Michael Landy

For Art Lovers, his first exhibition in Naples, Michael Landy revisits his Nourishment works from 2002, which render the overlooked city weeds we encounter growing between paving cracks, in meticulous one to one detail. For this exhibition, over twenty years later he has made a new series of intricate etchings of weeds from the streets and roadsides of Naples, which were made over many trips and staying in residency in the city during 2024.

In 2002 Landy made his original Nourishment series, botanical studies of common weeds the artist collected from the streets of London. This first series was comprised of a portfolio of twelve etchings in an edition of 37, published by Paragon Press, as well as a series of etchings produced in an edition of six which were sold individually. The portfolio and the individual etchings in this smaller edition of six were first exhibited at Maureen Paley Interim Art, London, between December 2002 and January 2003.

The works were the first that followed his acclaimed Break Down (2001), in which Landy catalogued all of his worldly belongings before spending two weeks

dismantling and shredding each one, including his passport and his car. Having

compelled both himself and the public to contemplate the self-defining nature of possessions, the Nourishment series then, as the title suggests, recalibrates Landy’s practice by means of undertaking an artistic rehabilitation.

The Nourishment etchings are life-sized studies of individual weeds the artist found growing in the street. Landy has described why he was drawn to these ‘street flowers’ by saying, ‘they are marvellous, optimistic things that you find in inner London ... they occupy an urban landscape which is very hostile and they have to be adaptable and find little bits of soil to prosper’. Weeds are hardy, thriving in often inhospitable conditions with very little soil, water or direct sunlight. They grow between paving stones or on waste ground in the city, tenaciously asserting

themselves despite being overlooked by the majority of passersby. Landy collected a number of these plants and took them back to his studio where he potted and tended them, making studies of their structures including detailed renderings of roots, leaves and flowers.

Nourishment exhibits a strong continuation of Landy’s engagement with marginalisation and our ideas of value, and his interest in the overlooked or disregarded. By studying these humble plants that struggle to survive amongst the cracked pavements of our city streets, he finds beauty in the ordinary, giving new meaning and dignity to that which is passed over by most.

Portfolios of the Nourishment series are included in the permanent collections at Tate Britain and the British Council.