TOTUM features sculptural works by 23 artists made out of black claro walnut harvested from trees felled by the droughts of Southern California. Each artist was invited to make a work or two using wood from a former walnut farm in the Ojai area, where the works were brought back for an installation among the trees that were once their kin. Following this the works were installed in a gallery space in Los Angeles to coincide with Frieze LA 2022.

While this exhibition draws on the form of the modern totem it acknowledges and respects the origins of totems and the totem pole in indigenous cultures. It hopes to invoke the importance of considering our relationship to nature, to place and to origin, as we sit on the precipice of more and more dire environmental conditions.

The show’s title, Totum, which in latin means the whole and all, emphasizes the idea of interrelatedness.

Totum is a showcase of incredible talent, but also, we hope, a reminder that we are not just in relationship to nature, we are nature.

10% of the sales of the show will benefit the important work of Earthjustice.

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