disturbances

From MixHaus Gallery:

“disturbances. coalesced around three artists’ perspectives of the interplay between humans and the environment of West Texas.  Kari Englehardt’s botanical works of petroleum phytoremediators, Nate Cassie’s oilfield-glazed ceramics and the environmental sound collage of Parker Duke offer individual examinations of this sometimes-fraught relationship. The result is an exhibition of chance sensory beauty derived from the Permian Basin.

dis•tur•bance (noun)  1. The interruption of a settled and peaceful condition.

2. In ecology, a disturbance is a temporary change in environmental conditions that causes a noticeable shift in an ecosystem.

Kari Englehardt is a mixed media artist considering human interactions in the natural world through a lens of native plant ecology. She has explored themes of time and place, boundaries and borders, migration origin stories, and phytoremediation. Her current work is an illustrated study of plants that are proven to be effective petroleum phytoremediators, and their dependent wildlife. Kari has a BS from the University of Texas Austin. Her work is included in private, institutional and corporate collections across the US.

Nate Cassie is a conceptual, mixed-discipline artist. A unifying theme is an exploration of the spaces “in between” dichotomies. Currently, this includes the exploration of vernacular beauty in functional ceramics and furniture that connect groups and communities. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is included in public and private collections. He has lived and worked in San Antonio, Texas, since 1993.

Parker Duke is an audio and visual collage artist focusing on breathing new life into forgotten music and film. Raised in San Antonio, he relocated to Fort Davis in 2020 and works as a Telescope Operator and Instrument Specialist at the McDonald Observatory. This relocation exposed him to the exploitation of the West Texas ecosphere, where illegal light and water pollution is common practice. “