and the treesJan 20 – Mar 25, 2023

In her show For the flowers and the clouds and the wind and the trees, sculptor Nadia Yaron draws on her deep connection with nature, presenting 32 sculptures in wood, stone and metal. Following a move to Hudson, NY, Yaron repurposed a 19th century barn as her studio, and developed a strong relationship with the setting. “As I was making these pieces, I realized I was in the middle of one long love affair with my surroundings: the flowers, the clouds, the wind and the trees,” she says. “I work mostly outside from spring to autumn and am immersed in nature. This show is a tribute, a way to say thank you to these elements for their beauty and wisdom and all the joy they bring to our lives.”

Yaron takes a walk in the Catskill Mountains as part of her daily routine, and relishes discovering subtle moments in nature that act as a gentle reminder of impermanence. “I love seeing minute changes in the same landscape,” she says. “In spring, it’s so magical when the first flowers push themselves up out of the snow. They’re so powerful. That’s where some of the stone sculptures came from – they’re called First Bloom.”

The Hudson skies also left their impression on Yaron and her work. “I spend a lot of time thinking about impermanence – it’s a big thing for me because I’ve experienced many changes in my life. When we moved up here from Brooklyn, I fell in love with the sky – the clouds can change within minutes from pink to black. I’ve never seen anything like it. So I started carving clouds, one of the most transient things we see, out of stone. Humans innately reject change. We may understand that everything changes, but we often refuse to accept it. It is something I think about everyday.”

The sculptures are stacked in forms that hold themselves in delicate equilibrium, often with the heaviest piece of stone at the top. “My work is purposefully imperfect and imbalanced,” Yaron says. “The imbalance leads to a bit of discomfort, a dissonance, and an awareness of how fragile life can be – a reminder that nature, including humans, are both perfect and imperfect all at once.”

Carving stone is a laborious process of patient, repetitive motions with hand tools to persuade the unerring material into curves and other forms. “I am deeply inspired by the beauty inherent in each piece of stone and wood I work with,” says Yaron. “As I’m carving, I feel as if I’m tapping into the history of our earth – it’s almost like a translation of ancient texts. It’s the recognition of something deeply known. I can feel the energy translated through my materials. If I empty myself enough, I can feel that energy move through me and out of my hands back into the material. It’s a circular flow of energy.”

“The more time I spend with it, the more I understand that we are all connected with nature. It has so much to teach us if we take the time to be with it and listen,” she says. “I want to share that sense of calm and connection. The more we understand our connectedness with nature, the more inspired we feel to take care of it and protect it.”