September 6 — October 11, 2008
The Armchair Naturalist
Michael Roch
The paintings and sculpture in The Armchair Naturalist play off of Michael Roch's loving and mnemonic view of the animal and natural world. Each animal is depicted from the memory of the first time it was seen by Roch as a new and strange specimen. Nuzzling animals, native grasses, nuzzling pachyderms and elegant raptors roll in and out of Roch’s paintings and sculptures. In Galapagos Bunnies, a delicately rendered pair of rabbits are surrounded by an intricate weave of rusted tubing. The pieces create a frame - one literal, one visual – that like the 1997 Britannic field guide for weary urbanites, The Armchair Naturalist, satirically condense and compress the natural world.