30
September
2019
|
18:09 PM
Europe/Amsterdam
TPA's new gallery exhibit boasts nature up-close
TPA's newest gallery exhibit by National Geographic explorer and natural artist, Matthew Cicanese, examines the intersection of art, science, and the innate connections that humans hold with the natural world. He creates images which illuminate the life forms that exist in the periphery of humankind – yet hold critical significance to our planet. In the exhibit, viewers can find close-up images of organisms like a skyline of fungi, Florida-native lizards and even moss growing up a twig.
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‘Earth Up Close’ is a collection of works that illuminates, educates, and celebrates the clockwork species behind the stage that enables life itself. My hope is for these works to unearth your childhood sense of curiosity, inspire you to marvel at the details of our planet, and share a window into the worlds within our world – that are more important than we can ever understand.
Matthew Cicanese
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The exhibit will be up in TPA's gallery area until the end of February.
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A clutch of pink eggs from an invasive apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata) is glued to the side of an oak tree after heavy summer rains.
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When threatened, a juvenile Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis) reveals its jagged tack-sharp teeth, and changes its cool green skin to a dark brown warning color. *Note: This is a focus-stacked composite image of two back-to-back sequential macro frames. The resulting stacked RAW files were merged into a single DNG file, then processed accordingly.
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In a South Florida restored wetland, a glowing orange twig ant traverses the alien landscape of a branch ornate with living filigree. At lightning speed, she carries her nutritious treasure (a springtail) between her jaws as she navigates a micro-metropolis of obstacles including lichens (like the one pictured here), liverworts, and fungi. Backstory: When I first arrived at the wetland, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had gone to this place many times before and seen some interesting macro species, but never anything like this. As I traipsed chest-high through a thicket of wetland grasses and bushes, I stopped on occasion to admire the lichens growing on the branches. I came across a particularly beautiful branch covered in Ramalina lichens (such as the one in this image), and saw a flash of orange dart through my view. When I pulled the focus and saw this twig ant glow in the light, I followed her and watched as she maneuvered through a living labyrinth with ease. In her jaws she carried a single springtail, her treasure for the day, back towards her colony.
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A Dolomedes albineus (Whitebanded Fishing Spider blends in effortlessly with the patterns of a lichen-covered oak tree trunk in Central Florida. Almost all Dolomedes species are semi-aquatic, with the exception of this species, the tree-dwelling Dolomedes albineus of the southwestern United States. If you relax your eyes and stare in the center of the spider's circular head, the rest of its body melts into the surrounding textures! *Note: This image is a focus-stacked composite image of four back-to-back sequential macro frames. The resulting RAW stack was exported as a DNG and processed accordingly.
All images by Matthew Cicanese