Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses

Bonnefanten is proud to present Nature Never Loses, the first in-depth survey of Carl Cheng (b. 1942, San Francisco) in Europe.

Opening at Bonnefanten: Friday, May 9, 17:30–22:00
Exhibition dates: May 10, 2025–September 28, 2025
Curators: Alex Klein, Head Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, The Contemporary Austin, and Celien Govaerts, Junior Curator of Contemporary Art, Bonnefanten. With assistance from Rachel Eboh, Curatorial Assistant, The Contemporary Austin.

This exhibition offers six decades of Cheng’s prescient, genre-defying work that merges identity, technology, and ecology into poetic and critical art forms. 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.”

A pioneer in the margins

Nature Never Loses seeks to highlight the innovative and interdisciplinary nature of Cheng’s practice, one which has been largely excluded from art historical narratives to date. The exhibition meticulously distils the artist’s vast oeuvre and archival material of past installations and public artworks into a survey of more than 60 objects that have been rarely seen. As most of Cheng’s work is still in his possession, Nature Never Loses offers a unique opportunity to experience the scope of the artist’s career through a presentation that spans conceptual public artworks, Art Tools, Nature Machines, photographic sculptures and interactive installations made from recycled materials.

Exploring nature and technology through art

The exhibition organises Cheng’s works into six thematic areas, each exploring Cheng’s unique perspective on art and creative experimentation with nature and technology. For example, he used photography not to capture “real” images, but as an artistic tool to create collages and sculptures that scrutinise human perception. His Art Tools—functional devices designed to produce temporary and often ephemeral compositions—blur the line between utility and artistic autonomy. Similarly, his Nature Machines emulate natural systems while examining the entanglements between human innovation, ecological transformation, and artificial environments. Later, Cheng turned his focus to public artworks—both official commissions and self-initiated projects—which he describes as studies in “human erosion.” Subject to decay, neglect, or vandalism, these works act as metaphors for the fragility of ecological systems under pressure from human activity.

John Doe Co.

Since the 1960s, Cheng has worked under the pseudonym John Doe Co., a fictional corporate identity that allowed him to critique capitalist systems, cultural commodification, and questions of authorship while deliberately staying in the background. As John Doe Co., Cheng confronted the institutional exclusions and reductive framing he experienced as an Asian American, while also offering a subversive commentary on corporate anonymity and the aesthetics of consumer culture.

About Carl Cheng

For over six decades, Carl Cheng (b. 1942 in San Francisco, CA; lives and works in Santa Monica, CA) has worked across a variety of media to explore the tensions between nature, artmaking, identity, and technology. He studied industrial and graphic design at UCLA and was among the first graduate students in its photography department under Robert Heinecken. His experience at UCLA as well as his graduate work at the Folkwang Essen, Germany, exposed Cheng to the interdisciplinary ethos of the Bauhaus-influenced education that wedded art and industry. Cheng has exhibited solo at venues such as Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara; Capp Street Project, San Francisco; MIT’s LIST Visual Arts Center, Boston; Sculpture Center, New York City; and ASG Foundation Gallery, Nagoya, Japan.

Since the late 1970s, he has also created public artworks—both official and self-initiated—allowing for greater scale and audience engagement. His practice has recently gained renewed attention through group exhibitions like Potential Worlds 2: Eco-Fictions at Migros Museum, 3D: Double Vision at LACMA, Specters of Disruption at de Young Museum, and Emerald City at K11 Art Foundation, as well as his inclusion in the upcoming iteration of the Hammer Museum’s biennial exhibition Made in L.A. 2025. His work is held in the permanent collections of Migros Museum, de Young Museum, and SFMOMA. In 2022, REDCAT presented his solo exhibition Material Behavior, centered on his restored sand rake Art Tool: Rake 1022, in partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania; Bonnefanten; and Museum Tinguely for the upcoming survey Nature Never Loses.

Publication

This fall, the first comprehensive publication on Cheng will be released documenting his extensive body of work, life, and practice. Designed by Studio Lin, the catalogue is edited by Alex Klein and Jennifer Krasinski with text by Carl Cheng, Rachel Eboh, Joel Ferree, Celien Govaerts, Alex Klein, Andres Pardey, Amanda Sroka, and Gloria Sutton.

Exhibition Organisation and Credits

The exhibition Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses in Bonnefanten is curated by Alex Klein, Head Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs, The Contemporary Austin (USA) and Celien Govaerts, junior curator of contemporary art, Bonnefanten.

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 collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania (USA), Bonnefanten, Museum Tinguely (Basel), and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (USA).

This exhibition is made possible by:

The Province of Limburg, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, VriendenLoterij, and the Mondriaan Fund.

Original support for Carl Cheng:
Nature Never Loses was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia. Major support is also provided by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Teiger Foundation, with sustainability efforts guided by Rute Collaborative as part of Teiger Foundation's Climate Action Pilot. Additional support provided by Philip Martin Gallery and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Art and Technology Lab.

Press contact:

For more information, interviews, and visual materials, please contact Esther Wagemans via pressoffice@bonnefanten.nl or +31 (0)6-28 63 42 94.