Join us on Thursday March 28th at Enter Gallery in Brighton to celebrate the launch of Botanical Scapes by Jana Nicole - a new collection of visually-spectacular collages from the award-winning artist.
In the show, Jana Nicole continues her exploration of the mystical world of mushrooms, moss and mycelium, creating a selection of artworks that showcase the beauty and complexity of these intelligent ecosystems.
For today’s blog, we’re providing sneak peeks of some of the artworks included in the show, and chatting to Jana Nicole to discover how this new series is taking her work to the next level…
Cherished Collage
Jana Nicole is a US-born, UK-based artist, renowned for mixed-media collages that fuse traditions of papercutting and relief sculpture with the exuberant energy of pop art.
Nicole has earned international acclaim for her Botanical Troupe series of collages, each created from hand-drawn and painted images, and photographs sourced from vintage botany books.
In 2022, Jana Nicole’s lustrous utopias were awarded the prestigious Prix Puvis de Chavannes award from France’s 160 year old Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Her victory marked the first time a non-French artist had won the award in the 100-year history of the society. Speaking of the intention behind these works, Nicole reveals:
“My intention is to be a bridge between art and science so that more people can see the astounding beauty of fungi but not feel like they have to understand every element of what’s going on. With my artwork and the passion that I have for the subject I’m hoping it inspires people to take up a similar interest in the world of Fungi.”
Botanical Scapes
For her upcoming show, Jana Nicole has teamed up with prestigious Newhaven printmakers, Harwood King, to bring us something extra special.
Her Uniques series features four works, Sundown, Sunray, Petrichor and Lunar, each created from five individual layers of digitally-printed acrylic to bring even greater depth to her works.
Jana Nicole has hand-embellished elements within the acrylic layers, making each piece in the limited edition entirely unique…hence the name of the series!
The result is a completely 3D image that brings the hidden worlds of Mycelium below ground and, mushroom and fungi above ground to life, showing the extraordinary mycelial networks that connect our natural world in all their glory. Speaking of the process of creating these works, Jana Nicole explains:
“One of the great pleasures I get from creating new original artworks is the layering of my botanicals. It gives depth to the works, bringing them to life with a sculptural effect, especially when lit.With my new series, coined Uniques and created in collaboration with Harwood King, we have found a way to replicate this depth using printed layers of glass, offering the richness of my originals but in a truly beautiful limited edition series. I am thrilled and grateful to debut this series with Enter Gallery, who have been a great supporter of my work for many years.”
Album art
Alongside the Uniques series, Botanical Scapes will also feature a selection of new limited edition and original works.
One particularly special piece, available as both an original artwork and a limited edition print, is Mycorrhizal Fungi – a design which is used as the album cover art for a new record of the same name.
The DJ and producer behind this album is DJ Brian d’Souza aka Auntie Flo. He will be on the decks at the private view, entertaining guests with his distinctive Fungi sounds, which use recordings taken from the fungi themselves.
Copies of the record will be available to buy on the night. Each record comes with a limited edition print of Jana Nicole’s cover design inside the sleeve. As an extra special touch, Jana Nicole’s cover art is enhanced with UV mushrooms, and for the first time in album artwork history, scratch and sniff mushrooms!
Originals
Those who follow Jana Nicole’s work will know that she has created incredible artworks for All Things Fungi Festival – the UKs first and only festival dedicated to fungi.
In support of Botanical Scapes by Jana Nicole, All Things Fungi are kindly offering two free tickets to the festival to those that snap up an original piece at the Private View.
Join us from 6-8pm on Thursday 28th March for Botanical Scapes by Jana Nicole. RSVP to secure your ticket today.
RSVP Now
One more thing…
If you’re fascinated by the world of mushrooms, what they can teach us, and their many benefits, you should join us at All Things Fungi at Enter Gallery.
On Sunday April 7th from 5-7pm, come and get a taste of the festival at an evening of insightful talks from experts in the field of fungi, hosted and curated by Jana Nicole. Book your tickets here.
Read more about All Things Fungi at Enter Gallery and secure your tickets here.
