Ashley Cook
April 12, 2025
Elemental Rhythms at Louis Buhl & Co.
The group exhibition currently on view at Louis Buhl & Co. reflects on an all-encompassing absorption that is experienced universally throughout the natural world. This undeniable sense of belonging comes from the inheritance of ancestral knowledge which, for centuries, was founded on a kind of boundless participation that sustains the web of life. We’ve sort of plucked ourselves out of that though, in order to explore “progress” as defined by invention and industry, but this path has proven to be unfulfilling for so many, resulting in a deep yearning to go back. Since the early days of the Industrial Revolution, artists have expressed the psychological angst that comes with “the great divide”1, and have taken steps to reconnect spiritually, emotionally, and physically with the surrounding landscape. Laura Berger, Lisa Farris, Ivan Montoya, Sabrina Piersol, and Corrine Slade are five artists who are carrying this lineage into the present day.
Laura Berger, Three Rivers, 2025
Laura Berger, Rising, Setting, 2025
Ivan Montoya, Eterno y Fugaz, 2025
Ivan Montoya, Fuego Util, 2025
Ivan Montoya, Fuego Interno, 2025
The aesthetic assortment of work in Elemental Rhythms evokes the formal abundance of Modernist Art. That, and the sincerity of the artists’ approaches to the subject, which has been somewhat lost with Postmodern thought. Laura Berger’s figures bathe in the rivers and sun rays like the dreams of the Magical Realists2, with their sturdy forms wrapped in a steady flow of comfort. Her simplistic drawing style engages in an ongoing reference to indigenous imagery or ancient artifacts that became on-trend in Western Art of the early 20th century. This sculptural approach to rendering two dimensional forms is carried over into the compositions of Ivan Montoya, who, like the Precisionists3, presents organic bodies with straight edges and right angles. His frames are filled with gentle shadows, generating a feeling of being sheltered by the foliage, emphasizing the forest and fields as safe havens for bonding and rest.
Sabrina Piersol, Black Lava Flower Moon, 2025
Sabrina Piersol, Sisters / Asters, 2025
Corrine Slade, The only place you need to be is exactly where you are right now, 2025
Corrine Slade, Yesterday meets Tomorrow, 2025
The open sky of Sabrina Piersol’s Black Lava Flower Moon leaves room for the reaching flower as it towers above the mountainscape. The colors and subject, of course, resemble O’Keeffe, who always denied association with specific movements but was often referenced in Precisionist discourse because of the influence of architecture on her work. The subject in Piersol’s Sisters / Asters is suspended in meditative observations as if mid-flight, a tribute to movement and its role in transformation. Her desire to apply spiritual truths to a creative practice is comparable to the Blue Rider Group4, who actively explored intuition and otherworld dimensions in their work. Corrine Slade’s passionate mark making finds its roots in Expressionism5. Her investigation into subjective emotions and inner experience is also shared by Lisa Farris, who dives into childlike play as a method to release the creative potential of the subconscious mind. Her whimsical free-flowing, bizarre beings compare to those found in the fantastic worlds of Surrealism.6
Lisa Farris Nectary With Petals (left) and I Made You With Tenderness (right), 2025
Lisa Farris, My Heart Is A Seed (detail) , 2025
Lisa Farris, Seeded Nectary (detail), 2025
Although the wide breadth of creative techniques suggest a misalignment in ideals, each artwork in the show is a result of seeing nature as an “active force in shaping identity and experience, rather than visualizing it as a passive backdrop upon which mankind thrives.”7 Interestingly, the Modernist movements referenced above emerged and functioned concurrently, and in their own way, proposed methods of re-enchantment with the world and the self after experiencing disillusionment with the isolation of modern life. This sentiment seems everlasting at this point; it can be found sprinkled throughout art history books, theory and philosophy, and is predicted to remain a central topic for the foreseeable future. Although the opportunities to re-establish an symbiotic exchange with the natural world are increasingly sparse, our human need for these relationships persist. When desperate, a quick and easy escape is through the mind; these artworks could be windows in.
Elemental Rhythms at Louis Buhl & Co. opened on March 15, and will be on view through May 15, 2025.
https://www.louisbuhl.com/elemental-rhythms
1. “The Great Divide: History and Human Nature in the Old World and the New by Peter Watson – Review.” The Guardian, March 16, 2012. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/mar/16/great-divide-peter-watson-review 2. Lesso, Rosie. “What Is Magical Realism in Art?” TheCollector. Accessed April 12, 2025. https://www.thecollector.com/what-is-magical-realism-in-art/.
3. Murphy, Jessica. “Precisionism.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accessed April 12, 2025. https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/precisionism
4. Tate. “Der Blaue Reiter.” Tate. Accessed April 12, 2025. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/der-blaue-reiter. 5. Tate. “Expressionism.” Tate. Accessed April 12, 2025. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/e/expressionism. 6. Voorhies, James. “Surrealism.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accessed April 12, 2025. https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/surrealism. 7. "Elemental Rhythms.” Louis Buhl Gallery / Detroit, MI. Accessed April 12, 2025. https://www.louisbuhl.com/elemental-rhythms.