art at st george's
St. George’s Anglican Church, a peaceful oasis in Venice, will host a large-scale painting of endangered animals by Irish artist Michelle Rogers for four days. Her work “Eco Primavera” incorporates more than one hundred small threatened and endangered species of insects, frogs, birds, and flowers as an environmental homage to Italian painter Sandro Botticelli. “Eco Primavera” is the same size as the Botticelli original. “Botticelli adored nature and painted over one hundred flowers in his own ‘Primavera’,” the artist explains. “Historically we paint things that are important, and for me recording endangered species is a way of preserving them, giving them recognition so they won’t disappear completely.”
Our planet is in the midst of its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals, called the Holocene extinction. We’re currently experiencing the worst spate of species die-offs since the loss of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. 99 percent of currently threatened species are at risk from human activities, primarily those driving habitat loss, introduction of exotic species, and global warming. For the past twenty years Rogers has worked as an artist for social justice and human rights, more recently focusing her activism on climate change. As a founding member of Artists For Environment, the artist fervidly believes in the ability of creativity to change the world.
Previous environmental exhibitions by the artist include "I Am from Where I Am,” at the Paul Kane gallery, in Dublin; “On Earth as It Is in Heaven,” at Aqualis Gallery, in Rome; and “Tender Alchemy,” at the Jenn Singer gallery, in New York. Rogers was also recently invited by Ban Ki-Moon to attend the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement at the UN Plaza, in New York, and worked on the second painting in the series, “ECO Venus,” on-site at the Earth Institute of Columbia University. Rogers’ mid-career retrospective will open at Rathfarnham Castle, in Dublin, on June 16, 2017.
St. George's Anglican Church in Venice is a Chaplaincy in the Diocese of Europe that welcomes Christians of all denominations, people of any faith or no faith to join us in celebrating art that raises our consciousness about the fragile environment that we hold on trust for future generations.
Closing with special Evensong service by Reverend Alaric Lewis on May 13th at 6pm
Our planet is in the midst of its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals, called the Holocene extinction. We’re currently experiencing the worst spate of species die-offs since the loss of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. 99 percent of currently threatened species are at risk from human activities, primarily those driving habitat loss, introduction of exotic species, and global warming. For the past twenty years Rogers has worked as an artist for social justice and human rights, more recently focusing her activism on climate change. As a founding member of Artists For Environment, the artist fervidly believes in the ability of creativity to change the world.
Previous environmental exhibitions by the artist include "I Am from Where I Am,” at the Paul Kane gallery, in Dublin; “On Earth as It Is in Heaven,” at Aqualis Gallery, in Rome; and “Tender Alchemy,” at the Jenn Singer gallery, in New York. Rogers was also recently invited by Ban Ki-Moon to attend the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement at the UN Plaza, in New York, and worked on the second painting in the series, “ECO Venus,” on-site at the Earth Institute of Columbia University. Rogers’ mid-career retrospective will open at Rathfarnham Castle, in Dublin, on June 16, 2017.
St. George's Anglican Church in Venice is a Chaplaincy in the Diocese of Europe that welcomes Christians of all denominations, people of any faith or no faith to join us in celebrating art that raises our consciousness about the fragile environment that we hold on trust for future generations.
Closing with special Evensong service by Reverend Alaric Lewis on May 13th at 6pm
