Flores Muertas - Toxic Reality

This October connoisseurs of wine, coffee, and art are in for a treat. On view at the Northside Social’s Second Floor Wine Bar Gallery are over a dozen etchings, encased in elaborate altars or rustic steel frames, guaranteed to put you in the right mood for the Halloween season.  Swedish born artist and designer Nils Henrik Sundqvist indulges his viewers in skeleton images, flowers and insects sitting on deadly pesticide molecules. As crucified skeleton bats hang above lit up candle altars, butterflies are trapped in pentagon shaped crown of thorns, and skeletons hand their loved ones roses, it becomes apparent that neither insect, animal nor human can get out alive! Join the artist for a reception on Sat., Oct. 15 , 7– 8:30 P.M. with live acoustic music by Margot MacDonald

Mr. Sundqvist’s newest print series Flores Muertas focuses on the toxicity of commercial agricultural and  conventional flower production practices as a real danger to people and the environment. Animals and insects such as bees, butterflies, birds, and bats provide pollination services for over three-quarters of the staple crop plants that feed humankind, and for 90% of all flowering plants in the world.  “These artworks are not your regular kind of flower still lifes,” comments printmaker and designer Nils Henrik Sundqvist. “They show traces of commercial agricultural practices — effects no one can escape from.”  The limited edition prints portray an old world feel, inspired by the Northern Renaissance flower still lifes which are infused with typographic and iconic messages about toxicity, religion, and the passage of time.

The exhibition Flores Muertas is on view from October 7, 2011 through November 3, 2011. The Wine Bar opens at 5pm daily except Sundays.