Balance Art and Nature, Revised Edition [Hardcover]

Believing that artistic expressioncan and doesplay an important role in changing the way we perceive our relation to the world we live in, art critic John Grande takes an in-depth look at the work of some very unusual environmental artists in the United States, Canada, and -Europe.

Dealing with everything from materials to the politics of curatorship, from the permanence of art works to the artist’s role as cultural critic,Balance Art and Naturetakes theory into action as it critically examines the works of Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley, Armand Vaillancourt, Bill Reid, Carl Beam, Kevin Kelly, Ana Mendieta, James Carl, Patrick Dougherty, Keith Haring, and others. What emerges is a viable socio-environmental framework for evaluating contemporary art and insights into art’s actual and potential roles.

Grande’s commentaries represent an important contribution to the theory of art. —Claude Lévi-Strauss

A call to reawaken creativity in this time of alienation. —Antony Gormley

Encourages us to rethink what it means to be an artist in a time of global eco-crisis. —Suzi Gablik,The Re-enchantment of Art

Makes unexpected connections giving new insights into contemporary art. —Public Art Review

Grande’s book contains a lot of ideas, all of which are thought-provoking. —Globe and Mail

Details makes this book convincing. —Books In Canada

Grande’s ideas and style are fresh, sincere, intuitive, lively and compelling. —Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics

Offers interesting parallels between different aspects of public art. —Espace Sculptur

Writer and art criticJohn Grande’s reviews and feature -articles have been published in art magazines and catalogues internationally. He is author ofIntertwining: Landscape, Technology, Issues, Artists(BllƒX