Moving away from ordered and controlled notions of nature and towards decidedly unscientific representations, the works reflect an understanding of nature that is obscured and complicated by our urban existence and the looming threat that the fast changing environment poses to it.í‚   Furthermore, given our high-tech, urban centered, consumer driven world, the idea of a harmonious relationship with nature is absurd.í‚  í‚   This absurdity is prominent in the fanatastical fiction of landscapes below.í‚  

Luke Painter is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Toronto. His work often features fantastic architectural and natural structures that float on the surface of abstract backgrounds and are at once romantic and evoke apocalyptic anxieties. For more information, go to www.lukepainter.ca.

Industrial muscle generator, Etching plates, oil and acrylic paint on steel and wood, 24"x 24". 2005

Malibu, Etching plates, oil and acrylic paint on steel and wood, 36"x 48". 2004.

For Newfoundland-based artist Will Gill, the natural environment becomes both fantasy and escape. Gill's sculptural works combine wood with paint, bronze, and found materials to form hybrid objects which gesture toward organic mutation, tree limbs grow pretty meteorite tumors and the forest is a place where trees become satellites, homing devices and lighthouses. For more information, click here.

Satellite Wood, stainless steel, dimensions 23í¢â‚¬ x14í¢â‚¬ x14í¢â‚¬  2002

Crystal Beard is a Calgary based artist collective working with music, video, drawings, animation, paintings, comics and cartoons. Similar to the iconic imagery of Paper Rad. their works often depict a confrontation of natural and cultural landscapes with vivid florescent colors and geometric shapes. Waste-products of consumer obsolescence and pop culture junk imagery remerges in a surreal collage. For More information, go to www.crystalbeard.com.

Crystal Beard

Video Still

Sarah Anne Johnson's Tree Planting Project (DATE) is a departure from the traditional representation of the Canadian landscape. Johnson combines photographs of "tree-planters" on site with photographs of her own miniature maquettes of the same landscapes. The juxtaposition is uncanny and, much like the experience of the tree planters themselves, the Canadian landscape becomes an absurd dream marked by saturated colours and obscure detail. For more information, click here.

Morning Meeting, Chromogenic Print / Dye Coupler Print, Tree Planting Project.

The Raft, Chromogenic Print / Dye Coupler Print, Tree Planting Project.