SHAWN HUCKINS

Once gently sun-kissed, the Earth now simmers under an intensified solar embrace, its climate systems straining under the heat of an altered atmosphere. sun-kissed explores the uneasy intersection between natural beauty and environmental crisis by presenting wildfire scenes disguised as idyllic sunrises or sunsets, framed theatrically by curtains. These paintings invite viewers to question their initial perceptions, revealing how easily destruction can be mistaken for wonder when cloaked in the familiar aesthetics of landscape painting. The curtain evokes a stage or performance, suggesting that what we often admire as sublime might be a spectacle masking deeper ecological truths. This duality is central: the way climate change disguises its devastation in the beauty of nature's palette and how easily we accept, or even admire these images without acknowledging the underlying cause — a planet in crisis. Inspired by the hazy sunrises shaped by drifting Canadian wildfires, each painting i

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• agniv sarkar