Purring Machines: ‘Nature Never Loses’ at the ICA
The major Carl Cheng retrospective is on display until April 6.
By Katrina Itona for 34th Street Magazine
February 11, 2025
The beautiful marvel of the Institute of Contemporary Art is its dynamic, flexible space that transforms with each fresh season. The new spring exhibition brings the essence of a laboratory, playground, and open field to both floors of its gallery. Carl Cheng’s exhibition Nature Never Loses opened Jan. 17, a Friday evening of jovial buoyancy and a bright exchange of energy between the gallery’s walls and its guests.
Nature Never Loses is a walk through the six decades of work by Cheng. Deeply concerned with the essence of the Anthropocene and the ever–present climate crisis, Cheng’s body of work plays with machinery, tools, product, and nature. His “art tools” and sculptural objects archive humanity’s interface with Earth and the evolution (or rather, erosion) that has become characteristic of the industrial epoch.