{"id":24060,"date":"2025-08-26T10:13:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T10:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/24060\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T10:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T10:13:12","slug":"artist-celebrates-the-timelessness-of-nature-through-animal-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/24060\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Celebrates the Timelessness of Nature Through Animal Gods"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Painting<\/p>\n

\u201cAspect of Autumn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across all of art history, nature has remained a timeless subject. It served as a symbol of rebirth and transformation in Sandro Botticelli\u2019s Primavera. It was personified in Giuseppe Arcimboldo\u2019s iconic The Four Seasons. It influenced several significant art movements, ranging from Romanticism to Impressionism. Now, it\u2019s also at the core of Martin Wittfooth<\/a>\u2019s latest solo exhibition, Deus ex Terra<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wittfooth has long focused on nature in his art, but Deus ex Terra is perhaps his most ambitious and comprehensive work yet. If its title is any indication, the exhibition revolves around a series of gods that hail from the earth, all characterized not as human figures but as wild animals. The Canadian artist clearly has a preference for horses, but wolves, deer, polar bears, and rams also figure strongly in his monumental oil paintings. In Wittfooth\u2019s new works, these animals don\u2019t merely exist within our natural world. Instead, they determine it, actively shaping and embodying organic rhythms, cycles, and principles.<\/p>\n

For those reasons, Deus ex Terra can be best understood as an exhibition in two parts: one dedicated to the four seasons, and the other to the four elements. Each painting visualizes the essence of its theme, repeating familiar symbols that point us toward their meaning. Aspect of Winter, for instance, depicts a wolf towering over an ice floe, its blue pelt frozen with densely packed snow. Even without knowing its title, the painting is clearly recognizable as a winter scene, complete with a striking color palette and a desolate, frigid landscape.<\/p>\n

Aspect of Autumn is similarly approachable, showcasing a massive deer trudging through a birch forest. Its head is masked by a flurry of orange and red leaves, which gently peel away and sink toward the earth below. Also crowning the deer\u2019s skull are a massive pair of antlers, sprouting and snaking through the sky much like the other trees that frame the canvas. That the deer\u2019s antlers and the surrounding birches so closely resemble one another speaks to the painting\u2019s essential harmony. Here, there is no separation between an animal, a season, and nature.<\/p>\n

As for the four elements, Wittfooth returns to horses. Air is expressed as a billowing cloud in the shape of a horse\u2019s head; fire as a volcano riddled with cracks and molten lava; earth as an ancient collection of fossils, mushrooms, and ferns; and water as a submerged sculpture, overtaken by seaweed, fish, and barnacles. There\u2019s a fascinating contrast in these paintings, where horses, often agile and swift, are rendered as permanent fixtures of nature, their existence stretching back millions of years.<\/p>\n

That continuity is, of course, the entire point. Deus ex Terra not only celebrates nature\u2019s sublimity, but reveals how eternal it is\u2014or, more accurately, how eternal it should be. For years, Wittfooth has been preoccupied with humanity\u2019s troubled relationship with nature, whether it be through the ongoing climate crisis or resource exploitation. This exhibition insists that we confront the forces that have governed our world for millennia. After all, nature predates human life.<\/p>\n

Martin Wittfooth: Deus ex Terra is now on view at\u00a0Corey Helford Gallery<\/a> in Los Angeles through October 4, 2025.\n<\/p>\n

In his latest solo exhibition, Deus ex Terra, Canadian artist Martin Wittfooth explores the four seasons through evocative animal deities.
\n\"Painting<\/p>\n

\u201cDuel\u201d (full diptych).<\/p>\n

\"Painting<\/p>\n

\u201cAspect of Summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Painting<\/p>\n

\u201cAspect of Spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Painting<\/p>\n

\u201cAspect of Winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibition also highlights the four elements\u2014earth, fire, water, and air\u2014through divine horses.
\n\"Painting<\/p>\n

\u201cAspect of Air.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Painting<\/p>\n

\u201cAspect of Fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Painting<\/p>\n

\u201cAspect of Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Painting<\/p>\n

\u201cAspect of Water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deus ex Terra is currently on view at Corey Helford Gallery through October 4, 2025.
\n\"Painting<\/p>\n

\u201cDuel\u201d (left side of diptych).<\/p>\n

\"Painting<\/p>\n

\u201cDuel\u201d (right side of diptych).<\/p>\n

Exhibition Information:
Martin Wittfooth
Deus ex Terra
August 30\u2013October 4, 2025
Corey Helford Gallery
571 South Anderson Street \/ Unit 1, Los Angeles, CA 90033
\nMartin Wittfooth: <\/b>Website<\/b><\/a> | <\/b>Instagram<\/b><\/a>
Corey Helford Gallery: <\/b>Website<\/b><\/a> | <\/b>Instagram<\/b><\/a>
\nMy Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Corey Helford Gallery.
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