Natura Non Constristatur: Survey Exhibition

19 September - 15 November 2025
  • Opening reception: Friday, September, 19 from 5 to 8 PM
     

    Artists: Whitney Bedford, Jeff Carter, Mitchell Charbonneau, Rick Leong, Morgan Mandalay, Kiki Smith, William Staples, Ena Swansea and Amy Vogel. 

     

    SECRIST | BEACH is pleased to present the salon invitational exhibition Natura Non ConstristaturNatura Non Constristatur brings together a group of artists that formally and conceptually explore the cultural potency of nature - specifically trees and forests - in relation to humanity. The exhibition includes an intergenerational roster of artists and was curated with the assistance of gallery artist Jaqueline Surdell. Natura Non Constristatur is presented concurrently with Surdell's solo exhibition The Conversion: Rings, Rupture, and the Forest Archive as well as a site specific installation, titled Lumen Reliquary, created by Andee Hess of Osmose Design.
     
    Natura Non Constristatur is a Latin phrase meaning “Nature Is Not Saddened.” It expresses the idea that the natural world is indifferent to human suffering and misfortune. This phrase is often associated with a philosophical outlook that emphasizes the insignificance of human affairs, and reflection on whether nature truly coexists—or merely endures—us. We like to imagine a symbiotic bond—one of mutual support and harmony, but in this Age of Anthropocene, reality teaches us otherwise.
     
    The artists in Natura Non Constristatur employ a range of approaches and materials within this dynamic that explores the profundity of our relationship to forests. Throughout recorded human existence, these woodland areas have projected a wide range of cultural and emotional feelings stirring awe and reverence while conjuring everything from mystery and divinity, to fear and comfort. The same compulsions invoked within this one might also find in the spiritual realm, organized or otherwise. This intersection of nature and spirituality, compounded by the notion of nature’s lack of empathy, is what Natura Non Constristatur explores.
     
    • William Staples Bird, 2024 Acrylic, oil and charcoal on canvas 8 x 10 inches
      William Staples
      Bird, 2024
      Acrylic, oil and charcoal on canvas
      8 x 10 inches
    • William Staples Moose, 2022 Oil and sawdust on canvas 11 x 14 inches
      William Staples
      Moose, 2022
      Oil and sawdust on canvas
      11 x 14 inches
    • William Staples Two Trees, 2022-24 Oil, bark, sawdust and string on canvas 12 x 10 inches
      William Staples
      Two Trees, 2022-24
      Oil, bark, sawdust and string on canvas
      12 x 10 inches
    • William Staples Three Birds, 2013-14 Oil on canvas 24 x 26 inches
      William Staples
      Three Birds, 2013-14
      Oil on canvas
      24 x 26 inches
    • William Staples Woods, 2023 Oil and sawdust on canvas 10 x 12 inches
      William Staples
      Woods, 2023
      Oil and sawdust on canvas
      10 x 12 inches
  • William Staples draws on images from childhood in 1970s and 80s as well as art historical imagery, journeying to libraries...
    William Staples draws on images from childhood in 1970s and 80s as well as art historical imagery, journeying to libraries and scouring the internet for the pictures, drawing and then painting them with a reductive or sentimentally codified manner, where memories fuse with legacies of cultural imagery. In his work, particularly landscapes, colors—their richness or opacity, fading or cleanliness—lines—their looseness or directionality—and space—its constriction or seemingly infinite depth—all allow the imagination to construct an image from these clues.
     
     
     
     
    William Staples

    Tree, 2022

    Oil and sawdust on canvas

    32 x 17 inches

    • Kiki Smith Sorcery (1st Hour), 2019 Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white 27.5 x 35 inches 30.25 x 38 inches, framed
      Kiki Smith
      Sorcery (1st Hour), 2019
      Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white
      27.5 x 35 inches
      30.25 x 38 inches, framed
    • Kiki Smith Sorcery (2nd Hour), 2019 Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white 27.5 x 35 inches 30.25 x 38 inches, framed
      Kiki Smith
      Sorcery (2nd Hour), 2019
      Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white
      27.5 x 35 inches
      30.25 x 38 inches, framed
    • Kiki Smith Sorcery (3rd Hour), 2019 Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white 27.5 x 35 inches 30.25 x 38 inches, framed
      Kiki Smith
      Sorcery (3rd Hour), 2019
      Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white
      27.5 x 35 inches
      30.25 x 38 inches, framed
    • Kiki Smith Sorcery (4th Hour), 2019 Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white 27.5 x 35 inches 30.25 x 38 inches, framed
      Kiki Smith
      Sorcery (4th Hour), 2019
      Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white
      27.5 x 35 inches
      30.25 x 38 inches, framed
    • Kiki Smith Sorcery (5th Hour), 2019 Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white 27.5 x 35 inches 30.25 x 38 inches, framed
      Kiki Smith
      Sorcery (5th Hour), 2019
      Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white
      27.5 x 35 inches
      30.25 x 38 inches, framed
    • Kiki Smith Sorcery (6th Hour), 2019 Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white 27.5 x 35 inches 30.25 x 38 inches, framed
      Kiki Smith
      Sorcery (6th Hour), 2019
      Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white
      27.5 x 35 inches
      30.25 x 38 inches, framed
    • Kiki Smith Sorcery (7th Hour), 2019 Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white 27.5 x 35 inches 30.25 x 38 inches, framed
      Kiki Smith
      Sorcery (7th Hour), 2019
      Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white
      27.5 x 35 inches
      30.25 x 38 inches, framed
    • Kiki Smith Sorcery (8th Hour), 2019 Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white 27.5 x 35 inches 30.25 x 38 inches, framed
      Kiki Smith
      Sorcery (8th Hour), 2019
      Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white
      27.5 x 35 inches
      30.25 x 38 inches, framed
    • Kiki Smith Sorcery (9th Hour), 2019 Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white 27.5 x 35 inches 30.25 x 38 inches, framed
      Kiki Smith
      Sorcery (9th Hour), 2019
      Intaglio in 2 colors on Hahnemühle mould-made white
      27.5 x 35 inches
      30.25 x 38 inches, framed
  • Kiki Smith has spent a career exploring the body as a source of knowledge and self-conception, from its microscopic organic...
    Kiki Smith has spent a career exploring the body as a source of knowledge and self-conception, from its microscopic organic makeup to the resulting consciousness, informed by myth, folklore, and personal references. Balancing abjection with spirituality across diverse mediums, her unique approach to figuration expresses a reverence for the natural world beyond simple representation.
     
     
     

     

    Kiki Smith
    Summer I, 2022
    Archival digital pigment print
    20.375 x 24.5 inches, framed
    Edition 1 of 13, 5 AP, 1 PP
    • Rick Leong Divergence and Convergence, 2025 Oil on canvas 36 x 36 inches
      Rick Leong
      Divergence and Convergence, 2025
      Oil on canvas
      36 x 36 inches
    • Rick Leong A Closer Look, 2025 Oil on canvas 36 x 36 inches
      Rick Leong
      A Closer Look, 2025
      Oil on canvas
      36 x 36 inches
  • Rick Leong’s paintings adopt a classical Chinese style with graphic, flowing renderings of vegetation among mythical creatures and plant hybrids....

    Rick Leong’s paintings adopt a classical Chinese style with graphic, flowing renderings of vegetation among mythical creatures and plant hybrids. Paths, clearings, bodies of water, and bridges enter into a sublime world where humans, nature, animals, and spirits are equal. In the context of the Anthropocene, Leong’s tonal paintings offer an ideal symbiosis between the human and natural world.

     

     

     

    Rick Leong
    Wild Willow, 2019
    Oil on canvas
    96 x 72 inches
  • Ena Swansea, rain people, 2023

    Ena Swansea

    rain people, 2023
    Oil and acrylic on linen
    82 x 108 inches
  • Ena Swansea paints portraits, cityscapes, and rural scenes with an ephemerality, seeing her paintings as film stills. The paintings are...

    Ena Swansea paints portraits, cityscapes, and rural scenes with an ephemerality, seeing her paintings as film stills. The paintings are luminous, with light developed within a ghostly negative, alongside the effect of overexposure, or oversaturation. Her use of a graphite-infused ground welcomes a low, metallic shimmer to the surface, catching light as the viewer moves, imbuing the paintings with a fleeting feeling.

     

      

      

     

    Ena Swansea
    into the trees, 2019
    Oil and acrylic on linen
    86 x 40 inches
  • Jeff Carter, Tree Test 2, 2025

    Jeff Carter

    Tree Test 2, 2025
    Cast iron, wood, PLA and motor
    6 x 6 x 5 inches, approximately (sculpture)
    4.5 x 58 x 9 inches (shelf)
  • As a temporal element, Jeff Carter’s tree sculpture is modeled after a low-resolution topographical scan of a landscape that rotates...
    As a temporal element, Jeff Carter’s tree sculpture is modeled after a low-resolution topographical scan of a landscape that rotates one singular time within a year, similarly to how tree rings tell the age of a tree when cut down. This mechanical intervention, with motion almost imperceptible to the visitor, offers a critical evaluation of the current climate crisis. As humanity has evolved, so too has the earth’s destruction, and so too has empathy for its existence.
    • Amy Vogel Backyard, 2024 Graphite on paper 22.5 x 30 inches 27.5 x 35 x 1.5 inches, framed
      Amy Vogel
      Backyard, 2024
      Graphite on paper
      22.5 x 30 inches
      27.5 x 35 x 1.5 inches, framed
    • Amy Vogel The Cast, 2023 Graphite on paper 22.5 x 30 inches 27.5 x 35 x 1.5 inches, framed
      Amy Vogel
      The Cast, 2023
      Graphite on paper
      22.5 x 30 inches
      27.5 x 35 x 1.5 inches, framed
  • Amy Vogel has taken erasure unto her drawings of idyllic landscapes, with curious figures frolicking, oblivious, in clearings surrounded by...
    Amy Vogel has taken erasure unto her drawings of idyllic landscapes, with curious figures frolicking, oblivious, in clearings surrounded by towering trees. With her almost contradictory interventions, Vogel recalibrates the human perception of nature as a duality of beautiful and strange, durable and frail, temporal and atemporal.
     
    Amy Vogel
    Picnic, 2024
    Graphite on paper
    30 x 45 inches (diptych)
    35 x 50 x 1.5 inches, framed
    • Morgan Mandalay Angel's Trumpet (Woe! Woe! Woe!), 2022 Oil on canvas in artist’s frame 54 x 40 inches
      Morgan Mandalay
      Angel's Trumpet (Woe! Woe! Woe!), 2022
      Oil on canvas in artist’s frame
      54 x 40 inches
    • Morgan Mandalay Blight in Time, 2024 Oil on canvas in artist’s frame 36 x 28 inches
      Morgan Mandalay
      Blight in Time, 2024
      Oil on canvas in artist’s frame
      36 x 28 inches
  • With a voracity, Morgan Mandalay paints dynamic, almost volatile, scenes of storms, volcanic eruptions, and rain which are mediated by...

    With a voracity, Morgan Mandalay paints dynamic, almost volatile, scenes of storms, volcanic eruptions, and rain which are mediated by gradients of color, blooming flowers, and welcoming interiors. The compositions in his paintings oscillate between chaos and serenity, sometimes both at once, where stories of fear, growth, and transformation emerge through cataclysmic environments.

     

     

     

    Morgan Mandalay
    Split Second, 2021
    Oil on canvas in artist’s frame
    11 x 22 inches
    • Mitchell Charbonneau Black Ice, Wild Cherry, New Car Scent, 2024 Painted bronze 10 x 4.5 inches
      Mitchell Charbonneau
      Black Ice, Wild Cherry, New Car Scent, 2024
      Painted bronze
      10 x 4.5 inches
    • Mitchell Charbonneau True North, Black Ice, 2025 Painted bronze 8 x 3.5 inches
      Mitchell Charbonneau
      True North, Black Ice, 2025
      Painted bronze
      8 x 3.5 inches
  • Mitchell Charbonneau offers an unexpected angle that explores the relationship between culture and nature. Taking the form of ubiquitous tree-shaped...

    Mitchell Charbonneau offers an unexpected angle that explores the relationship between culture and nature. Taking the form of ubiquitous tree-shaped car fresheners, Charbonneau reproduces this familiar everyday object as a conceptually heavy cast bronze objet. These “Little Trees”, contextualized within the larger scheme of the exhibition, take on an outsized role questioning ideas around utility, nostalgia, aura and the commercial manipulation of natural materials.

     

     

     

    Mitchell Charbonneau
    Royal Pine, Royal Pine, Royal Pine, 2022
    Painted bronze
    8 x 3 inches
  • Whitney Bedford, Veduta (Vuillard First Fruits at Sunset), 2025

    Whitney Bedford

    Veduta (Vuillard First Fruits at Sunset), 2025
    Ink and oil on nylinen on panel
    96 x 144 x 2 inches
  • Whitney Bedford’s series of vedute paintings combine architectural suggestions and atmospheric paint handling to combine art historically important innovations (here,...

    Whitney Bedford’s series of vedute paintings combine architectural suggestions and atmospheric paint handling to combine art historically important innovations (here, Vincent van Gogh and Édouard Vuillard) of landscapes that contextualize the sublime with a contemporary rumination on our Age of the Anthropocene.

  • Whitney Bedford, Veduta (Van Gogh The Poet’s Garden), 2025

    Whitney Bedford

    Veduta (Van Gogh The Poet’s Garden), 2025
    Ink and oil on nylinen on panel
    43 x 54 x 2 inches
  • Salon

    Lumen Reliquary by Andee Hess

    In response to Natura non Constristator, Hess foraged for material in the forests near her home in the Pacific Northwest, ultimately selecting discarded walnut trunks from a sawmill in Aurora, Oregon where she worked alongside the sawyer to mill the final pieces and transport them to her studio. Weeks of sanding and sculpting ensued, as a language and pattern of interuptions in the wood evolved. Imagined as a simplified technology which is either ancient or highly advanced, alluding to interfaces from vintage sci-fi and retro-futurism, this sculpture represents a manipulated network for unknown functionality.
    Hovering above the sculpture are suspended mirror ribs which evoke a forest canopy and sacred enclosure, abstracting the reflection we engage and project upon experiences in nature.