Nature supplies materials and inspiration to the artists in James Cohan Gallery’s 2-venue summer group show ‘Mother Lode: Material and Memory,’ an engaging and diverse exhibition that elicits sensitive regard for the environment. Yu-Wen Wu’s ‘Acculturation III,’ composed of 143 gilded tea leaves arranged in a grid on the wall, is a standout in the show, and ruminates on the artist’s experience after she arrived from Taiwan to the US as a child. Using tea – a material related to her family life in both locations – in arrangements that individually recall letters or collectively resemble an instructional diagram, Wu’s piece speaks to both similarity and uniqueness of each segment of tea branch, all encased in a precious material that testifies to the value of individual and group. (On view through June 26th).
