Nature Never Loses is artist Carl Cheng's (1942, San Francisco) first major solo exhibition in Europe.

Nature Never Loses

Nature Never Loses surveys six decades of the prescient, genre-defying work of artist Carl Cheng (b. 1942, San Francisco; lives and works in Santa Monica). Having studied both fine art and industrial design, Cheng first developed his art practice in Southern California in the 1960s, amid political unrest, an interdisciplinary art scene, a booming post-war aerospace industry, and rapid development of the landscape. His ever-evolving body of work, incorporating a variety of materials and media, engages with environmental change, the relevance of art institutions to their publics, and the role of technology in society—topics with urgent contemporary relevance. Originally recognised for his photographic sculptures, his inventive lexicon includes “art tools” employed in the production of momentary artworks, “nature machines” that anticipate an artificial world shaped by humans, and extra-institutional interventions intended to reach broad audiences.

John Doe Co.

Between 1966 and 1970, Cheng incorporated his studio under the name John Doe Co. This move, made originally for practical reasons, poked fun at the commodification of art and the brand of the artist, while also serving as a simultaneous critique of corporate culture and the Vietnam War-era discrimination he experienced as an Asian American. In the guise of John Doe Co., he has created sculptural “products” that reflect his conception of technology as an artistic tool and his scepticism of neoliberal notions of progress that have shaped both the art market and the tech industry.

Nature is everything

The generosity, irreverence, and playfulness that infuse Cheng’s work are of a piece with his embrace of organic materials and processes and his commitment to making art in public spaces. Throughout, Cheng has consistently probed questions of natural agency and the extractive impact of humans on their environment, summed up in his frequent declarations, at once humorous, foreboding, and hopeful that “nature never loses,” “nature always wins,” and “nature is everything.”

Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses is organised by Alex Klein, Head Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs, The Contemporary Austin (USA) with assistance from Rachel Eboh, Curatorial Assistant, The Contemporary Austin (USA) in partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania (USA),  Bonnefanten, Museum Tinguely (Basel) and Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (USA).

Carl Cheng

Carl Cheng (1942, San Francisco) lives and works in Santa Monica. He studied industrial and graphic design at UCLA and was one of the first photography students under Robert Heinecken. For a short period, he also studied at the Folkwang Universität in Essen. This is where he was influenced by the Bauhaus spirit, which meant that industrial design and art go hand-in-hand.

At the start of his career, Cheng found himself in the experimental art scene of Southern California and the post-war aviation industry, resulting in artworks at the intersection of identity, technology and ecology. He worked for Charles and Ray Eames, among others, and was among the first artists to experiment with new materials and unconventional techniques such as Plexiglas and fibreglass.

This is only a tiny part of the story of Carl Cheng and much more will show in the exhibition Nature Never Loses.