Second Nature - Show at Modernism

Event Details:

Sat, Sep 13, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Modernism Inc., 724 Ellis St, SF, CA, 94109
September 4 - November 1
Tuesday - Saturday
10:00am - 5:30pm

Modernism is pleased to present "Second Nature," a group show of 50 artworks from 1900 to contemporary, which explores the indeterminate boundary between the organic and the constructed. The exhibition brings together works that appear to authentically depict nature with seemingly blatant manipulations of the natural world. As the organic is transformed and artificial compositions mimic nature, "Second Nature" invites viewers to reconsider the divide. What appears raw may be refined and what seems fabricated, unexpectedly true to nature.

Through material, process, and form, artists in "Second Nature" create confounding contradictions: natural but not, nature but also artificial. And asking the question "is it nature or not" is only second nature.

FEATURING: ALEXANDMUSHI, UTA BARTH, LAUREN BARTONE, MICHAEL BRENNAN, DEBORAH BROWN, GORDON COOK, EDWARD CURTIS, JUDY DATER, ELENA DORFMAN, ALAN DRESSLER, MICHAEL DWECK, DAMIAN ELWES, SHELDON GREENBERG, EMANUEL GYGER, JAMES HAYWARD, WADE HOEFER, SHAWN HUCKINS, JERRY KEARNS, SAMEH KHALATBARI, NAOMIE KREMER, LOUISE LEBOURGEOIS, KRISTINE MAYS, LINDSAY MCCRUM, JOHN NAVA, ROBERT PARKEHARRISON, SARAH PERRY, ANDRE RACZ, MEL RAMOS, JOHN REGISTER, MICHAL ROVNER, NAOMI ALESSANDRA SCHULTZ, CAMILLE SOLYAGUA, ALBERT STEINER, MARK STOCK, HIROSHI SUGIMOTO, SAM TCHAKALIAN, DAVID TROWBRIDGE & HELENA CHAPELLIN WILSON