Shivering Trees, Curling Flames features three painters, Madeleine Bialke, Brittney Leeanne Williams, and Alyina Zaidi, who capture the natural world with vibrant palettes and uncanny compositions. Their superlative hues—acid yellow, brilliant blue, cadmium red—and soft-edged geometries suggest landscapes more psychological than real.

All three artists consider the connections between nature and the body: Anthropomorphized trees shiver and shake throughout Bialke’s canvases, Williams depicts female figures that merge with the earth and sky around them, and Zaidi develops a personal symbology featuring snakes, angels, and eggs. Art historical and mystical traditions, climate science, and the artists’ own identities also inform their work. Altogether, the canvases in the exhibition ask us to reconsider the sentience of the natural world, the body’s place within nature, and the ways in which paintings can cast their own transformative spells.

Artists: Madeleine Bialke, Brittney Leeanne Williams, Alyina Zaidi