The Secrets in the Carbon Atom group exhibition is on at Oslo’s Podium, opening September 30 and running to October 16.

Curated by Angels Miralda, the show features work by Simona Barbera, Nadine Byrne, Emiliano Maggi and Nicholas Johnson.

The title and text provided allude to a curatorial theme that feels cosmic and concerned with the elements that make and bind us:

“White light pulsating in intensity
Stars are celestial diamonds
On a stable ground of matte darkness
That holds vast unknowable mysteries
Why something rather than nothing at all?”

The press release includes only a short excerpt from a narrative about an astrophysicist, leaving us with only a few clues as to what expect.

See the Podium website for details.**

Nicholas Johnson, 'The Bush Said Nothing' (2016). Installation view. Courtesy the artist + Averard Hotel. — Nicholas Johnson, ‘The Bush Said Nothing’ (2016). Installation view. Courtesy the artist + Averard Hotel.

Six artists get their direction from ‘mamelon’, the breast-like rock formation that takes shape as a volcano erupts through a narrow vent in the bedrock in …and the soft ground in the garden was also a constellation …, an exhibition curated by Angels Miralda.

The group show, which ran at London’s Lychee One during Art Licks Weekend in 2015, locates its premise in the prolific grounds of the volcano, “one of the most fertile environments for plant growth as well as for the human imagination”. The artists each explore and anthropomorphise the literal state and figurative idea of ‘mamelon’ through varying mediums, with Alexandre Singh taking the metaphor directly to milk and Israel in ‘The Miracle (Manna)’ and Salvatore Arancio taking a more literal approach, juxtaposing natural rock formations against underwater animal species in his ceramic pieces.

Salvatore Arancio,' The Arrival' (2013) Install view. Courtesy Lychee One. — Salvatore Arancio,’ The Arrival’ (2013) Install view. Courtesy Lychee One.

Another contributing artist, Mark Essen, takes the volcano back in time with piles of limbs, as if he had just stumbled upon Pompeii again, while Katrin Hanusch “monumentalises fossils of decay” in iron and bronze. Leonor Serrano Rivas delivers an installation of tools against the backdrop of nature, and Nicholas Johnson populates the gallery with dense flowers, and an encyclopedia of terms. **

Exhibition photos, top right.

…and the soft ground in the garden was also a constellation… was on at Lychee One from September 12 to October 16, 2015.

Nicholas Johnson

Secrets in the Carbon Atom @ Podium, Sep 30 – Oct 16

…and the soft ground in the garden… (2015) exhibition photos

…and the soft ground in the garden was also a constellation… was on at Lychee One from September 12 to October 16, 2015.

Header image: Mark Essen, ‘4 Series’ (2015) installation shot. Courtesy Lychee One, London.