This is the last weekend to visit James Prosek’s beautiful and eclectic art show at the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. Go while you can — James’s paintings are truly beautiful.

Below are some samples from the exhibit. Below that art some more details. With the Marlborough show a few weeks away, and large drifts of snow on the ground, you’re not going fishing this weekend. So go see James’s art.

 

 

Here’s the description from the Addison Gallery’s website:

James Prosek: The Spaces in Between
September 1, 2013 – January 5, 2014

Taking inspiration from the long tradition of natural history painting—from animal depictions on cave walls to the works of Albrecht Durer, William Blake, and John James Audubon—as well as contemporary influences as diverse as Lee Bontecou, Mark Dion, Martin Puryear, and Eero Saarinen, James Prosek’s work questions accepted notions of how we understand and interpret the natural world. Examining the ways in which we name and order nature, the systems we use to try to harness nature, our classifications and taxonomies, and the limitations of language in describing biological diversity, Prosek invites us to reflect on what these systems say about our culture, our priorities, and our values.

Ranging from the compellingly realistic to the inventively fanciful, the exhibition includes meticulously rendered paintings, monumental watercolors, and taxidermied specimens, many of them referencing the artist’s extensive travel, collecting trips, and biological expeditions to places as distant and diverse as Suriname and Kyrgyzstan. The exhibition also includes wall murals created especially for this installation.

Exquisitely crafted, frequently witty, and always thought-provoking, Prosek’s art invites viewers to engage with realms that science cannot quantify or solve—those spaces in between fact and folklore, science and myth, real and imagined.

For more details, visit the Addison Gallery website.