The Nature of Healing, at Cleveland Botanical Garden

Flowers escape frames, butterflies balance between celebration and rest, and resurrection arises from grief in The Nature of Healing, a group exhibition co-curated with and presented by Deep Roots Gallery at Cleveland Botanical Garden, on view now through May 18, 2025.

Works by 30 Northeastern Ohio artists inhabit the fertile intersection of nature and grief. Cleveland, historically challenged by some of the highest crime rates in the nation and named America’s most stressed city by WalletHub in 2024, engenders a landscape steeped in trauma and loss. The Nature of Healing’s artists explore the dynamic possibilities that occur when art and natural spaces are used as healing agents.

This interpretation of grief through the natural world is set within the curated world of the Cleveland Botanical Garden: this show meta-thrums with magnificent reflected energy.

A glorious two-story multi-media sculpture, “Reclaimed” by Dayzwhun, soars through the atrium entrance, its iridescent leaves blazing forth from a seemingly dead and frozen spill of wood, fibers, strands of pearls, and chunky, static letters. It shares this space with “Your Seat In Grief,” two modular benches by David Ramsey and Aldonte Flonnoy that make tangible the five stages of grief. Viewers are encouraged to sit on the lush, turf-covered cuboids, and consider their personal journeys of loss and renewal.

The exhibition continues through the main lobby and hallways that connect to the Garden’s café, access to the outdoor gardens, library, and meeting rooms. This is a journey of an overarching exuberance of color, composition, materials, and subjects. It is a walkway through space and grace, a place to be startled and struck and go deeper to what resonates within.

Christa Freehands’ “The Throne of Ease” sets the intent: a stone seat surrounded by moss and flowers, mirrors and lights that states “The wound is the place where the light enters you.” Works by Asia Armour, Andre Sams, and Ewuresi Archer speak to one another through vibrant purples and blues (Armour’s lapping butterflies, Archer’s shivering background, Sams’ icy abstract swoops); “Flower Bearers” by LaSaundra Robinson presents glowing faces and flowers against funereal formal black; “Negligee Moretem” by Jurnee Ta’Zion conflates the poppy with the woman and extends her off the wall, arms outstretched and cradling a gilded rectangle.

The interplay among flower, figure, and place manifest differently throughout the show, but humming underneath is the constant of hope despite the despair. Intense colors joyfully infuse “Earth Knows Her,” by Vanessa Faith Easterling; a ladybug beckons on the tip of a finger in Jennifer M. Price’s “Invitation;” and a modern Madonna holds crow feather, Florida water, and a rosary against the greenhouse lushness of Ajha Dean Phillips’ “Duality: Rhythm, The Mother of Cycles, 2025.”

Two site-specific installations inhabit the short hall leading to the Ingalls Library. Davon Brantley’s “MASS,” is a burlap-wrapped enclosure surrounding a figure with open hands that welcomes a viewer to enter and touch; music and lights play while one contemplates—in this safe space—what they may have lost. In addition, Brantley offers viewers a trunk of soil and seeded paper on which to write one’s grief, plant it in a pot, and take it home to help it grow and bloom.

Lacy Talley’s “The Crystal Collective” enshrines protective guardian energies, embodied in long-necked women, within individual healing gardens. Moss covered rocks surround The Lady of Serenity; The Lady of Love is reflected endlessly in mirrors and crystals; and glittered butterflies and the affirmation “I AM” adorn several pillars supporting each garden.

Strong and healing energy is palpable throughout this show. What struck me the day I saw the exhibit was not just limited to the works on the wall and in the space. Others’ reactions were so vital and unrehearsed that they must be called out—“Oh my God, look at the art!” “Ooooo … look at that!” “Look at those butterflies!” “I’m gonna look up that artist”—further proof that thoughtful and deliberate art can touch, thrill, and heal.

More information about individual artists in the show may be found at https://holdenfg.org/attractions/cleveland-botanical-garden/the-nature-of-healing/.

The Nature of Healing is part of the admission to the Cleveland Botanical Garden, which is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 10 am – 5 pm; Sunday, noon to 5 pm. Closed Monday. Admission is $20 (adult), $14 (children 3-12), children under 2 are free; free for members. Located at 11030 East Blvd, Cleveland, OH 44106, in University Circle.