Blackbook Presents in collaboration with UNESCO’s GEM report is thrilled to announce Mother Nature in the Bardo: an art exhibition and book exploring the relationship between art, culture and the environment. The project illuminates the innate connections between creativity and nature and inspires crucial conversations about humanity’s relationship with nature, sustainability and climate change.
Bringing together historical and contemporary artworks from over 100 renowned international artists, galleries, institutions, estates and foundations, Mother Nature in the Bardo speaks to the most critical global dialogues of our time. The show which opens on Tuesday March 13, 2025 at the High Line Nine in Chelsea, New York City will close on April 30, 2025. The book will be on sale globally beginning March 1.
The exhibition will feature over 70 artworks by a selection of the most celebrated artists of our time alongside a group of exciting emerging talent including Alexander Calder, Donald Judd, Ai Weiwei, Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Lucian Freud, Claude Monet, Paul Signac, Anselm Kiefer, Cecily Brown, Yayoi Kusama, Allison Janae Hamilton, Serge Attukwei Clottey, Marsden Hartley, Lucio Fontana, Nicholas Galanin, Frank Gehry, Wangechi Mutu, Olafur Eliasson, Hugo McCloud, Petra Cortwright, Jean Dubuffet, Alfred Sisley, Ansel Adams, Ebony G. Patterson and more.
Featuring a diverse array of artistic voices, styles and mediums—from Donald Judd’s iconic stack sculpture to a sprawling digital landscape by Cortright, a floral mask by Hamilton, and a sculptural installation by Ai Weiwei that addresses climate change—the exhibition showcases the vast creative interpretations of nature and its power throughout 250+ years of art history.
The corresponding book, also titled Mother Nature in the Bardo, is a comprehensive survey featuring over 200 artworks, with forewords by art world luminaries including curators Klaus Biesenbach, Director of the Neue Nationalgalerie (Berlin), and Lucia Pietroiusti, Head of Ecologies at Serpentine (London), and essays by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Curator and Artistic Director at Serpentine, and Manos Antoninis, Director of the UNESCO’s GEM Report, among others.
Printed on sustainably produced paper, the book will be available at museums, retail stores, and online platforms, as well as BlackBookPresents.com. BlackBook is collaborating with UNESCO’s GEM Report on its Art + Impact series to raise awareness and educate global audiences about environmental issues. This unique collaboration is an exciting moment for the GEM Report, whose focus is on education, as it harnesses the power of art as a tool for communication.
Mother Nature in the Bardo is the second installment in BlackBook’s Art + Impact series, addressing vital social and cultural themes through art. The previous installment, titled ‘A Woman’s Right to Pleasure,’ had its premiere at Sotheby’s Los Angeles in 2022.
Mother Nature in the Bardo is an art exhibition and corresponding global book release produced by BlackBook Presents in collaboration with UNESCO’s GEM Report. The exhibition will be on view from Thursday, March 13 till April 30, 2025, at the High Line Nine in Chelsea, New York City, at 507 W 27th Street in Chelsea, New York City.
BlackBook has always been a point of convergence for the arts, culture, and social impact. Founded in 1996 by Evanly Schindler, as a popular arts and culture print magazine, publishing and media company, BlackBook became known for collaborations with prestigious artists, brands, and institutions; mining talent from the subculture and introducing it to the mainstream.
The brand expanded from the U.S. to global markets throughout the 2000s, and transitioned to digital media, creating original content about art, literature, fashion, music, film, and culture at large. Since then, the brand has evolved its original ethos to focus on visual art.
