Artist Nick Mahshie’s installation at 640 Lincoln Rd., Environmental Affection

Artist Nick Mahshie’s installation at 640 Lincoln Rd., Environmental Affection, plays on his own tender attachment to the landscape of his upbringing. “Affect”, or to act on and cause a change in, also implies the ways in which the humid sky, the heat, the fauna and flora – both native and introduced, have shaped his outlook of the world.

We live on an island, a floating place where the visual stimuli of our landscape inspires in ways both tangible and fantastical, where we take fashion cues from the tangled roots of mangroves, absorb the creamy pastels reflected in light-kissed clouds after a tropical rainstorm, and embody the ripples and undulations that are intrinsic to the river of grass. This place shapes us, changes us, and inspires us. We sweat it out and breath it in, both affected by, and with the fondest affection for, our sub-tropical, unreal, and awe-inspiring Miami-land.

Mahshie’s series of printed and digitally-manipulated artwork are a reflection on that nexus where the real and unreal overlap. Each installation combines painted elements, collage, and the artist’s original garment designs to create floating landscapes inspired by the sensory cornucopia of life in South Florida.