The Peace of Wild Things
Inspired by the poem by Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things features a group of women artists whose practices meditate on nature’s sublime stillness and mystical harmony.
Some works might reveal an entire cosmos within a single flower, another might depict the waves of a woman’s hair unfurling like the ocean’s, dissolving boundaries between self and earth. These intimate portraits of nature evoke tranquility, awe, and spiritual awareness, revealing an intelligence far greater than our own which unites all living forms in universal oneness.
The moment we become aware of the natural world’s emanation of stillness, it becomes our teacher. In their quiet existence, plants, fungi and animals hold the power to heal, reminding us of what we have forgotten: the art of living in peace. Only by releasing our attachment to material forms can we transcend into the infinite expanse of nature’s interconnected beauty.
This exhibition takes root at a time of unprecedented ecological crisis, when the earth’s fragility calls for both reckoning and renewal. As glaciers melt, sea levels rise, and wildfires rage, these works offer a contemplative space to reconsider our place within the natural world. They illuminate the profound interdependence of all life, beckoning us to come into the peace of wild things—not only to rest in its grace, but to recognise its fragility and honour its gifts.
Exhibiting artists include Georgia Beaumont, Sara Bonache, Seline Burn, Gill Button, Annalee Davis, Cecilia Granara, Beatrice Hasell-McCosh, Monika Marchewka, Solá Olúlòde, Anna Ortiz.
The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Curated by Claudia Cheng
Soho Revue Gallery, London
24/04/25 – 24/05/25