May 7 - 9, 2026
Loren Hotel, Lady Bird Lake Austin, Texas
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.”
- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
Nature of Things is pleased to present a selection of works from five different artists for this year’s Friends Fair in Austin, Texas. The works on view have been created in distinct mediums—found wood, ceramic, oil paint, bleach, and ink on paper—but are in dialogue through their expression and mimesis of organic forms, and the continual exchange between body and nature.
Ralph Griffin assembled his sculptures from found tree roots and paint, utilizing nature’s existing forms that already conveyed history and energy into more expressive, life-like forms. Almost inversely, Bill Willis’ rectangular canvases are filled with a layered process of transformation that results back to the organic, particularly his latest focus—the sunflower. Sam Linguist’s ceramic paintings are irregular, handled clay, and painted three-dimensional forms that almost grow into space from the wall. Helen Burkhart Mayfield’s potently delicate drawings convey body and nature in constant choreographed balance.
Jennifer Sullivan’s hand-painted t-shirts point to powerful examples of canonical artistry in wearable form. Her Maria Lassnig shirt feels particularly appropriate in this continuation of thought — adorned on the back is Lassnig’s theory of ‘body awareness’: “I step in front of the canvas naked, as it were. I have no set purpose, plan, model, or photography. I let things happen.”
Instinct, too, has a natural shape to it.