New Growth
August 3-September 1, 2024

New Growth features a series of site-responsive drawings studying the city landscape surrounding IA&A at Hillyer. Observations of the reciprocal impact of nature and the built world reveal complex, interconnected relationships. These drawings explore ways the local ecology is shaped by its human inhabitants and how, in turn, this environment influences human experience and perception of a place.

In this work, Evans incorporates a palette of inks and paper made with botanical sources collected within walking distance of the gallery. Cultivated from plants in abundance or past their prime–spent blooms, fallen branches, and unruly “weeds”–the work is both of this place and an instrument to learn about it. These materials breathe life into drawings of both the tended, and overlooked, nature of the surrounding neighborhoods–the manicured hedges and gardens alongside new growth emerging between cobblestones.