“The Herbarium Project” is an exhibition of oil paintings by Karen Yurkovich. It’s open through August 23, 2014, in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, 2212 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Yurkovich explores humankind’s complex and variegated relationship with nature. Using specimens from the University of British Columbia’s Herbarium (a part of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum collections) she re-examines these taxonomically organized pieces of nature through their aesthetics, their symbolism, their mythologies and their histories. Recognizing and celebrating the ubiquity with which nature is integrated into our culture and daily lives, these paintings encourage us to move beyond a functional relationship with nature and to build a stronger emotional bond – to view nature not as a resource, but as a source of cultural, emotional and aesthetic value.

Alongside the paintings will be displayed some of the original Herbarium specimens, as well as the artist’s research materials, providing a unique insight into Yurkovich’s artistic process.

Yurkovich is a Canadian artist working between Vancouver and Florence, Italy. She centers her practice on nature and the ways in which it manifests in the thoughts and concepts within society and culture. Her work explores themes such as native and immigrant plants, bonsai, classical still lifes of the 16th century, GMOs, ancient cultivars and cultivation, the use of plants in medicine and culinary practices, issues of biodiversity, and the symbolic role of plants within different cultures.

(Image by Karen Yurkovich courtesy of Beaty Biodiversity Museum)