Beatriz Chachamovits
Christina Pettersson
Deryn Cowdy

This exhibition depicts a toad’s-eye view of what lies beneath the surface, an intersection of art, science and the occult. Between them, these 3 artists share their vision of regeneration, the cyclical rhythm of death to life. Disrupted roots are represented as a dystopian inverted garden, transitioning to a utopia of germination and growth, an exploration of the extensive underworld which is soil life. Dive into a forest floor swarming with insects, moths, millipedes, beetles, reptiles, moss and mycelium. 
Their aim is to promote an understanding of how something as seemingly simple as composting is ripe with the origins of life. Which, it turns out, springs from decay. Maybe we have an opportunity for repurposing our urban spaces to accommodate other species, wildlife corridors, safe spaces, less formal aesthetics, parks extracted from ruins, detritus and decay.

Beatriz Chachamovits is an environmental artist and educator from São Paulo, Brazil living and working in Miami, Florida. Her work renders tangible the decline of the coral reef ecosystems, and the role played by humans in it. Her intention is to share the majestic beauty of at-risk marine ecologies as well as the appalling rate of their destruction. She works with ceramic sculptures and drawings to highlight the unique shape, form and texture that exists in the underwater world. She is the author and illustrator of the book The little handbook of marine fishes and other aquatic marvels (Pequeno manual de peixe marinhose outras maravilhas aquáticas), published by Companhia das Letrinhas in São Paulo, Brazil in 2018.

Christina Pettersson was born in Stockholm, Sweden and grew up in Miami, Florida. Her large scale drawings, videos, installations and group performances focus on the hidden histories and environments of Florida. Public programming and collaborations are central to her art practice, engaging the audience in a deeper understanding of the narratives inhabiting their own backyards. She is the recipient of a Knight Grant, Wavemaker Grant, Ellies Creator Award twice, Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship thrice, and is a Fulbright Scholar. She is in the collections of the Perez Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Miami, Bass Museum of Art, Margulies Collection and the Four Seasons Hotel. She is currently on a three month residency in Bergen, Norway, exploring plant history through women’s fertility.

Deryn Cowdy was born in London, she studied sculpture at Bath Academy of Arts.
After painting for theaters and photographic studios. She restored painted finishes for the National Trust, where she learned about and grew to love historical materials and techniques, still evident in her work. She has worked extensively as muralist and photographer in Miami. Since joining The Collective 62 her work has been photo based, focused on gilded images of the Everglades and her semi-wild garden, a wildlife habitat. Deryn is currently working on regeneration, using different the components from the garden to illustrate hidden gems beneath the surface.