Artists deliver a naturally inspiring exhibition

Growing up near Beijing's Xiangshan Mountain, Zhang Zhaohui has long nurtured a deep connection to trees and the natural world. After more than 20 years of studying art theory, the now 59-year-old reinvented himself as an artist more than a decade ago, using his work to explore the relationship between traditional Chinese ink painting and nature.

This summer, Zhang took his practice outdoors, participating in an exhibition deep within the forests of Massachusetts in the United States. There, he presented his nature-inspired works in the very environment that fuels his creative vision — a powerful experience that reinforced his bond with the natural world.

Earlier this month, Zhang returned to Beijing, bringing his tree-themed works to the Red Gate Gallery for the exhibition, Trees: The Great Connectors, in collaboration with Irish visual artist Niamh Cunningham, who also shares his passion for the natural world.

"I've always been drawn to plants and nature," Zhang says. "Throughout my art, nature has remained my central theme. This exhibition is my way of expressing awe for the natural world."

In Trees: The Great Connectors, Zhang displayed a series of traditional ink works on rice paper alongside his photography. His paintings, infused with emotion, capture his deep connection to nature. Tanglewood, a series which he painted last year, was inspired by his time living in the wild forests of the US.

"In the forest, I had a profound, intimate experience of nature," Zhang recalls. "In winter, the vast, snow-covered wilderness left a lasting impression. One of the pieces depicts a forest blanketed in snow, branches frozen and slowly melting, a moment of crystalline purity that I found deeply moving. It was a moment of extraordinary beauty."

Zhang says that he hopes that his work will awaken a sense of longing for the natural world. "As artists, we can only communicate our understanding and feelings through our work," he says.

The monochrome elegance of Zhang's ink paintings on display found vivid counterpoint in the vibrantly colored, tree-themed works of Cunningham. A former biomedical scientist who pivoted to art, Cunningham brought an experimental edge to the exhibition with her acrylics on canvas and pieces created from sugar using crystallization techniques.

The two artists met through a previous exhibition and found common ground in their fascination with trees and nature. Despite their distinct ethnic backgrounds, this shared reverence led to their collaboration on the exhibition.

US art scholar and writer David Adam Brubaker says that engaging with nature has become an increasingly urgent topic, especially in recent decades, and that artists face the unique challenge of playing a role in environmental protection.

"I see two strategies here for contemporary artists, who want to let us respond to the challenge people raised," he said at the exhibition.

He says that when Zhang displayed his work in the forests of Massachusetts, his paintings responded to the rain, wind and other forces of nature. "He changed the context, allowing nature and the paintings to interact, so that the art truly connected with the natural world," Brubaker says.

Cunningham, on the other hand, uses crystallization, which Brubaker describes as a fascinating physical process. "So, her artwork is not just her imposing her intentions on nature, she's taken a little piece of nature and put it into her painting. And her painting never quite stops," he says.

Recently, Cunningham returned from an artist residency at the A4 Art Museum in Chengdu, Sichuan province, where she shot a series of short-video stories about trees for her socio-ecological project, Memory Palace of Tree Stories. Some of these videos were included in the exhibition, further enriching the dialogue between art and nature.

Many of Cunningham's tree-themed paintings feature skies and open air, elements she describes as part of her Forest Breath series.

For this exhibition, she displayed pieces such as Banna Vortex and Electric Fronds, inspired by her time in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan province, in 2021 and 2023.

"Air is 400 million years of forest breath," Cunningham explains. "These pieces are part of that breath."