Alexa Brooks: Patterns of Catastrophe | Erin Cluley Gallery

Erin Cluley Gallery is pleased to announce Patterns of Catastrophe, an exhibition of new graphite drawings by Madrid-based artist Alexa Brooks. Inspired by European lace patterns, Brooks’ scenes of ecological calamity contrast the craft’s historically romantic depictions of nature. The artist’s recurring motifs—imperiled birds, urban architecture, and intrusions into nature—present a sorrowful dichotomy between the natural environment and human expansion. Combined with the work’s high-degree of technical skill, Patterns of Catastrophe puts forward an urgent message of ecological collapse and economic hubris.Brooks’ practice stems from her long-standing interests in formal realism and naturalism. Utilizing graphite pencil, the artist employs realism to record and make sense of the world around her. The verisimilitude of her lace drawings subtly critiques idyllic depictions of the environment while, simultaneously, paying homage to the medium’s storied history in European art. Intricate and devastating, these drawings portray the negative effect of hunting, pollution, and architecture on avian species through the language of their human antagonists.Deftly translating the symbolic structures of historical lacemaking, Brooks’ drawings evoke deep pathos for birdlife navigating a world turned hostile. In each lace pattern design, a different scenario in which indifference, blood sport, or human interest alone have a repetitive negative impact on birds. Needle lace buttonhole stitch patterns become a thorny bramble in The reflection looked so enticing. (2024) that stunned or deceased birds lie in. The lower edge of this lace drawing repeats a teardrop motif, reiterating the tragic theme of the work’s subject. White perspective lines retreating toward glass buildings allude to the scene’s smoking gun.Transforming formal elements into narrative devices, Brooks conveys catastrophe through decoration, asking the viewer to consider a different point of view (that of the birds), and posing the question of what we could do better for our planet and the other species with whom we share it. In Patterns of Catastrophe, the artist presents two options: humankind can continue to follow patterns of destruction and carelessness with nature, or we can create patterns of beauty and live harmoniously in tandem with the environment.Patterns of Catastrophe will be the artist’s first solo presentation with Erin Cluley Gallery. It will be exhibited concurrently with René Treviño’s Star-Crossed.