Beacon Gallery is pleased to announce Nedret Andre’s upcoming solo exhibition, City By The Sea, opening November 6, 2020. 

Inspired by Sienese frescoes and particularly Amborgio Lorenzetti’s “City by the Sea” (1340), Andre’s work explores the social contract we humans create between urban environments, our government and nature. 

Through this show Andre delves into historically accurate maps of Boston and her environmental activism to comment on the effects of good and bad governance over our natural world. Replicated Boston street maps and shorelines are overlaid with her signature seagrass abstractions, as well as a color palette inspired by the aforementioned Sienese frescoes. 

Andre’s love of her adopted city of Boston offers viewers an opportunity to consider the importance of environmental stewardship, not just for individuals, but also particularly at a governmental level. Pieces such as “Boston Seagrass” address the connection of Boston’s tenuous existence as a city reclaimed from the ocean with the environment. Further abstract paintings also connect with Lorenzetti’s frescoes through their concept, texture, and warm earth tones. 

City by the Sea continues Andre’s devotion to the environment and her specific passion for seagrass, which plays an important (and oft underappreciated) role in our ecosystem. The thematic combination of seagrass activism with the rich, warm beauty of 14th century Lorenzetti frescoes has resulted in a collection that provides strong dialogue and abstract allure for its viewers. 

This is Andre’s second solo show at Beacon Gallery, and though her artwork has been garnering attention and praise, her priority continues to environmental activism. “Globally we are losing two football fields of seagrass habitation every hour,” Andre says. “I am concerned with our relationship to our natural and man-made environment, how it has changed over time and how it will continue to change in the future.  Our actions now impact our future for clean air, clean water, and keeping our CO2 levels low.  Seagrass ecosystems play a vital role in human well-being.  Rather than focusing on the rich biodiversity and ecosystem benefits seagrass provides us, I want to have a different type of conversation about seagrass within a historical context.”

While seagrass is the backbone of her work, a major underpinning of this particular collection is the government social contract philosophy.  Just as Lorenzetti’s Palazzo Pubblico frescoes delivered a message about the effects of both good and bad government, Andre hopes to carry out a similar message. Andre, with a show opening the week of the presidential election, reminds us that we all have a role to play in government, and if we don’t use our minds to think through our decisions, we risk losing our democracy, and the health of our planet. 

Join Nedret Andre at Beacon Gallery for November and December’s First Friday to learn more about the artwork in the show and her work in the field. A virtual artist talk will also be scheduled, with the date currently to be determined.