Cacophony 

Australia

American artist Augustina Droze (1981) interrogates the interaction of humans and the natural world through colorful and rhythmic imagery. Her work engages the viewer through multiple modes of discourse around this central theme. Man shown as the manipulator of the natural world by modeling natural forms into intricate brocade patterns, mandala formations, and repetitive arrangements. In swirling, dream-like paintings, geographic regions are conceptually mapped using the invasive species which have critically altered and endangered the terrain. Inspired by her life in China as an expat, select zodiac animals are presented in hybridized form, reflecting the optima of reverence and beauty through the human lens. On the surface initially colorful and decorative, Droze’s work tells a more complicated story upon closer inspection. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums internationally in numerous shows, notably the Castellani Art Museum, Niagara Falls, New York (2014), Banaras Hindu University as Fulbright Senior Scholar, Varanasi, India (2017), the Beijing US Embassy, China (2022) and the Huzhou Art Museum (2023).