NUSHI MUNTAABSKI AT THE WHITE LODGE: ART THAT CONNECTS WITH NATURE

At the symbolic and material heart of the show is fennel, a plant that Nushi Muntaabski grows, studies, and loves. With its delicate texture, penetrating aroma, and multiple properties, it becomes both a poetic and therapeutic figure. “I could marry a fennel,” says the artist, revealing a deep and transformative bond with the plant. Her sculptures and essences not only convey a distinct aesthetic but also invite direct contact with what is organic and healing.

The exhibition goes beyond visual contemplation. The sensory experience is expanded through essential oils extracted from the plant—oils historically used by wise women, healers, or “witches” who found in botany a form of care and resistance. Muntaabski revives that empirical knowledge and translates it into artwork, gestures, and acts of shared experience.

Curator Cristina Schiavi points out how this practice connects with an ancestral lineage: the shine of fennel, its alchemy, its power to soothe and nourish. In that glow there is also celebration, a joy tied to the care of the earth, to creation, and to knowledge passed from body to body.

From the gallery’s direction, Georgina Valdez Cristofani highlights the strength of this intimate exhibition, developed in a space of domestic scale, where each piece was handcrafted by the artist and a small team of women. What’s essential here is not the scale, but the intention: to share what saves us.

Nushi Muntaabski works across multiple disciplines: objects, video, painting, performance, photography, and installation. Between 2004 and 2005, she directed the art magazine Canecalón. Since 2005, she has led the Nushi Muntaabski Project, blending her artistic work with architecture, creating murals, site-specifics, and commissioned works for collectors, architects, and industrial designers. She also contributes to La Pop, alongside Elizabeth Vernaci and Humberto Tortonese, with a segment on contemporary art. She published La novia de Duchamp, a book on Latin American artists (Emecé). Her works are part of major public and private collections (Malba, Museo de Arte Moderno, Museo Macro, Colección Klemm), as well as many of the country’s most prominent private collections.

Amo el hinojo will be on view through June 19, 2025, at The White Lodge, located at Lavalle 1447 4° 10, Buenos Aires (Argentina).