Tiger in a Tropical Storm: Louise Alexander Gallery, Porto Cervo

In the painting 'Tiger in a Tropical Storm', the viewer has happened upon a scene, perhaps hiding from the growling shiny-toothed tiger or sheltering beneath the palm trees from the blustering monsoon. The self-taught artist, Henri Rousseau, created this work without ever leaving Paris. With the taxidermized animals and exotic flora at the Jardin des Plantes as visual scaffolds, he imagined a mysterious dream-like tension between the crouching tiger, the verdant jungle and the violent storm. 'Tiger in a Tropical Storm' was exoticism for the 'La Belle Époque' Parisian viewer, who escaped from the bustling city into an enchanted world of figuration and fantasy. 

In current times, we face social isolation, the longing to travel, and the monotony of working from home. People have turned to imagination and nature as escapism from the trivialities of confinement and the communal grief of a global pandemic. Our surroundings have been reformed or exchanged through illusion and fantasies, and we break free from our current banal conditions into happiness, excitement, or adventure.

Paradoxically, our inability to physically travel has allowed nature to blossom and roam.    Located in Sardinia for fourteen years, Louise Alexander Gallery is rooted within the unique aura of the island, the large swathes of uninhabited territory and mistral winds evoke the mind and unsettle the senses. Much like Rousseau's painting, the wild environment of Sardinia conveys a sense of whimsical disorientation.

Louise Alexander Gallery presents a summer group exhibition as a homage to Rousseau's painting of tropical reverie and Sardinia's untamed terrain. In the display, a curated group of over a dozen artists intertwine brilliant colours and forms into natural landscapes alongside themes of isolation, dream realms, and wildlife. The visitor is drawn to the fantastical elements and ideas reflecting nature and depict the symbiotic link humans have and need for the environment in these current times.

Featuring established and emerging artists including Uwe Henneken, Amy Bessone, JP Munro, Laurie Nye, Peter Böhnisch, Sophie Vallance Cantor and Djordje Ozbolt, 'A Tiger in a Tropical Storm ' runs from 1st July to 2nd September 2021, at Louise Alexander Gallery in Porto Cervo, Sardinia.

Artists exhibited:

Saelia Aparicio (London)
Amy Bessone (Los Angeles)
Peter Böhnisch (Berlin)
Martyn Cross (Bristol)
Folkert de Jong (Amsterdam)
Pierre Fichefeux (Hawaii)
Sky Glabush (Canada)
Uwe Henneken (Berlin)
Mary Herbert (London)
Max Jansons (Los Angeles)

:mentalKLINIK (Istanbul, Brussels)
Enrique Martinez Celaya (Los Angeles)

Prisca Munkeni Monnier (Marseille)
Ryan Mosley (London)
JP Munro (Los Angeles)
Laurie Nye (Los Angeles)

Djordje Ozbolt (Belgrade/London)

Stefan Rinck (Berlin)
Sophie Vallance Cantor (Glasgow)

Sophie Varin (Brussels)
Vuk Vidor (Belgrade)
Jie Wu (London)