Visual Art / Resonance: Art as the Voice of Nature. At Canberra Museum and Gallery, until July 27. Reviewed by ROB KENNEDY.

There are many ways to protect nature and the earth’s resources, but through art, this visual storytelling practice shows how we can help defend and amplify the voice of nature.

In Resonance: Art as the Voice of Nature, at the Canberra Museum and Art Gallery, this exhibition explores the beauty found in nature and promotes ideas that highlight the role of art in protecting our planet.

With climate change, deforestation and pollution eroding our planet’s vitality, the works represented by the artists in this show don’t just resonate and reflect the beauty of our planet; they show the incredible diversity of Earth and how to help safeguard our natural world.

In Valerie Kirk’s Pine Forest Quilt, ACT, 1992, this woven tapestry not only looks like a forest floor, but you can also feel the earthiness and its textures and coolness through its colours.

Each work was created through NatureArt Lab, an educational organisation established by founder and director Julia Landford in 2017. It aims to promote advocacy for nature through art. NatureArt Lab encourages sustainable change by engaging nature through art and photography classes. They operate local and international nature tours to promote environmental education and custodianship of nature.

In the photos titled Eucalypt bark, textures and revelations, 2020-2021 by Terry Rushton, the patterns, colours, shapes and designs captured reveal the sometimes hidden and overlooked world of surface textures and stories seen on almost every tree in the world.

Around this small, but vast exhibition, paintings, visual art diaries, photographs, real-life natural objects of flora and fauna and videos show not only what has been collected for this exhibition, but there is also photomontages of children and artists who capture but also celebrate our natural global diversity.

The watercolour on paper titled Themeda triandra (Kangaroo Grass) 2024, by Karen Holloway, is so earthy, it’s so real that it captures the very essence of a living entity. But my favourites were the ever curious, ever entertaining magpies so accurately depicted in her three watercolour works on paper by Lesley Wallington.

Many creative and lifelike artistic renderings of nature are featured in this exhibition. But it similarly challenges visitors to become aware of our unique ecosystem. By providing advice and practical methods for environmental protection and conservation, this exhibition strives to guarantee the survival of Earth’s rich and vital biodiversity.