Gallery 1202 presents “Recreating the Wild/Nature (Un)Spoiled,” a solo show by Yulia Shtern, running through March 20.
Shtern is a Canadian visual artist and a scenic and costume designer for theater currently residing in Italy.
In this series, Shtern focuses on animals that are endangered, extinct or under threat, creating colorful wall-mounted and free-standing sculptures. The medium of this series consists of post mass consumption up-cycled material: paper products, packaging, non-recyclable plastics, fabric leftovers and other items that would have otherwise gone to a landfill, adhered with transparent varnish glue.
“One of the biggest, ugliest truths of our time is that we have been knowingly destroying our planet and killing off its natural life in pursuit of the falsehoods promised by mass consumption,” Shtern said. “The themes addressed in the sculpture series are those of our relationship with the environment. These issues are often seen as something far removed from our daily urban lives. The perception of the environment as being somewhere else far away from ‘here’ is ignoring both our key place in it and the scale of our contribution to its current state of degradation.”
Gallery 1202 is located at 7363 Monterey St. in Gilroy. For information, visit gallery1202.com.
