From the MTG: Exhibitions about the environment are topical and relatable

Gently, 2019 by Billie Culy. Photo / Supplied

From the collection of Hawke's Bay Museums Trust, Ruawharo Tā-ū-rangi collection is a special selection of paintings, sculpture, objects, textiles and taonga.

These will be shown alongside the work of artists who live and work in Hawke's Bay in a new exhibition called Nature Culture.

Exhibitions about the environment are topical and relatable at the moment, though nowadays the environment is often addressed in view of the urgency of climate change and environmental crisis.

Talking about global warming can be a powerful call to action, though it can also foster anxiety - especially in our tamariki and rangatahi, the generation required to deal with the future impacts of climate change.

While the exhibition is motivated by these conditions, it doesn't directly address the crisis, preferring to engage visitors with ways of "connecting" or reconnecting with the natural world, some of which are lessons from the past.

This is not to minimise the urgency of climate change, but an effort to find a positive path into the issue.

Here art takes a central role, with each of these artists sharing stories and ways of being in nature that are less acquisitive.

Works by Colin McCahon, Ralph Hotere, Louise Henderson and Browynne Cornish from the collection are included in the exhibition. All have had long and notable careers and each expresses a personal relationship with nature, be it philosophical or aesthetic.

Seven artists who live and work in Hawke's Bay are also in the exhibition. g.bridle, Chris Bryant-Toi, Annette Bull, Nycki Crawford, Billie Culy, Peter Madden and Ben Pearce.

Peter Madden collages photographs from National Geographic photobooks – creating explosive miniature universes that transport you into the stratosphere, where you find yourself pondering your own existence.

Billie Culy's video works were filmed in Lake Kuratau and Haumoana. Culy began making video work in Haumoana during lockdown in 2020, having returned from the United Kingdom due to the pandemic. Culy has continued working on the series, exploring the restorative potential of these environments.

Chris Bryant-Toi is showing his model of Tuamatua, made for the Whakatu Arterial Linkway into the gallery. You'll pass by these sentinels as you drive through the Linkway or Karamu Rd. Bryant Toi's work is smaller in scale, a model for his larger outdoor works.

Nycki Crawford is a painter of energies whose sparks and bursts look at the way earthly cycles influence and affect us.

Ben Pearce has just recently completed Te Papa's 4 Plinth installation, making amazing giant-sized origami figures in a work called #Paper Pals Aotearoa. Follow them on Instagram or see them online.

His work in Nature Culture is a little bit creepy, quite a different vibe from the brightly coloured critters on show in Wellington.

The artist g.bridle will also be showing work made in the Williams Kettle building in Ahuriri. g.bridle is another artist who has returned home to Hawke's Bay after establishing a name for himself across the country.

Annette Bull is an enigmatic ceramicist who makes wonderful sculptures that draw on the ancient geographies and histories of clay.

All of these artists come together in Nature Culture in a celebration of the natural world, each telling stories with the potential to remake our future.

• Toni MacKinnon, Art Curator at MTG Hawke's Bay.