FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 2023
Florum Somnia: Artist Bob Landström Listens to Plants & They Have A Lot To Say
New solo exhibition features 20+ of the artist’s “matter paintings” made entirely of pulverized volcanic rock
Atlanta, GA – Bob Landström’s new solo exhibition Florum Somnia examines the artist’s conversations with nature through minimalistic, abstract paintings at Alan Avery Art Company from June 9 – September 12, 2023.
Known for his Haute Pâte (matter painting) methods using crushed, pigmented volcanic rock, Landström’s new series depicts imaginary plant life while visualizing the real theories and studies surrounding plant communication and networks. While listening to recordings made of plants communicating, Landström noticed how their sounds differed from plant species to plant species. Such phenomena has been documented by the likes of Peter Tomkins’s The Secret Life of Plants, or, more recently, in a New York Times article about scientific studies into how plants “cry” when they encounter stressors or are cut.
Florum Somnia embraces an individuality not often associated with plants, exploring how each might contain its own unique “voice,” and turns the underknown ways in which they communicate, whether through scent or mycorrhizal networks, into colorful, metaphysical wonderlands that elevate one’s appreciation for flora and its vital and creative role on the planet.
“I rarely paid much attention to plants, despite plant life appearing on Earth roughly 500 million years ago, much, much earlier than animals and certainly humans. Unlike humans, plants do not have higher sensory organs but they operate as if they do. Florum Somnia is about finding newfound appreciation for plant talk, plant awareness, and perhaps even plant sentience.” – Bob Landström
Florum Somnia follows Landström’s celebrated sold-out exhibition Conjuring Secrets at Alan Avery as well as a solo exhibition at bG Gallery in Los Angeles and a group exhibition at Santa Monica Art Museum. The exhibition will have an opening reception on June 9, 7-10 PM EST, with the artist in attendance, and an artist talk on Saturday, June 17, 2-4 PM EST at the gallery discussing the series as well as live demonstrations of plant sound recordings.
Details
Florum Somnia
June 9 – September 12, 2023
Alan Avery Art Company
656 Miami Circle NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30324
About Bob Landström
Bob Landström is an artist who primarily works with crushed, pigmented volcanic rock. His abstract paintings, with their highly granulated texture and color combinations only achieved through such a medium, reconsider our relationship with meaning by eliciting the iconography of ancient languages, science, religions, and mysticism.
Born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, Landström studied fine art by invitation at Carnegie-Mellon University. He later continued his fine art education at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. Landström also earned a Bachelor and Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering.
Landström’s work has exhibited extensively and can be found in public, private, and corporate collections around the world. He is the winner of the 1993 SOHO International Competition in New York, the 1994 and 2002 Open Studios National Competition, and other awards. When not in the studio, Landström spends considerable time abroad and has visited archeological sites across the world, which inform his studies and artistic practice.
Landström currently lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia.
Website: www.boblandstrom.com
Instagram: @boblandstrom