A new exhibition at the Opera Gallery London, is offering two very different – yet curiously complimentary – sets of artistic responses to nature. It highlights the work of Dutch sculptor Pieter Obels and French-Chinese painter Feng Xiao-Min.

This is Obels’s first major London exhibition for ten years. Born in 1968 and now based in Tilburg in his native Netherlands, Obels is a sculptor who works primarily with the kind of complex Corten steel structures on display here.

He welds sheets of steel into flowing curves to form one continuous and sinuous series of interweaving loops. These often rest, seemingly defying gravity, on a single fixed point. Yet most of them can be rotated by hand, allowing viewers to engage with the art.

The fascination in these sculptures lies in the invitation to trace their delicate patterns with eye and hand. They writhe like the tendrils of climbing plants. This effect is reinforced by Obels’ deliberate........

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