Nature Walk

Like leaves strewn across the forest floor, visions of the bucolic landscape of Wales are scattered throughout Alex Tieghi-Walker’s early memories. “Where I was living was nestled in ancient woodlands, and a lot of my childhood was spent in the woods,” says the founder of New York-based TIWA Gallery. “I’d build little forts and cabins out of fallen logs and branches, I’d climb trees, I’d swim in rivers.”

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That arboreal imagery, suffused with magic and mystery, informed the concept behind his latest exhibition, “Coetir,” the first group show in his TriBeCa space. Taking its title from the Welsh word for “woodlands,” the show brings together works by nearly two dozen artists and designers, all original commissions, that splay around the apartment-style gallery as if gathered in a clearing, part of some immemorial ritual. The varied array of pieces adds to the sense of enchantment captured in natural settings.

Take one of the stained-glass windows on view by Zachary White, The Girl with Silver Hands, 2024, that depicts a blood-red, coral-shaped branch flanked by miniature, witchy-seeming illustrations—lobster, a tooth, and a coil, among them (“things you might find in the forest,” says Tieghi-Walker). Evoking a medieval manuscript illumination, White’s piece is situated over one of the gallery’s actual windows, casting colorful, blinking patches of sunlight across the room in hues of red, amber and dark green. “We think of the forest as just being sort of woody and green,” reflects Tieghi-Walker. “But actually, there are so many colors. If you think about mushrooms and fungi, you get fluorescent yellows, vivid oranges, and purples. A lot of the work touches on colors that you might not necessarily immediately think of with the forest, but are found there.”

The sensory immersion deepens with scent-maker Cinnamon Projects’ contribution, Awyr y Goedwig, 2024 (“woodland air”), causing the smell of what the gallerist describes as “moss and wet stone'' to permeate the space. Elsewhere, a dark brown hemp-silk tapestry by Cadis hangs over lighting, creating yet another eerie yet hypnotic source of illumination. Another vignette of objects features an elongated, twisting ceiling light by Earth Landing Projects—its neck made of interlocking segments in earthen hues—which extends vine-like, over Max Zinser’s Tem pedestal in what the designer calls “lichen green”, which stands on anthropomorphized feet. Next to these is Loup Sarion and Rafael Prieto’s Le Dos, 2024 chair, combining a wire-cage seat and an organically shaped, light-green back.

The sum impact of “Coetir,” which debuted on the summer solstice, is at once appealing and gradually wondrous, indeed, much like a nature walk through some unknown, remote corner of forest. “The moment you step into one, you're entering almost like a separate realm,” says Tieghi-Walker. “The light changes. I don't have one particular memory; it's more like the general feeling where suddenly you feel like you're in this enchanted place.”

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“Coetir" is on view at TIWA Gallery through July 20, 2024 at 86 Walker Street, New York, New York, 10013.