Fooling Linnaeus

Press Release

Opening Reception: May 15, 2026, 6–8pm

Nicelle Beauchene Gallery is pleased to present Fooling Linnaeus, a project space exhibition by London-based artist Michele Fletcher.

The exhibition takes its title from the 18th century Swedish biologist, Carl Linnaeus. Known as “the father of modern taxonomy,” Linnaeus formalized binomial nomenclature, providing a system of naming and categorizing organisms that promised universal order. In Fooling Linnaeus, Fletcher examines painting as a space where systems of order begin to falter. Entropy sits in place of rigidity, fixed methodologies are met with ambiguity. The result is a form of invented botanic abstraction.

Rather than direct illustrations of nature, Fletcher’s paintings emerge from memory, sensation, and an intuitive engagement with process. Paint is pushed, pulled, worked and reworked, revealing forms that suggest dense flora and plant systems. In monstrous caeruleum (2026), brushstrokes branch and proliferate, dense passages expand into rich chromatic fields with areas of openness providing pause—like clearings within a landscape. In delirium desiderium (2026) and viridi desiderium (2026) figures reminiscent of petals, tendrils, or seedpods surface and dissolve, never fully settling into a rooted image. Upon the swirling, pale sea-foam background of viridi fine ludum (2026), a stem rises from a flurry of leaves, its bloom bowing modestly toward the viewer in an expression of offering, salute, or beckoning.

The exhibition situates itself within a broader lineage of abstraction, one in which artists engage with nature as a source of rhythm, force, and energy. Fletcher cites connection with traditions spanning from the atmospheric luminosity of JMW Turner and James McNeil Whistler to the visionary, organic compositions of Hilma af Klint and the expressive gestures of Joan Mitchell. For Fletcher, the studio itself becomes akin to a site of cultivation, where control is bound by unpredictability, and where forms emerge through a balance of intention and fortuity.

Michele Fletcher (b. 1963, Ontario, Canada), lives and works in London. She received her BA from Goldsmiths College, University of London in 2003 and an MA from Chelsea College of Arts, London in 2007. Recent solo exhibitions include White Cube, Hong Kong (2025) and Onitsuka Tiger, Tiger Gallery London (2023). Recent group exhibitions include Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York (2025); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2025); Patricia Fleming Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland (2024); Kutlesa Gallery (2024); Harper’s Books, New York (2023); and Fredericks & Freiser, New York (2023). Fletcher’s work is held in public collections including the EY Collection, UK; Isaac Newton Institute, University of Cambridge, UK; and University of the Arts, London.