John Sabraw’s colorful and highly textured paintings celebrate connectivity to nature by examining chroma and structure in micro-macro relationships. These works of art utilize pigments generated by remediating streams polluted with coal mine runoff called acid mine drainage. View them in the Alice Milton Gallery at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive, Boylston, May 15 – July 15, free with admission to the garden.
We observe natural systems in action and see that they are irregular; their structures form under the influence of natural law without conscious ideas of what they will become. Systems like these occur at macro and micro levels in nature and it is we as humans who seek understanding; the laws of physics that determine the flow of great river deltas also affect the patterns we observe in leaves and tree bark, and even water with some added pigments can flow and set into beautiful imagery reflective of these natural phenomena. The result is complex, luminous, mysterious paintings that strike a beautiful balance between controlled and organic processes.
Artist John Sabraw was born in Lakenheath, England. An activist and environmentalist, Sabraw’s paintings, drawings and collaborative installations are produced in an eco-conscious manner, and he continually works toward a fully sustainable practice. He collaborates with scientists on many projects, and one of his current collaborations involves creating paint and paintings from iron oxide extracted in the process of remediating polluted streams.
Sabraw’s art is in numerous collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Honolulu, the Elmhurst Museum in Illinois, Emprise Bank, and Accenture Corp. Sabraw is represented in Chicago by Thomas McCormick.
Sabraw is a Professor of Art at Ohio University where he is Chair of the Painting + Drawing program, and Board Advisor at Scribble Art Workshop in New York. He has most recently been featured in TED, Smithsonian, New Scientist, and Great Big Story.
